{"id":12534,"date":"2014-09-12T09:50:08","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T15:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=12534"},"modified":"2014-09-12T09:50:08","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T15:50:08","slug":"the-only-video-store-in-atlanta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=12534","title":{"rendered":"The Only Video Store In Atlanta"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Year after year, Videodrome won Creative Loafing\u2019s top rating as the best video store in Atlanta. Its deep stock of movie titles was matched by the staff\u2019s deep appreciation for film history and genres.<\/p>\n

Then came online streaming and a recession that erased the competition\u2014and the video store category from the Best of Atlanta competition. Now Videodrome is alone.<\/p>\n

\"thestore\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Redbox have not killed this video store at the corner of North and Highland Avenues, which continues to rent its 18,000 DVD titles to customers who want an experience not offered by the grocery store movie box and the online streaming service.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s both smaller (one store) and bigger (yes, 18,000 titles) than the competition, and has survived the Darwinian struggle for a niche in the entertainment world by being both broad and deep for its customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to watch movies nowadays,\u201d said Matt Booth, owner of Videodrome. \u201cYou have to be a member of seven different (online streaming services) to get everything.\u201d \u201cWe have everything,\u201d Booth said.<\/p>\n

Inside Videodrome<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, perhaps not everything, but there are thousands of movies that can\u2019t be found in automated rental kiosks, aren\u2019t all available on any streaming video service and otherwise can\u2019t be obtained short of ordering them through the mail.<\/p>\n

They include classics, foreign films, independent releases and obscure B-movie horror flicks. Videodrome has the blockbusters too. \u201cFrankenhooker\u201d can be found on the same shelves as \u201cNoah.\u201d It has Francois Truffaut\u2019s \u201cThe 400 Blows.\u201d as well as The Beatles \u201cA Hard Days Night.\u201d There is also the complete collection of the HBO series \u201cThe Wire,\u201d and David Lynch\u2019s television series \u201cTwin Peaks.\u201d<\/p>\n

What you realize at Videodrome is how much you have probably been missing. The big-boxification of entertainment has squeezed out the cool obscure stuff. It also points out the self-limitations of Googling: How do you find what you don\u2019t know that you might like? How do you look for something that you didn\u2019t know was out there?<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I don\u2019t know what I want to see until I see it,\u2019 said Videodrome customer Sara Maughan, 41. For her, the experience of browsing a brick and mortar video store with a good collection cannot be replicated online because a search engine demands you know what you\u2019re looking for. She\u2019d much prefer seeing, holding and reading video boxes to perusing an online video catalog when she picks out a movie.<\/p>\n

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