Closing of Boise video rental store makes end of era
The times, they are a changin'...
You don't have to tell that to Jerry Anderson.
He's the owner of Video Memories on Overland Road in Boise.
Video Memories may very well be the Treasure Valley's last video rental store with some 20,000 titles, all in DVD format, the days of tape long gone.
But Video Memories is going out of business on June 12 after 36 years.
"It has just dropped off," said Anderson. " The Internet, Netflix, Red Box. Smart TVs are probably the biggest thing. They have made it so easy for people to just sit down, and push a remote control. Income has dropped off 25 percent over the last year. Just time to do it... It's bad, sad feelings. Letting so many loyal customers down."
Anderson plans to sell off most of his inventory but he will keep one DVD and Blue Ray copy of each title.
Anderson says Video Memories was the first store in the Valley to offer DVDs for rent in 1997.
And, like many of a certain age, Anderson remembers well the days when customers were urged to ... be kind, please rewind.
"It's still a joke," he said. "A customer will bring in a DVD and say: 'it's rewound for you.'"
And as Jerry Anderson rewinds the memories of his life as a video store owner, it's the customer interaction he remembers most fondly.
"We've got so many friends we've met through the years," he said. "We were in three generations of families. Everybody comes in good moods, they enjoy browsing around the video store."
And like a good movie, the end is coming way too soon.
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