This Video Store's A Good Thing To Preserve

It may not be Small Business Monday anymore, but it's never out of style to celebrate awesome independent businesses as you discover them — especially when they're relevant to one's recent frustration of not being able to rent a DVD that Redbox doesn't have. So yeah, Thanksgiving has passed and this particular business isn't even in our area, but we're grateful to Seattle's Scarecrow Video — and the short Inside Scarecrow Video: The Largest Independent Video Store in the World, that alerted us to its existence and helped re-spark our love of indie movie shops.

Growing up in Portland, I spent a lot of time indulging in the seemingly never-ending isles of Powell's Books, the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. It was the greatest. Watching Inside Scarecrow as a grown-up film buff made me wish I'd grown up next to its film-centric counterpart as well.

"You always think you've seen everything," says Matt Lynch, who's been working at Scarecrow for a decade. "You always think you've run out of stuff, but it's just not possible."

Scarecrow, like all shops of its kind these days, is struggling with retaining relevance in the rising world of Netflix. It's a treasure, and like the saying goes, this is why we can't have nice things.

Don't get me wrong: I love myself some Netflix. But take a few minutes to watch this short, and remember that every once in a while it's nice to go to a place so filled with people who so obviously love the medium they've surrounded themselves with. Don't let the owners of Scarecrow become Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail, losing her shop to the changing times.

Yes, I stick with that being the reference I'm choosing to make at the end of this post. Don't judge me.

You can find your local video store by going here.

Image:

David Chen/Youtube