Devoted customers say final farewell to long-standing Vancouver
DVD rental store | CBC News

Black Dog Video closed for good on Saturday, after more than 25
years in business

Rhianna Schmunk · CBC News · Posted: Jun 27, 2022 3:00 PM PT | Last Updated: June 27

It's almost 8 p.m. on the first true summer night of the year
in Vancouver. Rowdy clusters of friends fill patios on
Commercial Drive with chatter and roaring laughter.

Chantelle Parsons would rather be indoors, alone in a place of
comfort.

She lingers quietly in a dim corner of a DVD rental store at
Commercial and Grant Street, poring over the documentary
section. One at a time, she tucks a few picks into the crook of
her elbow. When her arms are full, she creeps shyly to the
checkout.

"A few more," she said, sheepishly sliding three more titles
across the counter to add to her pile. Chantelle Parsons holds
some of her final movie choices from Black Dog Video on Friday.
She said she visited the shop often during her childhood in
East Vancouver.

It was the second-to-last day in business for Black Dog Video
after more than 25 years. Beat down by a steady decline in
customers and a steep rise in operating costs over the last
decade, the shop shut down for good on Saturday - leaving just
one surviving DVD rental store in the city.

As the store prepared to close, it sold off all of the 16,000
movies in its inventory: anything ranging from new releases,
classics, dramas, comedies, cartoons, documentaries, adult
films and sci-fi. On the first day of the sale, movie
collectors and regulars from across the Lower Mainland and
Vancouver Island lined up around the block.

Classics from filmmakers like Billy Wilder went first, as did
foreign films from those like France's François Truffaut and
Belgium's Agnès Varda. A special edition, Blu-Ray copy of
1949's The Third Man sold for $175.

By the final Friday night, it was mostly regulars coming back.
Some had handwritten wish-lists and cardboard boxes to fill.
Others just wanted to be there.

"I'm kind of sad ... I've been coming here for a long time,"
said Rosemary Mah, who came to the store regularly from her
South Granville apartment.

The feeling was shared by Jeff Shantz, who travelled an hour to
the store by bus and SkyTrain from Surrey.

"I'm going to miss, I guess, a little bit of everything," said
Shantz, who teaches criminology at Kwantlen Polytechnic
University.

"When you bump into people who are interested in the same
movies and you have a chance to talk about it ... it's
different," he said.

Customers agreed the store offered a place of community that
doesn't exist through streaming. You could ask a human being
what to watch instead of scrolling the "recommended" tab. When
you came back, you could debate what made a movie good or bad
with people who cared.

The owner, Darren Gay, said the writing had been on the wall
since streaming giants like Netflix launched. He thought the
pandemic might boost business, with theatres being closed, but
it did the opposite: people stayed home more than ever and
didn't come back once restrictions lifted.

"It's just the way we live in the world right now," Gay said,
letting out a deep sigh at the mention of streaming. "I've made
so many good friends with customers and staff through the
years. I'm going to miss seeing all of them ... but it's time."

Shortly before the end of the night on Friday, Gay left his
colleague to close up shop and slipped out the back door for
the "two-minute" walk home. He carried a copy of Donnie Darko
for his son and Contamination for himself, adding to the 100 or
so titles he'd already taken for himself.

Jeff Shantz said one of his favourite things about Black Dog
Video was their selection of often hard-to-find documentary
films.

"Fifteen minutes to close!" video clerk Josie Boyce announced
from behind the desk to the customers left in the aisles.

"Do I hear 16?" one man called out a mock auctioneer's voice,
drawing a laugh from everyone inside.

Parsons made her way toward the front door with two dozen DVDs
- mostly "embarrassing" documentaries - stuffed into a blue
canvas bag. The shop's '70s playlist had stopped, leaving only
the hum of the ceiling fan and creak of the floorboards to
drown out the noise outside.

Asked what she'd miss about the store she grew up visiting,
Parsons' tears burst out so suddenly they seemed to surprise
even her.

"I'm highly introverted ... It was just your one last contact
with people who are having a genuine conversation," said
Parsons, a library worker who now lives in Coquitlam.

"It's one of those last places you can come and just be a
person."

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