the spouse joked that i should start a movie rental store and folks
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@hex Specifically, I'd recommend doing things like "Some Samurai films you should know" or things of that nature.
@ajroach42 oh dang yeah i'm picking up what you're putting down. i'd be able to knock that stuff out easy
i also love the idea of having one lying around that is "Why is Super Mario Bros (1993) Even Here for Rent?"
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@ajroach42
i mainly know Blindboxes cause my own kiddo can't get enough of them. i just know if a parent walks in and wants to support a business and they have a kid there, that'll be an easy sell. and hell yeah i'd love to eventually sell your toys too@hex Archie McPhee is always an easy sell. Big buckets of weird toys pretty cheap.
Schlieck (that's spelled wrong) does retro wind up robots that we always had good luck with.
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Alright, this is a very loose collection of thoughts of things that you'll need to think about if you're opening a retail business for the first time *and* a bit of information about doing a video business in particular.
We had to bail on doing video rental stuff because we were spread to thin. I still sell tapes and DVDs, but we don't do rentals anymore. I'm interested in picking it back up eventually but our town is not big enough to support it full time.
1) Don't rent your originals. Format shifting and backups are legal. Get yourself an ecotank style printer that has a disk printing tray and make backups of your originals, rent the backups.
It's unlikely that anyone is going to *tell you* that this is what every remaining video store in the country is doing, but I guarantee you that nearly every remaining video store in the country is doing this.
2) make sure you've got a ton of retail product to go with your rentals. Candy, snacks, branded t-shirts, tote bags, etc. Have a product that people who just stumble on can buy.
Keep at least a few used movies on hand that people can buy. Consider setting up with Alliance or AMS and carrying newly produced titles as well, but margins here aren't great and and you shouldn't feel bad if you skip it.
(1/? I'll just keep going till I run out of stuff to say.)
I think I read all of this and I love everything in it. Great sounding advice and I wish you both the best with Hemlock Bazaar and [New Video Store Name Here]
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i think i want to go with something along the lines of Physical Video or Corporeal Video for the name of the store
something indicating that this is a place where physical goods are sold. enshrining physical media
current working title is gonna be “Corporeal Video” until i get a better idea
looking forward to folks coming in asking “Why is it Corporal Video?”
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current working title is gonna be “Corporeal Video” until i get a better idea
looking forward to folks coming in asking “Why is it Corporal Video?”
@hex i have a logo idea for you i will sketch later
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@hex i have a logo idea for you i will sketch later
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current working title is gonna be “Corporeal Video” until i get a better idea
looking forward to folks coming in asking “Why is it Corporal Video?”
@hex section “Fiscal Media” (Wall Street, American Psycho,)
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@hex section “Fiscal Media” (Wall Street, American Psycho,)
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welp i got a list of just over 800 films that feels representative - though only 2 documentaries are represented. i think im okay with lacking representation there for launch
i guess now i figure out a budget. there are plenty of store fronts that are for rent around here
this is certainly feeling more financially feasible than throwing a theater together from scratch
@hex unasked for funding advice: write a full business plan. Look around for community funds/local credit union loans. See what your chamber of commerce has for small businesses. Prepare to do a Kickstarter for seed money - which will also prove to the bank/larger investors that you've got a market for this. Budget for a LOT of marketing/ad spend, since you're new so every customer will be a new customer, and those are expensive to get.
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@hex unasked for funding advice: write a full business plan. Look around for community funds/local credit union loans. See what your chamber of commerce has for small businesses. Prepare to do a Kickstarter for seed money - which will also prove to the bank/larger investors that you've got a market for this. Budget for a LOT of marketing/ad spend, since you're new so every customer will be a new customer, and those are expensive to get.
@courtney
appreciated. filing this all away for when i'm ready for it and not thinking about how the word "orange" is a bastardization of a french bastardization of an arabic word -
@hex unasked for funding advice: write a full business plan. Look around for community funds/local credit union loans. See what your chamber of commerce has for small businesses. Prepare to do a Kickstarter for seed money - which will also prove to the bank/larger investors that you've got a market for this. Budget for a LOT of marketing/ad spend, since you're new so every customer will be a new customer, and those are expensive to get.
@hex also, loose notes from my years working at Video Vault back in Indianapolis in the early 2000s, which was thriving even with a Blockbuster literally a block away:
- someone else already told you about selling candy etc at the register
- we kept stools at the counter so ppl could just belly up and hang out and talk about movies -
@hex also, loose notes from my years working at Video Vault back in Indianapolis in the early 2000s, which was thriving even with a Blockbuster literally a block away:
- someone else already told you about selling candy etc at the register
- we kept stools at the counter so ppl could just belly up and hang out and talk about movies@courtney i love the idea of seats and folks just wanting to hang out and talk movies
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@hex also, loose notes from my years working at Video Vault back in Indianapolis in the early 2000s, which was thriving even with a Blockbuster literally a block away:
- someone else already told you about selling candy etc at the register
- we kept stools at the counter so ppl could just belly up and hang out and talk about movies@hex - we had a back room and rented porn and that was the real moneymaker...the internet maybe killed this? But not if you did it right, idk. Your employer can't track physical media etc etc. I'd research adult video, also "adult" is a broad category...essentially, find a way to charge people 2x for a rental that has high turnover
- if you make a rule to only play PG movies in the store, Jaws is PG (so is Swamp Thing but it has full frontal) -
@hex - we had a back room and rented porn and that was the real moneymaker...the internet maybe killed this? But not if you did it right, idk. Your employer can't track physical media etc etc. I'd research adult video, also "adult" is a broad category...essentially, find a way to charge people 2x for a rental that has high turnover
- if you make a rule to only play PG movies in the store, Jaws is PG (so is Swamp Thing but it has full frontal)@courtney i haven't made the decision on "adult" movies yet but i *def* know that there won't be a "PG only" rule. no way am i gonna have a store where i can't rent The Thing (1982)
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@hex - we had a back room and rented porn and that was the real moneymaker...the internet maybe killed this? But not if you did it right, idk. Your employer can't track physical media etc etc. I'd research adult video, also "adult" is a broad category...essentially, find a way to charge people 2x for a rental that has high turnover
- if you make a rule to only play PG movies in the store, Jaws is PG (so is Swamp Thing but it has full frontal)@hex what REALLY helped was out CMS was custom and had a huge Notes field, so we had all kinds of shit in there about people. It helped you get to know people fast if you could greet them by name, remembered names of kids, etc. (The owner went on to work very successfully in real estate, did not surprise me at all.)
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@hex what REALLY helped was out CMS was custom and had a huge Notes field, so we had all kinds of shit in there about people. It helped you get to know people fast if you could greet them by name, remembered names of kids, etc. (The owner went on to work very successfully in real estate, did not surprise me at all.)
@hex And we called people for everything. No emails/text reminders. Overdue list got printed daily and we very gently left chill friendly voicemails or chatted with people. We were nice and the store was a nice place to be, so people kept coming.
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@courtney i haven't made the decision on "adult" movies yet but i *def* know that there won't be a "PG only" rule. no way am i gonna have a store where i can't rent The Thing (1982)
@hex no no no I mean playing on the TV(s) in the store while people browse. I feel like Millennial parents are more relaxed about this, but it used to be A Problem.
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@hex And we called people for everything. No emails/text reminders. Overdue list got printed daily and we very gently left chill friendly voicemails or chatted with people. We were nice and the store was a nice place to be, so people kept coming.
@courtney yeah i'm planning on building out the backend for the store. i love the idea of a notes field for customers. i also love the idea of a chill approach to overdue stuff.
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@hex no no no I mean playing on the TV(s) in the store while people browse. I feel like Millennial parents are more relaxed about this, but it used to be A Problem.
@courtney oh gotcha! yeah, PG was gonna be the plan for playing on the TV, yeah. i might put on some PG-13 depending on the film. i'd probably have a set list employees could pick from
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current working title is gonna be “Corporeal Video” until i get a better idea
looking forward to folks coming in asking “Why is it Corporal Video?”
@hex "The logo is a ghost? I don't get it."
