Video Central in German Village has closed « Columbus Underground Messageboard

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Video Central in German Village has closed

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Started 1 year ago by Chicago Ave Class of 80
Latest reply from joev

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Chicago Ave Class of 80
Gahanna
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Sad news: the GV location of Video Central has recently closed.

Kudos however to Walker for his article on Video Central several years ago which can be found here

I was a longtime customer of VC (I first visited the store in 1994, but didn't join until April of 1996) and spent a fortune over the years on video rentals. My rental frequency there however began to die down by late 2006 when internet movie watching became increasingly commonplace. My last visit there was several months ago and it was a ghost town on a Saturday afternoon. BTW, I did join North Campus Video and VC on Westerville Rd. about a year or so after joining VC GV, but my home was the GV location.

Anyway, I will miss Video Central and the high number of hours I spent there browsing. RIP, VC.

Posted 1 year ago #
BCNation
Franklin Park
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I was passing by it this afternoon, yeah, it's sad. Nobody wants to rent movies anymore.

RIP- Video Central

Posted 1 year ago #
cc

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RIP, but sadly the business model is pretty obsolete. I have many memories of browsing there and at North Campus Video.

Posted 1 year ago #
Chicago Ave Class of 80
Gahanna
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^^^This!

On my last visit to VC, I actually spoke with the store's longtime supervisor/manager about that very topic (obsolete business model). I said if the owners had planned several years ago to move the business to an online-only format, VC would probably still be in business today, just in another form.

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Sad to hear. The movie rental industry has been taking a pummeling over the past few years with the growth of Netflix, RedBox, and dozens of other options for movies-on-demand through everything from iTunes to Hulu to your cable box.

I always hoped that Video Central was unique enough to survive. Their collection of DVDs was unmatchable. 1,000 times the selection of your average Blockbuster or Hollywood Video.

Posted 1 year ago #
steelfist
Southwest Clintonville
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that sucks. At least the north campus store is still open.

Posted 1 year ago #
cc

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I think the uniqueness is what kept it going this long, but the last few times I was there it was a ghost town. It is crazy how much entertainment and communication we have at our fingertips and how quickly it is changing and expanding. It is even more apparent when seeing it in the youth culture. I think a lot of what we are doing now will seem archaic in five years.

Posted 1 year ago #
pinkgloomy

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That is sad. I have fond memories of that place and their awesome window displays, those were always fun.

Posted 1 year ago #
JimL2

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:(

Posted 1 year ago #
groundrules

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Redbox sucks. The vending machine analogy is so appropriate- those boxes are to movies what the snack machine is to food; ie, crap you ingest when there's absolutely no better option or you're feeling super lazy.

Posted 1 year ago #
misskitty
Columbus
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Man this is tragic news Video Central had the best B Horror selection ever.
I understand video stores that you walk into are a dying breed but I guess IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m just sad to watch things change. Change is not a bad thing but the nostalgia gets me every time.

ETA: Exception for BlockBuster they blow balls
You suck BlockBuster

Posted 1 year ago #
melikecheese
Merion Village
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Sucks, I was crossing my fingers hoping for a big renovation since I saw it closed up.

So about 6 months after Blockbuster closes, this closes? I figured it would help business.

Sad, I have no place to rent movies in person anymore...unless I drive a bit farther then I want.

Edit - Their Blu-Ray collection was also 4 times bigger then the blockbuster... :(

Posted 1 year ago #
e8453b
Ganthers Place
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Sad News. I loved their movie collection and Window Displays

Posted 1 year ago #
L-Rag
German Village/Columbus
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:-(

Posted 1 year ago #
TaraK
probably at the coffee shop
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They had awesome rental rates as well.

Posted 1 year ago #
Coy
Discovery District
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When Mark and his airbrushed Giraffe T shirt left, it was he beginning of the end for me.
Then when I found the creepy supervisor watching porn around kids at noon on a Sunday, I went Netflix and never went back.

Posted 1 year ago #
Manatee
The eternal present
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Video Central is where I got the raw materials to make me into a movie nerd. It seems impossible that its closing.

But it did kind of always smell like cheese in there. Never could figure that one out, but it would make me keep my browsing down substantially.

Posted 1 year ago #
joev
Merion Village
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Manatee wrote >>
But it did kind of always smell like cheese in there. Never could figure that one out, but it would make me keep my browsing down substantially.

Old popcorn butter maybe? The movie rental shop in my hometown was a former feedmill, so it always smelled like dogfood in there. Come to think of it, J Crew always smells like that, too.

Posted 1 year ago #