Silver Lake Video has Nostalgic Vibe

When I walked into Silver Lake Video for the first time I thought 3 things.

There’s a giant mural of Yoda on the wall to my right.
It smells like movie theater popcorn in here.
A brick and mortar video store? In 2018?

The experience of encountering Silver Lake Video was, for me, nostalgic. Just like walking into Blockbuster when I was a kid. It’s a feeling I assumed that I’d never have again.

Though I was raised on VHS, I’m a modern-day streamer, a Netflixer.

Silver Lake Video has been in the same shopping center since 1985 (they switched locations once, moving across the parking lot). They’ve stayed open mostly because of a loyal customer base and competitive prices.

Movies are $3.68/rental. Late fees are only a dollar a night.

Silver Lake stocks about 57,000 titles in DVD and Blu-Ray format.

The place feels whimsical. There’s the complimentary buttered popcorn and the plush theater carpet. The walls are covered in giant airbrushed paintings of movie stars and marquee lights frame film posters. They sell containers of candy.

The kids' section has a gumball machine dispenser in the form of a pinball machine. Kids love it. A yellow gumball means that they get an extra free rental (SLV offers 4 free kids rental per kid per visit).

The business has done well because of strategic planning. Every week the owner Perry runs a customer analysis. As he brings in about 25-50 new titles a week, he buys copies based on viewer trends. If a movie is “hot” it stays on the new release shelf, encouraging other viewers to watch it. Apparently viewers in Silver Lake like the film Daddy’s Home 2— it’s had enough customer demand to be on stay on the “new release” shelves for about two years.

Market analysis can yield interesting information. Fun fact: historically, local viewers don’t care for movie adaptations of Nicholas Sparks books. So Perry only ordered a few copies of Forever My Love when it was recently released.

There’s a communal vibe to the business. A couple of employees have been working there for close to two decades. The clerks know the regulars and know what they like. This is perhaps why Silver Lake is still here in the day of Redbox and Netflix.

Silver Lake Video offers a personally curated experience in a way that a streaming algorithm just can’t.

And the giant Yoda?

You’ll have to see it IRL to believe it.