BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CBS, KYMA) – In a streaming world with endless content from apps and subscriptions, one Brooklyn video store is going old school and it’s drawing a new generation of movie fans.<\/p>\n
Night Owl Video in Brooklyn has hit rewind, bringing back VHS tapes and DVDs.<\/p>\n
“This is the only video store left in New York City, certainly with the amount of titles that we have,” said Aaron Hamel, co-owner of Night Owl Video.<\/p>\n
With a blockbuster first year in business, the video store has sold more than 30,000 tapes and discs.<\/p>\n
“When Blockbuster was at its height, you know, people were renting movies like crazy. Now, it is definitely much more of a niche thing, but growing,” Hamel shared.<\/p>\n
When asked who are the store’s typical customers seen walking through the door, Hamel said, “The younger generation, 25 and under, they’ve been a really much larger customer base than I sort of anticipated…I remember asking a Gen Z customer why VHS, what’s the interest? And they just said very point blank, ‘It’s just a thing that works.'”<\/p>\n
On the afternoon, dozens of people came into the store, searching through bins, finding inspiration from cover art, and chatting with fellow customers about recommendations, creating community.<\/p>\n
“I come here almost every week to get something new…watching a film is such a solitary experience and being around a bunch of like-minded people who want to pick things off the shelf perhaps strike up a conversation is really nice,” said Thomas Youssef, a customer.<\/p>\n
Customers also seemed to share a frustration over too many apps and too many fees, and the store’s slogan is “Death to streamers…physical media forever.”<\/p>\n
“That is born out of the costs are rising and the selection is dwindling on streaming,” Hamel expressed. “Disney+ seems like costs have gone up multiple times every year for the past several years. Netflix is the same way. They’re adding ads.”<\/p>\n
Hamel says the store has films you can’t find on apps, sourcing thousands of titles through trade-ins and hunting online.<\/p>\n
When also asked if people are coming in more for the newer releases or for the classics, Hamel said, “They want a lot of the classics. I mean, ‘Clueless’ is something that we can rarely keep in stock. ‘The Matrix’ on DVD, which I remember me and all my friends had a copy of that DVD. It was everywhere and it still sells very well.”<\/p>\n
While the movies may be old school, co-owner Jess Mills says the social scene is what’s really reeling people.<\/p>\n
“Apps can’t beat the real experience of getting someone’s in-person recommendation,” Mills remarked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CBS, KYMA) – In a streaming world with endless content from apps and subscriptions, one Brooklyn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-249871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}