MSGID: 1:153/757.21@fidonet fe023b4d   
   PID: OpenXP/5.0.51 (Win32)   
   CHRS: CP437 2   
   TZUTC: -0400   
   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 ú CBC News ú 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 Fran‡ois Truffaut and   
   Belgium's AgnŠs 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."   
      
   --- OpenXP 5.0.51   
    * Origin: Stare into this point intently ->.<- (1:153/757.21)   
   SEEN-BY: 15/0 105/81 106/201 124/5016 129/305 330 331 134/100 153/0   
   SEEN-BY: 153/141 757 6809 7715 203/0 218/700 840 220/70 221/0 6 226/17   
   SEEN-BY: 229/110 111 112 113 317 426 428 470 664 700 250/8 267/800   
   SEEN-BY: 280/464 5003 282/1038 292/854 8125 301/1 310/31 317/3 320/219   
   SEEN-BY: 322/757 341/234 396/45 423/120 633/280 712/848 770/1 100   
   SEEN-BY: 770/340 772/210 220 230 2320/105 2452/250 3634/24   
   PATH: 153/757 280/464 770/1 317/3 229/426