Saying goodbye to a local staple
January 21 is set to be a bittersweet day for Guelph movie lovers. After 34 years in business, Thomas Video will be closing its doors.
The last of its kind in Guelph—and likely one of the last of its kind altogether—Thomas Video has been a mainstay in the local movie rental business. Starting out renting videodiscs in 1983, the little independent video store has survived many changes in the industry, including the rise and fall of bigger rental chains like Rogers and Blockbuster.
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When I first read the news of Thomas Video’s closure back in November, I was taken aback. I immediately wanted to rush over after work and rent a movie that I had been meaning to rent for weeks. But then I thought, what kind of customer would that make me?
I have a membership—member number 34310 to be exact—but I have only used it a handful of times. How would it look if I came crawling back knowing that the end is near?
As an avid movie-watcher, there was always a comfort in knowing that, if I wanted to rent a movie in Guelph, I could. But perhaps that wasn’t enough.
Out of sheer embarrassment, I never did rent that one last movie.
Instead, exactly two weeks before the store was set to close, I arranged to meet owner Ian Findlay at the current Baker Street location. We sat at a miniature picnic bench surrounded by children’s movies—some on DVD, some on VHS—and talked about the last three-and-a-half decades of Thomas Video.
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Findlay explained that, right from day one, he was told that video stores wouldn’t be around forever and that there has always been a looming “doomsday” surrounding the whole industry. Back in 1983 when the then-18-year-old Findlay started his business, it would have been nearly impossible to predict the gradual takeover of the Internet.
While some jump straight to blaming streaming giants like Netflix and Crave for the fall of video rental stores, Findlay acknowledged that, “It’s more than just film that’s occupying people’s screen time—it’s YouTube, it’s Facebook, it’s Twitter.”
This social and technological shift has caused the rental of physical entertainment media to slip into obsolescence. While Thomas Video has outlasted many other rental businesses by curating their collection and catering to a niche market, Findlay explained that, “It has slowly declined down to a point where it’s not even sustainable for us anymore.”
When Findlay made the announcement of closure, he received an outpouring of mournful comments from community members, many reminiscing about fond memories spent at Thomas Video.
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“It’s almost like the final grand tour of The Who, where people are coming in and saying, ‘We’re sad to see you go—haven’t been in for a couple of years, but we’re sad to see you go’—which is sort of a double-edged sword,” said Findlay. “Part of the reason we are closing is because you haven’t been in for a couple of years. But I understand why that is.”
Following our conversation, I too took a final tour around the store. During the hour I spent in Thomas Video that day, every customer who walked through the door offered condolences of a similar nature. Though the flood of community support and the increase in foot traffic over the last few weeks could make any business owner feel like they’re making the wrong decision, Findlay remains firm to his judgment.
“My head understands that this has to come to an end, but my heart is still thinking it’s too bad we couldn’t still find just a little niche—but that’s not going to happen.”
Though still offering rentals, the store has mostly transformed into a second-hand retail shop. Handmade signs indicate the sale prices for an entire shelf or genre. Much of the inventory has already been picked over by Findlay and his customers, leaving some of the shelves looking bare and neglected.
When asked how he felt about parting with his collection, Findlay explained that the first couple weeks were tough, especially when one customer purchased his entire Akira Kurosawa collection.
“As they were walking out the door, I was looking at the empty shelf and I thought, how can you even call yourself a video store if you don’t have the full Kurosawa collection?”
Findlay took great pride in the variety and obscurity of titles in the Thomas Video collection, much of which was shaped by the customers themselves.
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“We brought in what our customers were looking for and they were always looking for something a little strange, a little different, a little off the beaten path,” he said. “We were able to bring in the selection of films that we did because Guelph was so responsive to it and we found that we could bring in art haus films, foreign films, and there was an audience for it and so that just fueled our desire to get even more in.”
The more I talked with Findlay and the more I scoured the shelves looking for hidden treasures to buy off of him, the more the guilt set in.
I wanted nothing more than to step back in time and abuse my membership over and over again. It was in that moment I learned that simply saying, “I support local businesses” only goes so far.
Thomas Video plans to close out the store with a musical gathering to offer customers and friends one last emotional blast to the past.
Findlay reflected on his store’s closure through lens of a Neil Sadaka ballad.
“Breaking up is hard to do.”
Feature photo by Mariah Bridgeman/The Ontarion.