One Of The Last Video Rental Stores Holds On In Pleasant Hill

In an age where Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and other online venues have seemingly rendered the video store obsolete, Jason Wood is betting that there are enough people who prefer real-time, real-world browsing for films to keep his store – Take One Movie Rentals – going strong.

And for the past three years, at least, he’s been right.

The store moved to its current location at 1928 Oak Park Blvd. three years ago, after a 28-year run in Lafayette.

“Pleasant Hill has been the best choice,” Wood said. “We love our clientele here. We plan on staying for a very long time.”

Though the store has a modest collection compared to the hundreds of thousands of titles of online movie giant Netflix, Wood said that people come to his store to browse for movies they don’t necessarily know the name of, or to get recommendations from the staff.

Also, he said the staff takes very good care of the movies, unlike Netflix, where movies can arrive scratched and often unwatchable.

“They don’t care,” he said. “They just want your $8. We don’t rent scratched movies.”

For $4.62 plus tax, customers can rent a film for seven days. He said there were a variety of promotions, bundle discounts, early return credits and other ways to bring that cost down.

Security is another advantage, Wood said.

“We have your credit card information on a closed system here,” he said. “Online sites are constantly being hacked.”

Surprisingly, Wood said TV shows are now more popular rentals than films. That trend began with HBO’s Sopranos, and since then TV series like Downton Abbey and others have been flying out the door.

“By far the most popular series is ‘Breaking Bad,’” he said.

Customer Arlene Sirott is a believer.

“It’s so nice to have a store where you can see what you’re looking for, search for what’s not coming to mind,” she said. “I love this store, and I’m here every week, renting a movie or two while son is at guitar lesson. I can take my time over next week to watch it. The service is amazing – I can call and ask them if they have a particular film.”

Does the advent of streaming movies online scare him?

“Things are always changing – there’s nothing we can do about that,” he said. “But we’re going to keep doing this as long as we can.” 

Do you prefer to rent movies from a store, or online? Tell us in the comments.