Goodbye Moviestop

August 13, 2004. That was the day that I first discovered Moviestop. After picking up several of that week’s new releases at my local Best Buy, my friends and I noticed a new red sign across the parking lot. We had some time to kill before seeing a movie (Alien Vs Predator, which really we would have been better off skipping), so we stopped in. I was amazed. I had dealt with used media stores before, but this store was like it was made for me. Great selection, and most importantly great prices. At the time Macon’s only other option for used movies (aside from Goodwill and pawn shops) was Media Play. Media Play’s used selection was not that great, and in most cases their prices weren’t that competitive compared to new product. So seeing a store that focused on movies, new and used, was perfect for me. Added to this was that at this time they still bought and sold VHS, and even though it was a dying format and I was moving away from that format, it was great to find a place that dealt in them so I could find things that weren't on DVD at that time, which also would give me something for my old unused tapes. My first purchase from the store: the 2 disc special edition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The next day my old VHS copy was traded into the store.

As I walked the aisles, I noticed two things. First was the amount of back catalogue titles the store had. Even at that time, the biggest difference (other than prices) between the Best Buy and Media Play was selection. Best Buy was great for finding big blockbuster titles, but Media Play had a better selection of older titles and odder, artier things. You wanted a new release Criterion, you’d hit Media Play. You want that big Hollywood movie, then Best Buy would have it and it would be cheaper. But for back catalogue releases, Moviestop was the place to go. Their vast selection of older titles meant that you could easily find what you were looking for, and if you were lucky, a used copy would be available. It’s gotten to the point where if an older film is released on dvd, I knew not to bother wasting my time to see if Best Buy had it, and would head straight to Moviestop. I knew that if I wanted a Shout/Scream Factory release, I was better off going to Moviestop. It was reliable, and the employees seemed like they cared as opposed to the blue shirts at Best Buy that knew next to nothing about the products that they were stocking.

As the years went by, I started to take the store for granted. I still went there every week, and I still made purchases there (usually used). I began drifting away from brick and mortar stores and using online resources for movies. I stopped getting Criterions on release days, instead waiting for the 50% of sales that Barnes and Noble offer. Retailer exclusives like steelbooks and digibooks for new releases lured me to back Best Buy and Target. But Moviestop was always part of my shopping routine, and without fail I’d usually find something there. Things seemed like they would always be the same in Moviestop.

So I was a bit worried when I learned of the sale of Moviestop to Hastings. (Ok, technically it was to Draw Another Circle, but whatever) The staff said that there wouldn’t be much changing, but it started slowly with some of the dvd shelves that once held children’s movies now stocking Pop Vinyls. At the time I was fine with that, since it was somewhat movie related and didn’t take up much space. Then the Pops expanded and took up more space. Then the redesign happened.

They “remodeled” the store, meaning that replaced the old pressboard shelves with taller wire frame shelves and filled more than half the store with toys. Movies were crammed onto shelves that were tightly fit into the store, placed so close together that it was inaccessible for people in wheelchairs to maneuver through the aisles*.  I personally felt a bit claustrophobic standing between the aisles, but more importantly I also felt that it was harder to browse the dvds due to the spacing of the shelves. But hey, they had to make room for the Grumpy Cat merchandise. And the oven mits and magnets and other dumb tacky stuff that you’d find in a Spencers. There’s a pretty nice framed lithograph of the Rolling Stones in the store. It’s an item that while it’s cool, it’s also something that belongs in a music store and not in a store that has a focus on movies.

There were times when I questioned some of the merchandise in the store. At the time I was was told that the figure and stuff sold, but it never seemed like it to me. After the closing of Moviestop and Hastings was announced, it was revealed that the parent company owed Diamond Comic Distributors and Funko, the creator of the Pop Vinyls a combined total of around 4 million dollars, I was shocked but not surprised. As someone that likes the Pops, I hope that this won't negatively impact Funko too much. Granted nowhere else stocked Pops as aggressively as Moviestop.

This picture was taken from the Moviestop Facebook page.

The oddest thing is that they went in and repriced old stock. I can understand lowering prices, but they raised prices on a lot of old cheap stock. Recently I have made purchases during the closing sale and discovered old Moviestop price tags with cheaper prices under newer, higher priced Hastings tags. This doesn’t make any sense, because if a Moviestop couldn’t move copies of The Returner for $1.99, then why did Hastings think that they’d fly off the shelves for $10.99? 

I was shocked in May when I read the news online that all Moviestops would be closing. But like many other people, I began to take advantage of the clearance sales. Like with Blockbuster closing, I swooped in and picked up things I had put off getting, and when the clearance percentages were high enough, picked up somethings that I had never seen since they were very cheap. On one hand, good deals, but on the other hand, it was bittersweet. I kept going in, once or twice a week, watching the stock dwindle and racks be removed from the store. My last trip to the store as a customer was Friday, July 22. My last purchase from the store: Jane Got a Gun (blu-ray), and the dvds of Swimming with Sharks, The Kid Stays in the Picture, The Tao of Steve, and the 2 seasons of Pushing Daisies, the Heisenberg retro figure, and a blind boxed Doctor Who figure that turned out to be Missy. My total was under $20. I asked the employees when the last day was, and I was told closing was July 26. I expected to have one last trip to the store. But when I went there today, this is what I saw:

They sold everything. I was dumbstruck by this. Even the local Blockbusters were unable to completely sell off their inventory. This was very sad for me to see. What was once a thriving store was dead. Young told me that I could buy the sign. I laughed, cause what am I going to do with a Moviestop sign? A more fitting and less impractical purchase would of been one of the cash registers, only to sit in my house as a tribute to all the thousands of dollars that I probably spent there over the years.

But it's weird that feel so sad about the store closing. I didn't feel this way when Media Play closed, or Blockbuster**, which was a bigger part of my adolescence due to constantly going in there for rentals. I think it had to due with the fact that I was going in there from when they opened, and that I was constantly in there pretty much every week. I felt welcomed, and I became friendly with the staff.Employees likeYoung, Holly, Justin and Blake (among many others that had come and gone), that seemed like they genuinely loved movies, and sometimes it was fun to just go in and shoot the shit with the staff. It was always fun to be recommended something from an employee that knew what I liked and shared interests with. While I am sad about the closing, ultimately this is saddest for the employees that are losing their jobs, and for the loss of another retailer of physical media.

Draw Another Circle/Hastings purchased Moviestop in November of 2014. The last of the Moviestop stores is closing July 26, 2016. It took less than 2 years for Hastings to destroy Moviestop. That’s a bit unfair, due to changing customer preferences towards streaming and digital formats rather than the old reliance on physical media. I could argue forever about why that’s a bad idea, but at the same time I have stopped buying a lot of television shows on dvd/blu mainly because they are available through streaming means. Well, that and because I already have a humongous backlog of unwatched stuff.

But really, I got 12 years of entertainment out of this store. Realistically I have things that I purchased in the last month that I will probably not get around to watching for a long time***. But I want to end this by saying thank you to all the Moviestop employees past and present. Hastings/Draw Another Circle will probably screw you out of the benefits packages that they promised you, but you have my gratitude.

*I was told this by an employee. A wheelchair bound customer couldn’t shop there easily due to the bad shelf planning because of Draw Another Circle’s focus on filling the store with merchandise.

**I think a big part of why I wasn't upset about Blockbuster closing was due to their causing of a lot of smaller video rental stores to close down, so seeing them fall to the juggernaut of Netflix was a bit satisfying, especially after they had the chance to purchase Netflix and passed.

***Seriously, I still have some unwatched blu-rays that I purchased from closing Blockbusters. I think I have a serious problem.