São Paulo's Most Traditional Video Store Shuts its Doors

12/22/2015 - 09h40

The times change quickly: a few years ago, no one could imagine a safer business, more prosperous and cheery than the business of video and DVD rental stores. Good, great, awful, special features or not, everywhere you looked, you found one.

This past weekend, 2001 Video, the most traditional video rental store in São Paulo, in business for 33 years and still at two locations, announced it was closing its brick and mortar locations.

2001, you could say, was more than a rental store: in addition to having a selection superior to that of its competitors, its employees were, not surprisingly, true cinephiles, capable of providing recommendations in any genre without shame.

If that fact already made it a social place, the classes it promoted had, in addition, the didactic role of passing on information about films to anyone who expressed interest.

The spaces were roomy (and, I'm assuming, expensive): shops on Avenida Paulista, in Pinheiros, Cidade Jardim, Sumaré. The shop on Avenida Sumaré, by the way, had the largest selection for movie sales.

For some years now, everything had started to fall apart. First came downloads ("downloaded" movies), which emerged in large numbers. You could find everything from the latest blockbuster to unbelievable rarities: they served to educate all of the cinephiles and kids who found any film online.

Along came piracy. It has taken over Rua Augusta, for example, in such an ostentatious manner that sometimes it is difficult to walk on the sidewalk. You can find everything from the best to the worst in terms of quality, of course.

But the price is lower than that of a video rental store, to the point that if a buyer decided to toss one because it was defective (not a rare occurrence) or because it didn't play in the DVD player, the loss would be minimal.

The final blow came with services like Netflix. Despite their shortcomings, they make up for them in certain widely accepted areas (starting with the series). 2001 Video really tried: it offered, among other things, a delivery service. But, it wasn't very cheap.

It tried to push online sales. However, even the sales industry had already been undermined by competition from large bookstores.

The issue is: we weren't using 2001 Video with the frequency necessary to sustain the stores. It wasn't more viable, but we will feel its loss: bookstore chains will always carry new releases for sale.

The bootlegger on the corner, you could say, will as well. But what about that old film that was released five years ago and sold out? Where will you find it? Up to now, everyone knew "2001 Video would have it".

In other words, the void it leaves behind is not small.

"This cultural dictatorship that is imposing itself in cinematography is really problematic. Many of the films we work with aren't available on the new platforms", said Sonia Abreu, 2001 Video store director and owner.

2001 has been liquidating its film rental stock since Saturday (19).

On Sunday (20) evening, there was a long line at the Avenida Paulista location. Cinephiles could be seen carefully making selections and loading up large shopping bags, while others were after one specific title.

"I'm looking for 'The Great Beauty' (Paolo Sorrentino), I wanted a new edition, as a Christmas present to myself", said Valéria, 23, an architecture student..

"Where am I going to find Asian film classics? They're not on Netflix, and they are now hegemonic", added Mieko, 52, who said she wants to leave her children a small collection of Japanese rarities.

Translated by SUGHEY RAMIREZ

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