This year is the 14th Annual International Independent Video Store Day.
International Independent Video Store Day is observed on the third Saturday of October each year.
Do you still have a video store near you?
By my reckoning there are three video shops still in operation in the UK. They are:
- Northgate Video & DVD in Bury St Edmunds
- 20th Century Flicks in Bristol
- Snips Movies in Bebington, Wirral
Unfortunately B.V.C. - Bolton Video Centre in Little Lever, Bolton closed in July this year. We visited that particular video shop on Video Shop Day in 2020!
It's nice to see there are still some businesses active in the sector though!
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| Northgate Video & DVD Video Rental and Sales shop in Bury St Edmunds, August 2024 |
There are still traces of former video shops to be found on the streets, shopping centres and retail parks of the UK. Most of those are old Blockbuster Video stores. But there are remnants of independent video shops to be seen if you're lucky. Some of those I've snapped over the years include:
- Shahenshah Videos in Luton
- Deane Video Centre in Bolton
- Video Box Office at the Happy Shopper Wayfairer Discount Store in Ilkeston
- Video Future in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent
- The Movie Box in Manchester
- Jubilee Films in Ashton-under-Lyne
- Video Rentals at The Village Top Shop in Thorpe Hesley, Rotherham
Blockbuster Video stores we've visited to date include:
- Abingdon, Oxfordshire
- Ashton, Bristol
- Barnsley, South Yorkshire
- Basingstoke, Hampshire
- Billingham, Teesside
- Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester
- Chester, Cheshire
- Chorley, Lancashire
- Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
- Colne, Lancashire
- Failsworth, Manchester
- Fallowfield, Manchester
- Felixstowe, Suffolk
- Filton, Bristol
- Great Moor, Stockport, Greater Manchester
- Hastings, East Sussex
- Leigh, Greater Manchester
- Luton, Bedfordshire
- Marple, Greater Manchester
- Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire
- Nuneaton, Warwickshire
- Oldham, Greater Manchester
- Prescot, Lancashire
- Shanklin, Isle of Wight
- Southampton, Hampshire
- Telford, Shropshire
- Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex
- Wisbech, Cambridgeshire
- Wythenshawe, Manchester
