Video Store Day 2022

Today is Video Store Day.

Do you still have a video store near you?

International Independent Video Store Day is observed on the third Saturday of October each year.

It's always interesting finding lost shops and old signs on my travels and I recently drove past this former video rental shop at The Village Top Shop in Thorpe Hesley, Rotherham!

Video Rentals at The Village Top Shop in Thorpe Hesley, Rotherham

There are still traces of other former video shops to be found on the streets 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.

• 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 video in Ashton-under-Lyne
  

Blockbuster Video stores we've visited to date:

• 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
• Wisbech, Cambridgeshire
• Wythenshawe, Manchester

Other video shops we've been to include B.V.C. - Bolton Video Centre in Little Lever, Bolton and 20th Century Flicks in Bristol - and both were still trading!

On Video Store Day in 2020 we were fortunate enough to stumble upon a video rental shop in Little Lever, Bolton

National VCR Day

Today is National VCR Day.

Do you still own or use a Video Cassette Recorder? I do.

There are still some great and rare films and programmes that can only be seen on video tapes these days, so I'm glad we've still got our TV/Video combination set.

Over the last year or so we've been documenting the remains of Blockbuster Video stores in the UK - visiting 19 of the former video shop locations so far.

The QuikDrop box on the old Blockbuster Video store in Southampton

We were also lucky to find a video shop still operating and renting out tapes last year! It's in Little Lever, Bolton.