Davis-area video stores

[ron_newman]

I'm probably the last one on my block to buy a DVD player. But now that I have it, I'm interested in hearing people's opinions of local video rental stores.

It looks like we have three choices: Hollywood Express on Elm Street, West Coast Video across the street, and Blockbuster in Porter Square.
My first impressions:

Hollywood Express -- largest selection, best chance of finding something obscure

Blockbuster - very liberal rental terms: a '2 day' rental is really 9 days, a 7-day is really 14 days. A lot more foreign and independent films than I would have expected, though probably not in the same league as Hollywood Express

West Coast Video -- why is this store still in business? I don't see any obvious reason to go here.

Comments

[mrpet.livejournal.com]

Hollywood Express also has other stores around (Porter Sq. is one) and you can return to any of them. You can prepay 20 movies and get them for around $3/movie. The coupons are good for late fees as well.

West Coast Video is pretty much a used video store where you can rent them as well.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

The Hollywood Express in Porter Square closed several months ago. It's now Cambridge Naturals.

[kjc.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend Hollywood Express. I've been renting from them for... um... 11 years now and they maintain high quality videos & DVDs, an excellent selection (broad variety, plenty of indie as well as mainstream stuff, good foreign flicks, lots of really old movies) and they are a LOCAL business. (I try hard to support local businesses).

They have locations in multiple places, including Central Square, Porter Square, and Davis Square and you can return your rentals to any location (not just the one where you rented).

And, last but not least, they don't edit videos whose politics they disagree with as Blockbuster does.

[ron_newman]

Blockbuster edits videos? Doesn't that violate the filmmaker's or studio's copyright?

Because I got a junk mail letter from Blockbuster offering unlimited $2 rentals until May 16, I've been going there. But I expect to switch my loyalty to Hollywood Express after that date. It would greatly peeve me to learn that I've rented an expurgated DVD.

[inkscarred.livejournal.com]

I think one of the reasons that West Coast stays in business is because they sell videos and DVDs (as someone said it is a video store) and because they rent and sell pornography unlike the other stores.

[ron_newman]

Blockbuster also has a fair number of used (previously rented) videos for sale. I think they sell off all but a few copies of a DVD once it's no longer in high demand.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Doesn't Hollywood Express also have some pornography? I swear I've seen a little book back in the corner with listings or something.

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

Somebody has to do it. Gotta have a supply for the demand, right? I also wondered how they were in business still, with Hollywood Express right across the street.

[ron_newman]

"Hollywood Express" vs. "Hollywood Video" must cause some amount of consumer confusion -- similar name, similar logo, same line of business (though very different selection). Usually trademark law keeps this from happening, but I guess Hollywood Express was in the Boston area first, and Hollywood Video later invaded here from elsewhere.

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

I've seen this happen -- I recall a similar post to yours a few years ago, but the OP was actually saying he'd rather go to West Coast Video than the "chain" Hollywood Express. It's too bad.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

I feel dumb -- I totally thought it was some offshoot of Hollywood Video, particularly because the "Express" makes it sound like a small, extra-convenient location of the bigger store, or something like that. Well, I've been going there anyway, now I just don't have to feel guilty about it. :)

[twomonkeys.livejournal.com]

Hollywood Express started about 20 years ago, Hollywood Video sprang up (on the East Coast) in the late '90s. My only guess is that Video didn't see us as a threat to their branding.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

even with all of them all around, I still prefer netflix.

you get the movie the next day and it's much easier to just have a queue set up. I'm lazy :p

[twe.livejournal.com]

I agree. Netflix is beats them all hands down for me. It's cheap, it's save me time & gas, and in a big city like this, I put a watched DVD in the mail on one morning, and I have a new one in my box 2 days later.

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

I love Netflix, except out of every three discs I get, at least one that doesn't play all the way through. I probably just have very poor luck with getting bad discs, but it's still irritating - we watch a movie to about 2/3 way through, then it stops and we wait another couple of days for a replacement to get to us, PLUS that takes time away from how frequently we get a new movie. It's bad enough that we're considering cancelling our service. :(
I'm glad to see that not everybody has this experience!

[denonymous.livejournal.com]

I'll reply to yours as well as some of the earlier comments.

I'm a fan of Hollywood Express. They have a great selection of both current and obscure. And yes, they have porn.

Blockbuster is, well, Blockbuster. My opinion is the same as everyone else's.

West Coast Video has had at least two going-out-of-business sales in the last five years that I can remember. Note that they never actually went out of business. The sale prices were never dirt-cheap, either. I've bought and rented there a few times, it's sort of "eh." Back when I lived in the Square proper, though, I only went there if Hollywood Express was randomly out of something (we were plowing through the Hellraiser series a ways back, for instance, and Hollywood Express was out of part II or III or something).

Of course, now that I live 1+ miles from the Square, I tend to rely on Netflix.

DVD Rentals

[reed-davis.livejournal.com]

Hollywood Express is a great store, but I was a bit surprised by their late fee policy. DVDs are usually rented for 3days at a time for about $3.95. If a movie is one day late your are charged the full fee of $3.95 - 2 days late, multiply that by two & so on...Sometimes they'll cut the fees down, but I still think it is a ridiculous policy.
Also, what about NetFlicks? I find NetFlicks to be much better than any store.

Re: DVD Rentals

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

it is a steep fee, but i think that's because instead of being like blockbuster, which carries fewer titles and many copies of each title, hollywood express carries a large number of titles and only one copy of each. so when a movie is returned late to blockbuster, it's generally not a big deal for them, because they have multiple copies of it for rent, whereas if a movie doesn't come back to hollywood express on time, that means no one else can check out that movie until it's returned, so i can understand their policy.

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Netflix.

[autumnsshadow.livejournal.com]

I've never rented from the Davis Square Hollywood Hits, but I've always found their other locations to be a good bet if you're looking for something not-so-mainstream.

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

I tend to watch a lot of movies, and I rely on both NetFlix and Hollywood Express.

NetFlix is good for the casual movie watching (get it in the mail, watch it when I get a chance, mail it back when I get a chance), and Hollywood Express is good for the spontaneous "Hey, I want to watch THIS tonight" (or, as someone else mentioned, the "Wander around until I find something good")

I worked in an independent video chain for two years, and try to keep going back to them. I feel like going to Blockbuster in Davis is as good as limiting yourself to the Starbucks and McDonalds because they are chains.

One of the big things I love about Davis is the high number of independent stores. Going to Hollywood Express fits into that perfectly.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Ditto on using both. Especially since, if I'm hit with the desire to see something in particular that very night, my cheapo 1-out-at-a-time Netflix program isn't very conducive to that.

If that late fee policy somebody mentions above is true though, that really is stupid. What a customer-unfriendly policy -- there's no reason on earth you should be charged more in late fees than you would for simply renting the movie again. (Admittedly, Netflix has spoiled me there, just as Amazon.com has convinced me that I should never have to pay shipping charges again.)

[antimony.livejournal.com]

There's also the Davis square branch of the Somerville Public Library, with the entire Minuteman Library Network collection out there. No, you can't get it instantly, but it's free.

[ron_newman]

For a while, Minuteman had stopped processing requests for interlibrary loans of videotapes and DVDs. Have they resumed?

One thing to keep in mind: you have to return videos and DVD while the library is open. They don't want you to drop them in the after-hours box.

Thanks everyone

[ron_newman]

You've convinced me. After my $2/film Blockbuster deal expires next week, I'll buy a Hollywood Express 20-coupon book. Then I'll probably never set foot in Blockbuster again.

(but now I'll have to learn to watch and return stuff quickly, instead of keeping it for up to 13 days...)