An Ode to Premieres Video & The Video Store Era

Each Sunday, we're sharing a small bright spot from the previous edition of The Weekender

I miss video stores.

For years and years, the Friday night routine was going to the video store. Depending on who was taking us as kids, it could be JJ’s Video, where Clayton Seafood now sits (at least in my very faulty memory), if my dad was driving. Or Video Express, now home to Noe’s Bakery next to Compare Foods, if my grandma was taking us. Or A-1 Video. Or SkyHigh Video. Or countless country gas stations that got into the video rental business.

Real ones know about the red curtain at Video Express, or remember when the Percy Flowers store rented movies and would give away the posters and promo stuff.

Then Premieres Video opened, and it was glorious.

We didn’t have a Blockbuster in Clayton until much, much later, so Premieres was our Blockbuster. Everything was new. There were no weird smells. And the place was staffed by teenagers who were cool.

Every Friday night, my brother and I were allowed to rent one thing each. I would always pick a movie. He would always get a game. That was our weekend.

The other thing about Premieres was the 99-cent shelf and the Staff Picks, also 99 cents. So even as a kid, I could afford to rent an extra movie or two with my own money.

That tradition continued all through high school. Premieres Video definitely had a huge impact on my love for independent cinema. I discovered my favorite director, Quentin Tarantino, there when I rented Pulp Fiction for the first time.

It was one of the few times my dad had heard about a movie and wanted to watch it with me. We were both blown away.

When I returned it, I gushed to the manager, KC, about the movie. At which point he moved Reservoir Dogs to his Staff Picks shelf so I could rent it for 99 cents.

After that, he always had a weird and wonderful indie pick waiting for me.

I really do miss the video store. With the resurgence of physical media, hopefully one of these new stores pops up in Clayton someday.

Thanks for these photos, Robert White — one of the last soldiers of Premieres Video.

Gone but not forgotten.

The video drop box slot still remains outside of Top Beauty.

Kanopy is Here to Help

While video stores may be few and far between – but they are making a comeback – Kanopy is a really great option for discovering new movies, and with the library reopening, this feels like the perfect space to talk about it.

Hocutt-Ellington Memorial Library cardholders have access to Kanopy, an ad-free streaming service with movies, documentaries, classic cinema, indie films, foreign films, educational videos, and kids’ content. Clayton Library’s digital resources page says Kanopy is available on mobile devices, computers, Roku, Apple TV, and Fire Stick, with users limited to 18 tickets per month. 

Sign up here.

So yes, the library still has books. But it also has a pretty solid streaming shelf.

Maybe we can talk the Clayton library staff into recommending Kanopy picks every week for The Dispatch. 

-- Dan