I am going to jump out of chronological order because of the devastating news that one of my old stores has closed.
So, the story continues where the story is about to end.
After more than 24 respected and entertaining years of great home entertainment, a lack of vision will end the glorious vision that once was TLA Video 4th ST / South Street / Society Hill / Philly.
I'll preface this by saying that I still beleive in what once was TLA Video, very strongly. I think the concept was and forever will be great if supported. I am simply disappointed in where this has landed, and strongly believe that it didn't have to be.
One last visit before they turn it into the horror of a giant video flea market / bone picking. Trust me, you won’t enjoy the atmosphere. Hell, it won’t have an atmosphere, not like it had once upon a time.
I first encountered Vid One when I was deciding if I wanted to come to work for TLA Video. I parked on South Street, in front of PhilaDeli, and walked around. When I entered, I saw a store in 2000 that looked like a store in 1985. Even at the early stage of the DVD rollout, I saw a store that was still resisting change from VHS. I saw a small sales area, I saw porn, and was surprised to see that the film on the monitor was played silent, and music playing instead.
I also saw Kennie. My first impression was “Why is he playing music in a video store?” That never made sense to me, because TLA didn’t sell music. Turns out that was one of many “different” corporate edicts.
I also saw Kennie, by himself at the counter, working hard, which was a sight that I would see for nine more years.
I took the job and the first day of work was spent introducing myself to a staff that hadn’t seen an actual store manager in a long time, despite the parade of people TLA had put in there as store managers, some useless to a capital “U”.
After being grilled with questions that at times felt like “Why the hell are you subjecting yourself to this?”, I realized that I had a great staff in a neglected store. As I would find out many times later, growth didn;t seem to be paramount to what they wanted. Profit had to be achieved on a bit of a shoe string, despite being the pre-eminent independent video store chain in Philly.
I started to realize the first of many “TLA mistaken identities”, that I felt that I was really there to close the store down. It truly felt that way. The look of the store had not been updated since Philo T. Farnsworth was making TV’s. The attitude of the staff was one of doing their job extremely well, but knowing that job had what seemed to be a shelf date, a limited life span.
I didn’t need to change the attitude of the staff, we needed to change the attitude of the owners.
Once they got over their skepticism, I truly believed that they now believed that someone actually cared about the store as more that a place for them to bring their friends and showing how they owned this place. They owned it, but I and the staff tried to grow it.
When I went there, I was promised that there would be a remodel, and hell, the place needed it. This was August 2000. Business started to grow, the staff grew with the changes, and finally , three YEARS later, they decided to do the remodel themselves(why pay for real craftsmen when you have a wannabe contractor owning the place).
In any case, in 2003, the store now almost looked updated to the year 1995. The store responded with good sales, a great clientele, and a strong staff with a solid, great constant: Kennie. We worked our asses off is the only way that we can put it when you talk about how we did it.
All through this, we were given essentials for day to day, but never given anything with a vision to tomorrow. They were content to live on the laurels of what the TLA name had meant, and seemed to have no real desire to enhance that name in the stores. The boss and I talked about one idea that he had a few years ago that was very exciting, but it was never pursued. I think that idea would have been a home run.
This was also the time when I would first see the signs of the slight of hands that some would sometimes utilize to seemingly not fulfilling promises. About a year after I arrived, and even after being thanked from the Las Vegas stage by one of The Powers during the VSDA Video Convention when TLA won Store Of The Year (Yo, powers, did you ever put two and two together and realize that I was the reason you received that award?), a position opened up.
Imagine my surprise when the General Manager position was open in 2001, a position that had been said to be mine when available, and it was given to a useless refugee from West Coast Video instead of me. The many reasons given to me were all of the phony noble variety, not that I didn’t deserve it, but that I was more valuable where I was. That is because everyone else could smell what would come along at Vid One in the future.
Other sometimes short-sighted efforts included starting a subscription plan based on the then-current General Managers concept. We started this monthly plan, and to this day (10.21.2009), I still cannot give you a solid look at how it actually impacted us.
This was the start of the change in attitude that it felt we had to compete on price and not on confidence, moving us into a price competition that I don;t beleive we fully understood and I believe never executed properly. The ideas put forth were not the problem, they were great ideas. My concern was execution and support.
This was also the time that we started to test home delivery. Of course, the owners and theGM set up delivery for the entire downtown area, for three store locations, with ONE delivery person. Then, they expected that to be efficient.
In 2006, in a shuffle that is still incomprehensible, I was moved to another great store in Chestnut Hill. Kennie, who was very attuned to what a TLA manager job really meant, reluctantly accepted the managers position. Of course, it isn’t that cut and dried. Kennie still had to do his old position, as well. The South Street store was essentially told that they were not worthy of having the same hierarchy of the rest of the stores. We had an excellent GM who had promoted from another store, and then to clueless one.
For 4 years, Kennie did a super human job of making this odd combo work. Of course, the more that it worked, the more they would ask him to do, and be amazed if it couldn’t be accomplished.
I got to spend the last 2 and ½ years at TLA as the GM and Buyer. We used to have a GM, a buyer for rental, and a buyer for sale. I became all three. Kennie did his best, and the store still turned a profit, despite no improvements being made to both physical plant and the selection. Advertising was spotty, and then it was invisible. Office support was sparse at best.
However, I loved my job, loved the stores, and loved TLA, and tried very hard to do my best.
Now, one month after they decided that the stores didn’t need a GM/Buyer/Supply Delivery Guy and let me go in another acute lack of vision, they have five people doing my job.
Fortunately, I don’t have to be there for what I believe is an unnecessary closing, one reflective of their listening to people that I believe do not know what to actually do with the stores.
Competition is blamed, when competition is what make you better, but only if you are smart enough to compete.
TLA Video South Street competes no more, it sighs and watches it’s history being sold as if it was unloved toys at a garage sale. People will be picking at the bones like the worst buffet. This is not relective of the quality of the stock or the staff who will be there, it is reflective of what atmosphere these sales always bring, it cannot help but be an intense and exhausting experience.
Unfortunately, I cannot be there when I should be, to help in this most difficult time.
We had great years there, and the staff was the main reason. Until this past Monday, they were still the reason to choose TLA Video Stores as your choice for perfect home entertainment in Philly. Now, that choice is gone from your lives, and the other Vids may or may not soon follow.
I’ve previously mentioned a poster by the 5th Floor Elevator at the main office that showed the history of TLA up to the opening of the New York store. It is a magnificent and fascinating frozen moment in time, but sadly now means little to me, because what TLA is now has so very little relationship to the glory that it once was. TLA may morph into a different glory, and I would be as happy as anyone to see my friends thre continue on.
TLA has become narrowly boring in the product compared to how I knew it, and a bit farther from what TLA was once known for. They seem to follow the advice of people who may mean well, but who I believe have little clue as to how to compete in the physical retail arena, and have convinced them to take this is a very different direction. You can lay any notion of TLA as synonymous with great and knowledgeable film to a little bit less voracity. That TLA grows just a bit dimmer, and only lives on at the store level, which now decreases by 25%. However, in the remaining stores, it still shines brightly, and their staffs are a huge part of that.
I urge you strongly to continue to support them.
The last domino may fall. Still, there will always be the best and wonderful efforts of Kennie, Marianne, Jim, Griffin, Vicky, and the rest of a dream staff.
That last domino takes the last real and true home video experience on South Street away forever.
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