Who says a story has to be linear?

In the hallway by the 5th Floor Elevator in an office now far far away, there is a damaged poster that traces the history of the TLA stores. It was made before I arrived, and it is fascinating to see the pride that is shown for those stores and that history. It ends with photos of the then new store on 8th Street in New York’s Greenwich Village.

Someone in charge recently called it “walking down memory lane” when some talked to them about the stores.

There were no updates. This poster is frozen in time. Apropos.

So, let’s walk down Memory Lane, and over time, you will see why I loved TLA once, and what I truly believed TLA could have been and what video retailing can be far into the future.

So, it is the year 2000, March.

I was involved with putting on trade shows for video retailers through what was then known as VSDA, then became EMA, then split the indie retailers off into IDEA, then pulled them back because we didn’t suit their purposes as an independent wing (I’m shutting up now on this subject).

We had built a show that was held on the University of Newark (Delaware) Business Center, and drew over 100 East Coast retailers. For two years, I built this conference/trade show, and it attracted the powerful and the good video retailers as well as drew the eye of retail competition.

It was here where I first met the TLA group and was approached about coming over to them. At the time, West Coast Video was in the middle of a possible sale to a sad sack of a chain called Video City, as well as a changeover in software. As I’ve mentioned previously, I can trip over my loyalty with the best of them, so I turned them down.

5 months later, even a dumbass like myself could recognize the bad decision, so I made the move, and was installed in the South Street Store of TLA Video. There I met a great staff, led by Kennie, but I also felt a store that seemed to just be living out its days. The store was “funky décor”, which meant it hadn’t been updated for years and I started to question why I was there, because I had nothing to offer a store that simply was there to exist.

Thanks to a great staff, though, it made sense to question and ask. When I came over, I was told that they were going to remodel it. This was August 2000. If I told you that the remodel finally happened in the end of 2003, you would get why I felt at times like I was in a deathwatch.

Add to that a reluctance to embrace DVD, and change would be hard. That same reluctance is now being shown towards how to handle Blu-ray.

However, I think my enthusiasm, coupled with the great staff that took great pride in their work and who finally had a manager who gave a damn, made it impossible for that store to go away, and a better store to emerge.

Until I wound up transferred in 2006, I think we made a fantastic team, and the staff there still makes a fantastic store.

The next year, at the 2001 VSDA Convention, TLA Video won Retailer Of The Year. From the stage, the partner who accepted made a special thank you to me, a very prominent shout-out.

That may have been my proudest moment, not because it recognized me, but because I felt that I had changed their attitude, changed their mindset, and had breathed new life in a business, which is what any ambitious and driven person wants.

I didn’t get that feeling many more times after that. When the GM position became available later that year, I was told that either they didn’t give me the job because they needed me at that store (the old “you are too good to promote” gotcha) , that my need to care for my brother meant time concerns, or that they had this other person who they wanted who they felt could do the job. She lasted less than a year.

This was the first sign that this would be a difficult stay, one with great memories until the last one.

As of this writing, the South Street store is still alive and still has a great staff lead by Kennie. It has also been noted that it still looks like a store from the 90’s recently. The staff makes that a good thing, and I encourage you to postpone your Duckboat ride and your Jim’s Cheesesteaks and meet one of the reasonsI survived TLA for so long, the great staff of a TLA Video store.

BTW, for those who believe that the video industry has moved past a real life store, and some of them are still there, recognize this.

Back in 2000, there were a lot of video stores and competition was tough. There were very few websites that sold videos, so opportunity was there for something unique. Over time, the internet has been flooded with merchants who have to differentiate themselves without the human element, they have to fake it.

In that same time, many brick and mortar video retailers (call us "mom and pop" and I'll beat the shit out of you) have gone away, because it is easy to blame the marketplace when it is actually the stubbornness to grow and adapt.

It used to be easy to earn money in home video retailing quite by accident. Now, you have to think, adapt, and grow. That took a bit of faith, a bit of guts, a lot of experience, and no fear of the future. It took and takes someone like me.

The physical video store is now unique again, while websites are everywhere. The uniqueness of the physical video store now is that you can still be real life, but add the web elements to extend your stores experience and ability to engage your customer. You can have the customer in your store even when they are not there, and they can interacte with a real staff and not an algorithm.

You can still make an amazing brick and mortar store, but you have to want it, be ready to expand the rules, and love doing it. I do.

You can remember the past, you can embrace the past, but you have to recognize how to successfully grow them for the future. Video stores can still be that future, and a major player in it,

The absence of the VSDA/EMA/IDEA Convention this year

This would be the time of year for the VSDA (EMA/IDEA) Convention.

For those who are unfamiliar, these were the annual meetings in Vegas, and occassionally LA for the video retailing industry.

I personally am missing the networking opportunities, and the chance to find ONE idea or concept that will help my business and the industry.

I am not missing the last few years as much as the late 90's to mid '00's, when I think some amazing concepts shook up what had become a lazy industry.

We can remininsce and enjoy the "what was" but franky, the "what will be" is all that matters.

This year, we have seen splits to two seperate efforts: a closed, invitation only get-together under EMA control, as well as two IndieFEST Expos, with the help of VPD and the IndieEXPO AT SEA, all of which had valuable ideas.

However, I cannot help but think that each faction still didn't get the complete picture, and therefore, something is missing.

Whatever our size, we are an industry, and we need to view ourselves as that, or we simply become wheels tunring in wildly divergent and dangerous directions.

What do we do next?