Non-profit BluRay/DVD library idea

[ghostrunner]

So I've been tossing this idea around for a while in my head and thought I'd bounce it off you to see what holes you can poke in it, and if it's something you'd be interested in if it was in your town.

The idea is what it says in the title - you pay a montly or annual membership, the library/store stocks thousands of BluRays and/or DVDS. You check out what you want, and bring it back when you want within a reasonable time frame. If not and if someone else wants it and you don't respond to calls, you eventually will get charged to replace it.

There are examples of this in at least 4 cities-

Beyond Video in Baltimore - probably the closest to Indy in terms of market size, and the model I'd be interested in
Scarecrow video in Seattle - much larger and even does mail rentals like Netflix used to do
Vidiots in LA - this is the oldest one, going back to 1985
WeLuvVideo in Austin

Why?

Streamers are unreliable, their deals are limited by time, and Max and Disney have both even started to take down their own titles and rent them to competing streamers

Many titles have gone out of print on DVD and BluRay, and are unavailable either streaming or for rent online.

Most of all, a place for movie fans to meet, chat, and learn from each other.


One pushback I've gotten is the library does this already - however that's not the same as a video store enviroment and at least in my case, browsing BluRays in particular is a subpar experience. Titles aren't well stocked or well organized, are hard to read, and of course not comprehensive unless you search online. There's also no discussion to be had except maybe the librarian, who may or may not be into movies. So you're not going to have or even overhear the kinds of conversations you hear in a dedicated store/library.

My initial thought was BluRays only just to keep the scale manageable, but I posted this on our local subreddit and encountered a few people saying DVDs probably need to be in the mix, and maybe even VHS (probably not up for that one). Hard to know if that's a fair representation of public sentiment, but it was in enough of the responses that I'm thinking more about it.

Lots of challenges - money, business sense (even if it's non-profit), location, inventory, finding customers, volunteers, and people to advocate for it, etc,etc...

Indy is a bit sleepier than even Baltimore and I'm not sure we've got the customer base necessary. On the other hand we have a pretty successful local indie theater that's now been open for about 4 years and seems to be doing well. I've also emailed them to see if they have some ideas and if they wouldn't mind meeting about it.

Beyond Video in Baltimore has this post up about how one might do it elsewhere and I've been keeping that in mind as I think about it - https://www.patreon.com/posts/24007106

[ghostrunner]

So many thoughts! Haha, it's kind of a niche idea and a lot of details that probably only I find interesting, so it's understandable.

Anyway, had some progress on this. Emailed a local indie theater and I'm meeting with them in a couple weeks just to chat. I'd like to have them involved if I can manage it, but not expecting too much.

[mikechamp]

I just want to say that I appreciate you bringing the idea to us to workshop. I know no one (including me) has responded yet, but I've been thinking about doing the same mental activity with my fellow GRB members for a very long time. I just need to find the time to write my idea down in a coherent and organized way.

Give me a little time, then I will try to jot down some feedback for you.

[ghostrunner]

I just want to say that I appreciate you bringing the idea to us to workshop. I know no one (including me) has responded yet, but I've been thinking about doing the same mental activity with my fellow GRB members for a very long time. I just need to find the time to write my idea down in a coherent and organized way.

Give me a little time, then I will try to jot down some feedback for you.

No big deal at all. Just thought I'd run it by some people I knew would shoot straight. It's the kind of thing that seems to either hit with people or not, not much in between. Which is kind of what i expect at this point.

If it wasn't already being done, I might question the premise more myself.