One of the last video stores in Seattle will soon close its doors.
Craig Wilson opened Video Isle (4459 Fremont Ave N) in the late 80s, and owned it up until 2014, when Tonya Perfect took over. Business had being slowing over the past year, but she wanted to stick it out as long as possible. The big drop in customers came when the neighboring marijuana shop, Pot Stop, closed at the end of last summer.
The Pot Stop was an anchor for them, Perfect said. “Business dropped dramatically when they closed.” That, coupled with the high costs of running a small business in Seattle meant they couldn’t keep it up.
Perfect will be starting a massive liquidation sale tomorrow, which will run through their last day, January 13. After they close, she’ll keep the inventory that’s left over.
“I’m going to catalog the the remaining inventory in hopes of having a movie library base,” she said, adding that she’ll keep up her partnerships with the various drop-off locations (including Ballard’s Green Market). Perfect envisions a system where customers can reserve movies online, and pick them up at the current drop-off locations.
“If we could have gotten ten more people in a day, it would have made the difference to keep us open.”
With Video Isle closing, the last two video stores in Seattle are Scarecrow Video in the University District and Reckless Video in Maple Leaf.