How Many Video Rental Stores Are Left in Maine? We Made A List
Remember video rental stores? Maine used to have several chains including Blockbuster, Sounds Easy Video, Movie Gallery and lots of little mom and pop video rental stores. Like the VHS tape, video rental stores have gone the way of the dinosaur.
In 2017, the movie rental business pretty much consists of expensive on demand video from your cable or satellite provider, online rentals if you're lucky to find the movie you want offered for rent, and Redbox that can only fit so many movies in their refrigerator sized kiosk. The physical movie rental store can stock thousand of videos including some hard to come by titles you won't find anywhere else.
Video rental stores in Maine aren't completely extinct yet. We managed to find a list of video stores still doing business in Maine. How did we find these stores? We Googled them of course!
We searched for "video rental stores in Maine" and filtered our results. We ignored a bazillion Redbox locations, adult video rental stores (There are a lot of of those), and places like convenience stores who don't specialize in video rentals. After all that work, we found 6 locations in Maine where you can walk in, browse the shelves and grab a video to rent for the night.
1. Jet Video - 199 Pleasant Ave, Portland
Since Videoport closed in Portland, Jet Video has been the go to video store in town.
Eric Sawyer gives it 5 stars on Facebook:
In a world of instant access to nearly every electronic medium, we forget how nice it can be to physically browse movies until something jumps at you. These guys deliver the experience perfectly. Solid recommendations, friendly staff, and a great selection spanning many genres."
2. River Bottom Video - 221 Water St, Bath
Eric Sawyer gives River Bottom video 5 stars on Facebook:
I'm the type of person who can only watch a movie once, buying them is a waste for me. With River Bottom, I get to watch not only the movie, but also the "extras", something you don't get with Redbox or Netflix. After only a few visits, both Tim and Norm were able to suggest movies that I had never heard of, but I really enjoyed. Thanks for offering such a unique space!!
3. Star Struck Video & Cafe- 155 Saco Ave, Old Orchard Beach
We probably wouldn't have included them on this list if they were named Star Struck Cafe & Video, but since video came first, here they are. It also is impressive that they opened in 1991 and have survived for 25 years.
4. Bart and Greg's DVD Explosion - 149 Maine St, Brunswick
An explosion of DVD's! What more do you need to know? William Loyd Tooher IV put it a different way in his Facebook review.
Great store. A near-infinite library of films, with good deals.
Explosion!!!
5. Opera House Video - 109a Church St, Belfast
Free popcorn on Friday!
6. MG's Video - 105 Bridge St, West Farmington
Siiri Casey's review of MG's could pretty much go for all the stores in the list.
Long live independent stores! This place was one of the best things about living in Farmington.
Did we miss any video stores you know of still in business in Maine? Remember they have to be primarily video stores, no adult video stores, and not just a shelf in a convenience store. Let us know any others in the comments below or on Facebook.