“I would love for there to be a wedding where the couple met at our shop,” says Jefferson Miller, one half of the movie-loving duo opening up a brand new video rental store in Sacramento next month, when asked what dreams he hopes to see materialize over the first years of Very Good Video’s existence. “Something where we’ll know that if we’d never opened, these connections never would’ve happened.”

As much as movie-watching these days might more commonly be a solo experience, at home on a laptop or a bedroom TV, Miller and co-owner Chris Emery’s vision of opening a video rental store in the year 2026 hinges on the notion that there was value in media consumption being a communal experience — and that, in fact, there still is.

Very Good Video’s champions believe that taking a trip to the video store, bumping into someone you know, and asking the employees for movie recommendations are all important pieces of the film-watching experience. Like many adults, Emery remembers going to the video rental store every week for a Friday night pizza-and-movie watching tradition, a routine that is now nearly non-existent in the minds of today’s kids, who associate renting a movie with pressing a few buttons on Amazon Prime.

“I actually got rid of all my physical media several years back,” Miller admits. “I got wooed by streaming. Then I realized how much I hated it, so now I’m buying it back piece-by-piece.”

Building a collection nowadays can be an arduous process. The last remaining video rental store in Sacramento closed eight years ago, and for nearly a decade, Bizarro World in Davis has been the closest residents of the 916 can come to the Blockbuster heyday of the ‘80s and ‘90s. But My Cat’s VHS, a video rental store open by appointment only, popped up in Midtown this June, and now Miller and Emery are hoping to join them in bringing video stores back from their untimely demise — and the community seems to be behind them.

After announcing the project earlier this year, their Kickstarter campaign quickly reached the $30,000 goal, and community members eagerly donated inventory and shopped at local pop-up events hosted by the duo. In July, they found a location in Oak Park, along Broadway, in a building space that Emery pointed out is rather serendipitously shaped like a “V” — as in “video.” Now, they’re hard at work constructing, decorating and gathering stock to sell when they hold their grand opening Oct. 24.

“It’s something that died a few years ago, but we want to be the phoenix rising from the ashes,” Emery says.

They’re hoping to bring the video store experience to a new generation and to see families walking the aisles together on a Friday night.

“It will be more effort; it won’t be your easiest option,” Emery acknowledges. “But as with a lot of things, the more effort, the more it’s worth. If you pick a movie on Hulu at random, you’re so likely to get distracted 10 minutes in and pick up your phone. But if you get in your car and drive to a store, walk the aisles, talk to people and get a recommendation, you won’t want to waste that effort.”

“It’s something that died a few years ago, but we want to be the phoenix rising from the ashes.”Chris Emery, co-owner, Very Good Video

Despite enthusiasm for the idea from online supporters, opening the business will be a financial risk — both co-owners expressed gratitude to their wives for supporting the idea, especially after they both quit their jobs last month to prepare for the opening full-time.

But in addition to truly believing there is an audience for video rentals, they’ve also developed a modern business plan that will hopefully diversify their income and keep finances stable.

This includes retail sales of VHS tapes, new release DVDs and Blu-rays, merchandise, popcorn and movie posters drawn by local artists (and by the way, if you are a local artist who would be interested in participating, they’d love to hear from you @verygoodvideostore on Instagram), as well as in-store movie screenings, trivia nights, director Q+A’s, film-related TED Talk-style lectures, and even Saturday-morning group VHS follow-along exercise routines. They also plan to rent out their movie screening space for birthday parties or to play video games on a big screen, and will eventually offer digitizing services and cleaning of discs.

“We want it to be a third place — a clubhouse,” Emery says.

Very Good Video will certainly be going all-out for the holidays but also assure families that the spooky season vibe will be more “Hocus Pocus” than “It.” Keep up with the latest updates via their Instagram and prepare to relive the nostalgia — or introduce your child to the experience — of walking through the aisles of a video rental store, peering at each DVD to determine what your next Friday night film will be.

In the meantime, DVDs aren’t the only kind of physical media having a resurgence, and they certainly aren’t the only kind that has a home in Sacramento. So while you’re waiting for Very Good Video to officially open shop, here are some other local spots you can stop by to build a collection of your favorite art, purchase a tangible piece of the stories you love, and — who knows? Maybe meet the love of your life in totally cinema-ready fashion.

Crawford’s Books

Crawford’s Books shares a parking lot with Little Caesars and is sandwiched between Walgreens, Carl’s Jr. and a car wash — so stepping through their doors into a quiet, colorful shop with friendly staff, gentle piano music playing and shelves of well-loved, reasonably priced used books feels a little bit like stepping through a portal into a book-lover’s safe haven. Crawford’s has a small selection of new books as well, but their used selection is so good that it’s nearly impossible to leave this store without a half-price treasure (or two) clutched in your hands. And as owner Sue Richards put it, half the fun of wandering a used bookstore is “the joy of browsing,” never knowing what you might stumble across next.

Time Tested Books

Just across from Morning Fork, down the street from Kupros Craft House and right in the middle of the hubbub during Saturday morning’s Midtown Farmers Market, it’s almost too easy to make stopping by Time Tested Books into a regular part of your routine. The tall shelves stacked with books new and old temporarily block the city noise, trapping you in a labyrinth of eclectic finds just waiting to be discovered. And if you’re anti-clutter, this might especially be the spot for you: After you finish reading a book from Time Tested, so long as you keep the price tag attached, you can bring it back to trade in for 50 percent store credit towards your next buy.

East Village Bookshop

East Village Bookshop’s Midtown location was broken into recently, after which the shop’s Instagram immediately posted a round-up of self-help book recommendations for the burglar to improve their moral compass — and honestly, that should already tell you a lot about what’s to love about East Village. But beyond that, they’re also always working to foster community via book clubs and author talks at both of their locations, and consistently stock a great supply of stickers, cards, bookmarks, journals and other trinkets to pair with a bookish gift or your own next new read.

Bloodstone Books

Bloodstone Books fills a niche you might not have even known you needed filled, specializing in horror, science fiction and fantasy books and offering a wide selection of fantastical, creative, and dragon-dense stories that other shops often overlook or don’t keep as consistently stocked. The Riverside Boulevard location, which opened just last year, is also right across the street from Vic’s Ice Cream (in case you work up an appetite while you browse), regularly hosts The Point matcha pop-ups, which we featured earlier this year, and as an added bonus, regularly plans (sold-out!) Buffy the Vampire Slayer trivia nights.

Beers Books and Kicksville Vinyl + Vintage

The same is true for Kicksville. Plus, a listening station allows you to preview records you haven’t heard before, and the small bin of free CDs from local bands on their front counter is a great way to expand your taste.

Big Brother Comics

Delta Breeze

Twelves Wax

First things first — Twelves Wax Records is just down the street from where Very Good Video is currently building out their shop, so soon, it may just be the perfect one-two shopping duo. In the meantime, Twelves Wax is worth a visit on its own. The small shop is jam-packed with records, new and used, and always has something spinning in the back to soundtrack your physical media hunt. They’ve also been a hotspot lately for midnight album release parties, so keep an eye on their Instagram if you’re on the hunt for media-centric meet-ups or events.

Leave Your Mark

Leave Your Mark, a combo record, CD and cassette store and spray paint supplier on 18th Street, is the kind of hidden gem you almost don’t want to tell your friends about, for fear that the abundant supply of well-selected, well-priced used physical music will dwindle once shared with the masses. But the first rule of loving small businesses is sharing their greatness, so here we are. Give yourself ample time to sort through the shelves, and prepare yourself for some gasp-worthy pulls.

Newsbeat

To reach Newsbeat, you’ll have to venture a little beyond the grid, but it’s worth the 25-minute trek to downtown Davis. The 40-year-old institution is the best place in the area to pick up magazines of all kinds, and it’s run by a couple with a love for both physical media and their community. Some favorites — beyond Comstock’s magazine — include Oh Reader, Wildsam, Folklife and Flow, but the best way to know which of their extensive array will call to you is to visit yourself and peruse the aisles.

–

Never miss a story: Get Comstock’s weekly newsletter delivered to your inbox.