That’s Rentertainment opened on June 1st, 1985 in a 600 square foot space in the back of Johnstowne Centre. At the time we were a record rental place with a handful (maybe 200) of VHS and Beta tapes. Our goal was to stock only the very coolest movies — international, cult, independent — pretty much, stuff I like. CDs arrived soon there after and we started buying those, too.
After about two years we moved across the sidewalk (to a space that isn’t there anymore — it’s apartments now) and almost immediately got a “cease and desist” letter from the RIAA (apparently renting records and CDs was illegal for stores but somehow not for libraries). The next day we had a massive sale, sold all of our records and CDs, and bought more videos.
Then we moved across the sidewalk again (to where Benetton used to be, and then a variety of misc places including Harold’s Chicken and Fat Sandwich). We kept buying video tapes at an alarming rate and building and re-building all of our shelving and counters. Someone even shot a scene for a film (“The Garbage Man”) in our store but it never got released. If you ever get to see it, that’s the always charming Alice Gorman (then Renter’s manager) in the background.
At some point we opened our first second store. It was on Oregon Street (in Urbana) right next to Espresso Royale — we shared the space with Delight’s (and, if memory serves, Espresso shared their space with Kinko’s). We stayed there about two years before Bruce decided he needed more space (and changed the name from Delight’s into Za’s) and we decided we didn’t need any at all. He kept the space for another ten years or so and we moved out immediately.
We finally moved to our final resting spot at the corner of 6th and John Street (former home to Schrumf’s Grocery). We opened here in July, 1994. DVDs soon arrived and I believe Rentertainment was one of the first Video Stores in the country to rent them. They were rolled out in three markets nationwide — Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. I drove to Chicago early that morning and went to every Best Buy I could find and bought a copy of every DVD there was (20 in all I think). Then I raced back to Champaign, checked them in and put them out for rent. Needless to say, no one rented them because no one had a DVD player. That’s all changed and now we’ve got a gazillion DVDs and it’s the bulk of what we stock (mainly because we ditched VHS in the summer of 2005). Oh, somewhere in there we bought a ton of laser discs, rented them for a few years and then sold them. We also had games for a while but I lost interest and got rid of them. And, sometime around 2006 the great “High Definition War” started between BluRay and HD-DVD. For a while, we stocked both formats but when HD finally surrendered, we started buying BluRay heavily. Now we have a ton of BluRay titles to go with our gazillion DVDs.
In September of 1998 we opened our second second store in Urbana. This time it was on Lincoln Avenue (where McBride’s Drug Store and more recently The Corner Store use to be) and shared a space with Caffe Paradiso. After a year we moved next door to where Garcia’s used to be. When the lease ran out we decided to go back to having just one store.
On June 1st, 2015, I sent out this email…
Thirty years ago, when I started this business, I would have bet money Rentertainment wouldn’t still be here today. Fast forward three decades, and Rentertainment and I are celebrating our 30th Anniversary! It’s been a great run – fabulous employees, amazing customers, tons of fun – thank you all.
But now, as someone once said, “I’m ready to roll the end credits – ready for the curtain call” – it’s time to do something else. As we firm up our plans to sell off Urbana-Champaign’s very best collection of films, let me share with you some details of our transition:
– We’ll keep getting new releases through the end of June.
– We will continue renting films through the end of July.
– We will start selling off our inventory on Monday, June 15th.
– Rather than price each film individually, we’ll set a price (which will lower regularly) and sell everything at that price. A few box sets will be pulled and priced individually.
– If you have a block, use what you can/want between now and the end of July. Starting August 1st, we’ll buy back any remaining block rentals.
More details to follow. Meanwhile, thanks again for a great three decades of That’s Rentertainment!