News that Blockbuster has filed for Chapter 11 recently came as a wake-up call for anyone who ever doubted that national movie rental chains are dead, slayed by Netflix, redbox, DVR, and all the other various forms of mail-order, DVD and online movie rental and streaming services.

Hollywood Videos around Seattle, Boston, and elsewhere have shut their doors.  New York City is full of pop-up shops selling DVDs from closed rental stores all over town.  As the Blockbuster at Baltimore’s Green Spring Tower Shopping Center went out of business this summer, they slashed prices weekly, finally selling DVDs for $5 a pop (I snagged Season 3 of Mad Men for $15).

“We’re sad they’re leaving,” said Video Americain assistant manager Rahne Alexander.

“We had a good relationship with a lot of the Blockbuster stores in town,” she said, adding that services like Netflix and redbox were the “final nails in the coffin for a place like Blockbuster.”

Video Americain’s indie survival strategy

Some of the folks at Video Americain says they’re not immune to the effects of competition from Netflix, DVRs, on-demand et al, but as long as they fulfill a different need, they’ll survive.

“We’re definitely not making the kind of money we were making in the early 90s, but that’s fine. We’re doing fine,” said Alexander, who has worked there a little over five years.

The 21-year-old movie rental store (with three locations: Roland Park, Charles Village and Takoma Park) is clinging to the formula that has kept smaller regional video rental stores alive across the country.

They’ve got a loyal customer base, knowledgeable staff and alternative inventory – the kinds of things, Alexander said, that Blockbuster “let slide” in favor of  on “instant gratification” and new and mainstream releases.

“We definitely see this as a place where, as staff, we can talk a little bit more about the films that are working – or not working – for us,” she said.“We have a really knowledgeable staff that are obsessed with aspects of cinema” that don’t usually get noticed, like cult movies, foreign films, and lesser known directors.

Case in point: One of Alexander’s customers came in recently, and said, slightly embarrassed, “I’m looking for a movie that’s going to make me cry.” Alexander replied, “Okay, I can definitely help.”

She asked the customer a series of questions (such as “What makes you cry?”) and “sent her home with a copy of Wendy and Lucy,” a movie Alexander describes as an “amazing film about young unemployed woman on the road with her dog and she loses her dog.”

It’s a film “not a lot of people would know about,” she said. “Netflix can’t do that,” she added.

And while Americain and video stores in general might be old-fashioned in comparison to subscription-based movie streaming, they can still be the most practical and immediate option for renting a video.

When Baltimore was hit with severe snow storms this winter, for example, Americain stayed open.

While Netflix discs were delayed at the post office, “We were still able to be here,” said Alexander.  “Even though maybe overall profits are getting a little less and a little less every year,” she admitted, “we’re still able to hang in there and be there for people when the snowstorms hit.”

She pointed out that some customers also don’t have the “infrastructure” for newer modes of renting, such as a credit card or even a mailing address.

All this is not to say the-little-film-store-that-could isn’t challenging itself to stay current. They use Facebook and more recently, Twitter, and this week they launched a blog to use as a platform for aggregated and original content revolving around the business and industry.

“We’ve set it up so that each of the employees can contribute as they desire,” said Alexandra. “Since we are a community store, we really look forward to bringing in other people from the community to offer their opinion.”

Hence their use of Tumblr, rather than a service such as bloodspot, because it’s “more collaborative.”

Recently they learned that one of their directors, Arthur Penn, died. (Like many independent video stores, Video Americain’s movies are organized by director).  So they plan now to use the new blog to “celebrate him.”

The man behind Americain

59-year-old owner Barry Solan’s assessment of Video Americain’s future is slightly less rosy then Alexander’s.  Although his three Baltimore-area stores are currently surviving, he knows they won’t forever.

“Me and Blockbuster are branches on the same tree and the tree has Elm disease,” said Solan, a bold, nutty personality who got his start operating the State Theater- a vaudeville repertory house – in Newark Delaware from 1979-1986.

“We’re different than Blockbuster,” he said, “but we’re also the same.”

How so?  Solan says that while the national chain had piles of debt when it went under last week (unlike Americain), they still share the same “old delivery system,” a system at odds with redbox and Netflix, which “are pretty much in place” to take over from the local video store.

That’s not to say he isn’t quick to stand up for what Americain brings to the table.  “We’re different insofar as taking a great pride in having one of the best 15 or 20 inventories in the country,” he said. “We came from a love of film and it has served us well.”

This appreciation for the product has manifested itself through various features of Video Americain that are what have kept it alive this long, such as a “high-energy” staff and a relative lack of concern for money.  “We have done increasingly less business through the years and I’ve learned to live with it,” said Solan.   “We adhere to our principles and never made a lot of money anyway [even before newer systems].”

So what does Video Americain’s future look like? “I’d like to keep it open because I’m a sentimental guy,” said Solan, but admits doesn’t believe he’ll be able to for much longer.  Solan’s original 1988 store in Newark, Delaware, where he lives with his wife Anne, shut down in July.  “Our intention is to stay open in Baltimore for at least two more years,” at which point he will sell the stores and inventory, which he says is “library status” and extremely valuable.

“The trick is finding the fine line between keeping the stores open and keeping the value [of the inventory],” so he can sell it for as much as he can (Solan’s parents owned a grocery store while he was growing up and waited too long to sell it, which devastated his mother).

Video Killed the Radio Star

So, is Alexander right and Baltimore’s venerable indie film hub is safe? Or is Solan’s two-year prediction accurate?

The trends don’t look good. CDs replaced cassettes and mp3s have replaced CDs. iTunes and Rhapsody have replaced Tower and even Virgin Records (in many ways killing the music industry in the process).

People have stopped watching live TV in favor of commercial-free recordings of “Glee “on their DVRs. And yes, Netflix and redbox will probably, eventually, completely replace national and regional video stores.

On the other hand, other cities’ version of Video Americain are still afloat, like Scarecrow in Seattle and Kim’s in NYC (though they now only sell instead of rent, to the anguish of NYU film students throughout the five boroughs).

Yes, I know “Video Killed the Radio Star” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” All our forms of our technology will keep speeding towards immediacy.

But I’m going to go ahead and make the prediction that in the same way an iPad will never replace the physicality of a book’s weight or smell, an algorithm-based online rental service will never replace the advice of a charmingly elitist film snob-cum-video clerk who loves movies and knows your taste.