Sunday, July 8, 2012

Remembering the Video Store on Cook and Pandora


When I first moved downtown I used to go to a chain video store on Cook and Pandora in downtown Victoria called 24 Video, so named because it was open 24 hours, if memory serves. I think it had a nice bright yellow design; it wasn’t huge but in all its incarnations had a good selection of VHS tapes for its size.  Eventually it became Video Update. I’m not sure if 24 Video was an earlier name for Video Update or if Video Update bought the location.  I think it was while it was Video Update that I began a tradition of renting horror movies on Christmas day that lasted a few years; by then if you bought multiples they were a buck each to rent.  Video Update was later bought out by Movie Gallery (though one web page suggests that at least one Video Update with the original logo might still be around).  Eventually UI started to lose track of them as my DVD collection grew, though I still bought DVDs from Movie Gallery from time to time.  Alas, this location was, I believe, the second Movie Gallery location in Greater Victoria to close when Movie Gallery/Hollywood Video started to close, an earlier casualty in the death of Canada’s video store franchises.

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