Boise’s Last Movie Rental Shop Closing Doors

Going to rent movies after school was one of the things I used to look forward the most on Friday afternoons. 

By the time I graduated college and moved to the Treasure Valley, the shop that I spent so much time in looking for the perfect movie for girl's night or Nintendo 64 video game to conquer in a matter of days was boarded up. Boise's movie rental businesses lasted a little bit longer.  Our last Blockbuster went out of business a few weeks after I moved here in 2010.  I still have the 24 DVDs I sent my mom to find during their liquidation sale.

Chains like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video because they couldn't keep up with rental services like RedBox and Amazon Prime Video and on-demand services like Netflix and Hulu. Yet somehow, Boise's own locally owned and operated Video Memories shop managed to stand the test of time...until 2019.

According to KTVB, the rental shop plans to close their doors for good on their 36th anniversary, June 12. Despite evolving from VHS to DVD to Blu-ray rentals, the charm of this Boise Gem couldn't outlast the popularity of digital downloads options. Business has dropped dramatically in just one year.

If there's a hard to find movie that you're looking for, now's the time to browse Video Memories inventory. Over 25,000 titles are for sale.  The owners plan on keeping at least one DVD or Blu-ray copy of each title in the event that a guardian angel is prepared to step in and save the store.

If that doesn't happen and you still crave the 90s nostalgia of searching through rows and rows of movies, the last Blockbuster store in the entire world isn't all that far of a drive from here.  It's in Bend, Oregon and became the last in the world when Australia's last Blockbuster closed at the end of March.