NEW ORLEANS — Down a walkway, underneath a mid-city New Orleans home on Banks Street, is a place that’ll rewind you to the 90’s.
“It is a garage,” said Eden Chubb, who is the owner, founder, and sole employee of Future Shock Video.
“Video store ‘proprietarios.’ I think that’s a great title,” said Chubb.
Inside is a collection of about 2,000 VHS tapes, DVDs, and Blu-rays available to rent for a movie night at home that doesn’t involve a streaming service or the internet.
“Plenty of crowd pleasers, classics, stuff like that,” said Chubb. “I don’t think physical media is actually as dead as people imagine that it is.”
It was an idea that started a year ago.
“You definitely have to have a passion for it. No one is getting rich,” said Chubb.
After about six months of collecting movies, Chubb opened her store two months ago.
“I had heard about other video stores that were still around in the rest of the country and they just weren’t here,” said Chubb.
Just more than a hundred people have already signed up for the free membership. Rentals range from $1 to $3 per movie.
“It’s a weeklong rental period,” said Chubb.
You can even rent a VCR if you don’t have one at home, but Chubb says that really hasn’t been an issue.
“Surprisingly, huge numbers of people still have VCRs and will rent tapes. It’s about a third of our rentals,” said Chubb.
As an illustrator professionally who doesn’t like to get too caught up in the digital space, Chubb is an advocate for physical media. That’s helped her open the door to this blast from the past.
“I like people just like standing in the aisles haven’t conversations about movies or just fun debates or rants about movies or bring their kids in who’ve never been to a video store before,” said Chubb.
From horror flicks to cartoons for kids, Chubb has it covered, right down to the snacks.
“I think it’s actually fun to just watch a tape where there are no ads for anything else other than other movies from that same year, which are always fun to watch,” said Chubb.
“Future Shock Video” is located at 3206 Banks Street. It’s only open on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 8 pm. The store is currently looking for a new location.
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