Blue Rose Video & More don open door for Chesterfield Towne Center, and na Wayne Marshall with him daughter Olivia dey lead the charge for the physical media store. The shop, wey dey sell and rent videos, plus collectibles and entertainment merchandise, open earlier this month.
Marshall, wey be longtime movie fan and former video store worker, tell BizSense say he see gap for local market for movie rentals and movies for sale wey hard to find for most brick-and-mortar stores. ‘The news about physical media essentially increasing in double digits, quarter over quarter, made me realize that maybe this is the time to try to do something like (what) I want to do,’ na wetin he talk.
Marshall, wey come from southwest Virginia, talk say him love for physical media like DVDs start from him childhood. Watching movies na outlet for am to see parts of the world outside him rural surroundings. ‘It really gave me an insight into what the rest of the world was, and I became fascinated with other cultures and other cities and just being able to explore the world through videos or movies,’ he yarn.
He work for several video stores over the years until him mid-20s, when he begin work for customer service and catering. The push to open him own shop come last year when dem lay am off from job for catering software support.
Marshall start find suitable location for May or June, and he open the store Sept. 5 for one roughly 700-square-foot space inside the mall at 11500 Midlothian Turnpike, next to Spencer’s. Na family venture: him wife and two daughters help am, and one of the daughters na the store manager.
The store dey offer mix of new and used DVDs, Blu-rays and 4K Ultra HD discs, with focus on new movies and some harder-to-find classics. Blue Rose Video also dey sell movie and TV collectibles, action figures, memorabilia and other pop culture merchandise.
Marshall talk say getting stock for the store mainly involve trawling Facebook groups where people dey sell DVDs and Blu-rays to build up the collection. He note say other physical media stores don open recently for town, pointing to rising trend in popularity of physical media, especially among younger generations, as response to streaming services dominance. He cite Monster Video at 207 N. Third St. and Rewind Vintage at 108 N. Seventh St. downtown, both wey open this year.
He talk say while those stores, from him perspective, dey cater more toward VHS tapes and vintage DVDs, him own focus na more modern DVDs, Blu-rays and ’boutique label, collectible stuff.’ Right now, he dey get new movies almost every day to build him stock. Blue Rose Video dey offer movies for rent and for sale.
Marshall cite one of him favorite items in stock: a Criterion Collection edition of the 1954 classic ‘Seven Samurai.’ He talk say films like that na wetin he dey try introduce to new audience. ‘I’m a collector myself, so I know if I wanted to go out and purchase, let’s say, the latest Criterion release, I have very limited options in the Richmond area,’ he talk. ‘That’s what I’m going to be specializing in, is getting those new releases, day of, and doing a pretty comprehensive preorder program … so that people can get the items they want.’
Him ultimate goal na to get space closer to VCU, either by moving or opening second location if he successful, to cater to college-age individuals and 20-somethings wey want experience the ‘video store world and weren’t able to do that because they were too young.’ He also hope say one day he go add component where he can do weekly events, like movie screenings or trivia, to build local community around film appreciation. ‘It’s that concept of having a ‘third space’ for people nowadays, that’s what I’m trying to kind of create for movie lovers,’ he talk.
As for the store name, Marshall talk say blue roses, wey no exist in nature and must be man-made, don come to be associated with dreams and imagination, much like films. He add say they be common motif for some of director David Lynch work, and Marshall na fan. ‘The two things together just made for, I felt like, a beautiful presence in the marketplace and brand. Kind of different from what other people were doing,’ he talk.
