"NOOOOOOOOOOO"
If you read the above letter, I imagine there's only a few things that you're thinking: 1. You remember and perhaps patronize Top Hat Video currently, or have in the past, and you're sad it's closing. 2. You've never heard of Top Hat Video and you're sad it's closing. 3. You had no idea ANY video stores still existed.
Top Hat Video is in Davis County, Utah, and has been there for four decades. I lived a few towns north of the store and only visited when I hung out with my Bountiful friends and we wanted to rent a video (or three...) for the night. No, I was not a frequent visitor and punch past customer like Cackling Carlisle, but many of my friends and family who lived closer remembered the store as more than just a place to rent a movie (or three...).
It was a gathering place, a location where almost endless possibilities for entertainment could be found just beyond the front door, unless, of course, others got to the movie you wanted to see first. The nearly unlimited potential was so much fun, just remembering the options found in video stores brings back wonderful memories.
It is a monument to human perseverance that the store lasted this long. I can't imagine the costs involved--keeping an updated inventory when everyone can simply download or stream more films than the store could possibly own. The cost of labor and rent, or building maintenance if they own the store...overcoming all these things must have been a herculean effort just to keep their doors open. I wonder even if they had enough customers (which they have had for all these years...), how long they would remain.
Since we no longer live only minutes away from the video store, we'll most likely never visit the store before it closes. Then again, I lived next to the store for decades and never went in after my high school and college days.
Top Hat Video will disappear into the memories of those who attended, yet another institution geezers will talk about when they reunite and shoot the bull. It is literally the end of an era. It's sad, and I mourn with Mr. Carlisle and others. Thanks, Top Hat for fighting the good fight for so long.
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