Black Dog Video

The thrill of browsing through aisles of categorized movies in search of the perfect Friday night flick has now been replaced with scanning the “Top Picks” section on Netflix or downloading a film because the synopsis sounds appealing. The growth of the Internet age has killed off video stores around the city and has robbed us of the experience of getting recommendations from a real live person. Luckily, some stores have managed to keep this tradition alive. One in particular that really stands out is Black Dog Video.

Opened in 1996, this modest shop stood up against chain video stores like Blockbuster and Rogers Video, both of which have since closed, and still stands strong with over 33,000 members and 13,000 movies.

“Black Dog is sort of an institution, being one of the last stores in town,” explains manager Jessica Delisle. “I think there’s always going to be a niche market for video rentals. They’re similar to records in that sense. People thought record stores would become obsolete when CDs came around, but there are still successful record stores in town so that gives us hope.”