Video stores are a relic, a thing of the past. There’s even a documentary called “Videoheaven,” about how seeing a video store in a movie instantly pins it as a period piece of the ‘80s or ‘90s.
Except in Madison, where, despite our changing times and technology, Four Star Video has beaten the odds for 40 years. Now located on West Gilman Street, the store has a loyal following of members who treat Four Star’s 20,000+ physical media titles as part of their own collection.
In honor of its 40th anniversary, Four Star is hosting a party Nov. 7 at The Rigby featuring current and former customers and employees, including store founder David Smith. On Nov. 8, the store will host an open house party with a scavenger hunt, special deals and more.
In celebration of the milestone anniversary, co-owner Lewis Peterson talked about the store’s past, present, and future. Some responses have been edited for length and clarity.
What does it mean to you that Four Star Video is still here after 40 years?
I’m just so caught up in the day to day, week to week. So it’s nice to take a step back and be like, “Okay, this place has been around for a long time.” It’s lasted longer than many businesses. There are longer-running businesses on State Street, but stuff just turns over so much.
What do you attribute to it still going strong?
It’s partially just my own stubbornness, and selecting people that have the same kind of — maybe not stubbornness, but the same inclination. It’s interesting, we’re getting to the point where someone who is 18 years old and a college student coming here for the first time, they may not have a strong memory of going to a video store.
I’m constantly surprised at how interested young people seem to be in physical media. Obviously it’s not all of them, but that’s something that’s changed.
Four Star Video has had several locations over the years, but is now located at West Gilman Street. (Rob Thomas / Madison Minutes)
It seems like there’s a rise of interest in 4K discs and boutique labels putting out special editions of movies.
It feels like people that are interested in 4K do want to own it, so we don’t get a ton of it. We get more and more stuff on blu-ray, which for me is fine. And we have been trying to move more into sales.
But we have put a bunch of shelving in our storage room so people can now browse our VHS tapes. And since we’ve had the tapes on our shelf, we’ve sold like way, way more of them. It has like this cool cachet. Even that is having a resurgence.
So what do you have planned for the anniversary?
On [Nov.] 7 at the Rigby, we’ve reserved the upstairs, and we’ll have food and a cash bar. We’ve invited a lot of former employees, including the founder, David Smith, and we want customers to come. We want to hear people’s stories of Four Star. We’ll have a microphone there.
And the next day, [Nov.] 8, we’re going to have in-store events, like a scavenger hunt. We’ll give out some prizes, like memorabilia, or T-shirts, or just other kinds of miscellaneous stuff we’ve accumulated over the years. We have an 8mm film projector that someone gave us. I don’t really know how to use it, but I also don’t want to throw it away.
Where do you think you’ll be in 40 years?
I hope we’re still around. I mean, I hope the world’s still around in 40 years. For Four Star, there’s been so many times when it seemed like this could be it. And yet we’re still here.
