I can't say I'm really surprised but just saw a sign posted on the TLA video at the Museum Towers on Spring Garden, but they are shutting their doors on Aug 15th. I have to admit I haven't set foot inside that store to rent a movie since my college days some 5 years ago so in some ways I am surprised they've lasted this long. But on the otherhand I am disappointed to see Hollywood Video somehow outlast the TLA here in the Art Museum area. <SHRUG> Anyone with ideas on what might/should go into that space?

TLA provided great variety and that always gave them a competitive edge against Hollywood and others. Netflix came along and trumped the variety edge while being cheaper and more flexible.

Hollywood hangs in there with the old school masses that have not exposed themselves to Netflix and are looking primarily at recent top rentals.

Sorry to see TLA struggle. They always were out in front of the industry. Always had nice and knowledgable folks there as well.

That is a shame. We still use them from time to time. We don't do Netflix, but we keep up with new stuff mostly through On Demand.

I know this has been said many times before but the system that TLA uses is terrible. Having to look around the store for a movie you want to see, then walk up to the counter...wait in line...ask for the movie...wait for them to see if it is in...find out its not in...ask for another movie....and on and on. Would it have been that big a deal to have the tags representing the in stock copies of the movies on the older movies as they did on the new releases???

About 1 year ago I had enough. I was shot down for 3 separate movies (Asking for one...not in...then another...) and had officially had enough. I walked home and signed up for Netflix and have never looked back.

Good! I paid more late fees there in 3 months, than I have on a one year Netflix membership. That place sucked, and I'm glad too see it go..

TLA was the only place to rent Kurosawa, Truffaut, Bresson, Cocteau, Ray, Fellini, Bergman, Dreyer, Lang, and so many others...it's a real loss.

Well, for me it is a loss too.

The reason I was told they are closing is because Museum Towers is raising
the rent. The ice cream, on the corner of 18th and Spring Garden Sts. is closing
too. Same reason.

For what it's worth, if you had had an automatically renewable monthly subscription
you wouldn't have had any late fees.

That's the real problem for these video rental places. When folks rent a movie, they just want temporary access to a long string of ones and zeros. There's no reason to leave home to fetch a disk containing the data when it is easily streamed directly to your computer or cable box. The only impediment to every movie ever made being available "on demand" is that the lawyers and business people are still working through the compensation arrangements. Given TLA's eclectic selection, I thought they'd outlast Hollywood Video and I'm sad to see TLA go, but brick-and-mortar video rental has become an outdated business model and TLA was doomed to disappear sooner or later.

It's just the one store, for now, that's disappearing.