As the owner of Vancouver鈥檚 two remaining video stores, Darren Gay knows what it鈥檚 like to be one of last people standing after forces beyond his control have laid waste to the population.
In its 24 years of existence, Black Dog Video鈥檚 flagship location on Cambie Street has survived a fire, the construction of the Canada Line and what Gay calls 鈥渢he tyranny of Netflix and all the streaming stuff.鈥�
Now he has to contend with another, potentially devastating, adversary 鈥� the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak and the tyranny of self-isolation.
On paper, it might not seem like such a bad prospect 鈥� thousands of people facing days, if not weeks, of downtime, bored out of their skulls and in need of home entertainment. But so far, the lumpen masses have been more concerned with hording toilet paper and Lysol disinfectant wipes than stockpiling DVDs and Criterion Collection Blu-ray discs. 听
鈥淭en years ago, we would have probably had a big lineup of people coming in and stocking up,鈥� says Gay, while a live version of 鈥淗ey Jude鈥� by the Grateful Dead wafts through the near empty store. 鈥淏ut because of all the streaming services, a lot of people are content to stay home and watch whatever, they don鈥檛 care, just as long as they don鈥檛 have to leave the house.鈥�
While business has been 鈥淥K鈥� at his Commercial Drive store, the Cambie Street location is a different story. 鈥淔or whatever reason at the Cambie store you can see sage brushes blowing through here on certain days,鈥� he says as he rings up a customer鈥檚 rental of 鈥檚 1993 Italian horror flick
On top of that, the Cambie Street location was just hit with a substantial property tax increase.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how this is going to work out because it鈥檚 still in the early stages,鈥� Gay says. 鈥淚 like to think we鈥檙e pretty resilient. But even on days without a pandemic, it鈥檚 hard.鈥�
Despite the anxiety and dread that owning a video store and the coronavirus outbreak have in common, Gay isn鈥檛 without a sense of humour, albeit a dark one.
In addition to Black Dog鈥檚 鈥減andemic special鈥� -- three new releases for the price of two, five regular movies for $10 and 鈥渓ots stuff you still can鈥檛 get on Netflix or Amazon鈥� 鈥� Gay has set up a pandemic movie section in his Commercial Drive store. Films include Contagion, Outbreak, 28 Days Later, Ebola Syndrome, Andromeda Strain, Omega Man, Blindness, World War Z and The Seventh Seal.
Still not sold? Well, Gay has one more, hard-to-resist enticement for anyone worried about coming in close contact with an infected population.
鈥淚f people are worried about being in a space with a lot of people, you鈥檙e welcome here,鈥� he says.
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