After 17 years in business, Burlington’s last dedicated video-rental store will close its doors at the end of the business day on Tuesday, April 30.

Store buyer and curator Seth Jarvis explains that “We are closing due to a confluence of circumstances — most notably the passing of Waterfront Video’s owner and patron saint, Murray Self — as well as significant changes within the industry.”

To newcomers to the Queen City, it may come as a surprise that Burlington has a video store, much less a video store that carries as many art-house flicks and documentaries as blockbusters.

Somehow this local business outlasted the Blockbuster chain, even as research firm IBIS World declared video rentals a “dying industry” (along with newspaper publishing, for the record) and even Netflix tried to exit the physical DVD rental business.

Old-timers know how the store held on to its loyal customers.

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Margot Harrison is a consulting editor and film critic at Seven Days. Her film reviews appear every week in the paper and online. In 2024, she won the Jim Ridley Award for arts criticism from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia. Her book reviews...

8 replies on “Waterfront Video to Close”

  1. Wow. I’m honestly speechless. Some of my fondest memories working in retail were from my days spent at this one-of-a-kind video store. And to think I was just beginning to enjoy it as a customer again. This is one brick-n-mortar that will never be replaced.

  2. So sorry to hear it. My thanks to the people who kept this #BTV institution going. I’ll miss Waterfront Video very much.

  3. OMG! What is this world coming to? Waterfront Video was so much more than a store, as Harrison points out, it was an education in film, our culture, our past and our present… a big thank you to Seth and all the staff there at Waterfront!

  4. Currently, in Tucson, Arizona we have a video rental store that is similar to the one mentioned in this article. It provides a plethora of movies ranging from black and white, anime to new releases. On your way into the store you can grab a bag of fresh popcorn, free of charge for those browsing. The store is actually two stories and filled, wall to wall. Netflix and other online industries of this nature pale in comparison when it comes to selection. I recently ended my Netflix account and joined my local movie rental store- Casa Video for the following reasons. I want to support local buisness that hires local people, I want my selection of movies to be broad and not dependent on what online renter decided to put out that week. I made a decision to support my local movie rental store in hopes that it won’t close its doors. I am wondering how many people walked by this store with the thoughts of nostalgia and happiness but never went in to support it. That chance is now gone. I hope Casa Video in Tucson, Arizona stays open. I wont’t just walk by, I go in, in hopes that it keeps serving me fresh popcorn and a multitude of choices of movies.

  6. I can’t believe it. Someone was just bragging to me that, while I don’t have a video store here in the area in which I now live, they were going to Waterfront to rent something…and I was jealous! This is truly sad news. Thank you everyone at Waterfront Video. I may not live there anymore, but you will be missed. Irreplaceable.

  8. I really appreciate Waterfronts’ excellent selection and wide variety of titles and subjects…. So sorry to see it go.

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