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Steve’s Videos celebrates a decade of service

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Options to watch a movie at home have changed dramatically in the past decade with the influx of online and vending machine movie providers. Video rental stores are disappearing — except for a small Polson business now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

“It definitely is a milestone,” Steve’s Videos owner Steve Shumate said. He credits his continued success to local, loyal support.

On Halloween night, exactly 10 years after Steve’s Videos opened, longtime customer James Merrill stopped to purchase a handful of DVDs.

Although he has since moved away from the Polson area, Merrill said he’s still drawn to the little yellow building next door to McDonalds.

Shumate appreciates that, especially with so many other options for viewers today.

“There are a lot more choices,” Shumate said. “Everybody is jumping on them, and I don’t blame them,” although he questions the idea of ordering a video through the mail.

“I think it’s a little bit odd … you order next week’s movies (anticipating) your mood for next week, or you’re ordering for your mood today, then maybe next week you’re not in the mood for a comedy,” he said.

Yet the biggest change Shumate’s seen is the ability of digitally downloading movies directly onto iPhones, Kindles, laptops and tablets. Getting movies from a vending machine such as Red Box is a “further move away from service,” Shumate said. “They cut out the cost of overhead and employees, which makes economic sense.”

Yet Shumate competes by offering two things you can’t get from Red Box or Netflix: service, and the sheer number of movie options.

“I just keep a really big selection in here. Netflix doesn’t have as big a selection of older titles that they used to,” he said. 

Shumate carries more than 6,000 older movies in his store, and with newer releases, his inventory hovers around 8,000 copies available onsite. Red Box carries about 100 choices per automated kiosk.

“There are literally 200,000 movies out there,” he said. “I thought I could have them all, but that’s not realistic — I’d need a warehouse for sure.”

When Shumate opened his store in 2003 he started with his home collection of about 800 VHS tapes and 300 DVDs, then added 600 additional titles.

While the VHS videotape has become as extinct as the archaic 8-track, he still has a few on the shelves; mostly, he’s sold VHS tapes after the titles were replaced by DVDs.

Watching movies used to be required homework for Shumate —until the addition of “employee number-one, dad’s helper.” Five-year-old Brandon grew up in the store, and now helps dad ring up customers.

“There are plenty of people that come in just to say hi to him,” Shumate said.

Shumate also competes by providing knowledgeable service for his customers.

“If someone is looking for specific title, I can tell them off the top of my head if I have it, or look it up on the computer.”

As customers return, Shumate becomes familiar with their individual tastes.

“They pass by a movie, and I say, ‘hey, you’d really like this.’ Or on the other end, I see them pick up a movie they are going to hate. Red Box is never going to tell you, ‘don’t rent that movie, you’ll waste your time and money.’”

Often customers call ahead and ask Shumate to pick out five movies he knows they will enjoy.

“Basically, they trust me. That personal touch that comes with customer service,” he said. “You still have the option of getting some service with a smile while renting from someone who knows your name. Hopefully that will keep me going for a few years, and I’ll keep getting a paycheck out of here for myself.”

Steve’s Videos is open noon to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and is closed on Mondays.

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