So I see you all are exhausted by streaming services effectively recreating cable. I see you’re all tired of ads. Pirating is a great alternative, but I have another fantastic option for you all!
I live in Seattle. And in Seattle we have America’s largest physical media store, Scarecrow Video. They are a non-profit that has pretty much any film or tv show you can imagine. Like, everything. So much so that one of our local cinemas does a program with them called “Unstreamable” where they show a film from Scarecrow’a archive that you can’t access anywhere online. It’s a bit overwhelming to go to their store, which is two levels of every program under the sun.
ANYWAY, I bring this up because they recently started a Rent-by-Mail program. It’s pretty similar to what Netflix used to do. You can rent up to six titles (barring their super rare stuff and pornos) and they will ship it to you, then you return it in the included pre-paid envelope.
Why does this rock? Sure, you still have to pay money, BUT you are supporting a non-profit that is dedicated to preserving media instead of some corporation looking for endless profit. They can also expand your palette with their vast selection. And if you have a favorite piece of media, you never have to worry about it disappearing! All their stuff is there in perpetuity.
So this is all to say, now that Scarecrow has expanded their reach beyond the Greater Seattle Area, I implore you to check them out. If you don’t want to rent right now, the could always use donations to keep them afloat.
You can check out their catalogue HERE!
I've been here!! But holy shit a rent by mail service. Like how Netflix started.
Here in Portland we have Movie Madness which isn't physically as massive but it is very similar and doubles as a prop museum, with heavy focus on sci fi and horror!
They have an entire Bigfoot section, because Seattle
They are a media rental store but they are also a non profit org ala Internet Archive. And are in dire financial trouble. They need to raise about $1.7 million to stay open. If they can't raise it by end of 2024, the store will close and all the media will go into storage. So spread the word about their fund raising needs
To illustrate, she compared the first five months of 2015 (the first full year Scarecrow operated as a nonprofit) with 2024. Rental and sales revenue are now 40% lower than they were nine years ago, while payroll and rent, the organization’s two largest expenses, are up 25%. Donations, particularly larger ones, are going down, Barr said, and haven’t been able to address that gap; Scarecrow’s books have been in the red for the past couple of years. Scarecrow lost about $115,000 on a budget of roughly $923,000 in 2022, and lost about $267,000 on a budget of about $1.07 million in 2023.
The money, if it can be raised, would guarantee enough stability to sign a new multiyear lease on the building at 5030 Roosevelt Way N.E. The current lease is now expiring; Barr said Scarecrow is currently negotiating a new short-term lease through the end of the year.
