From: Darren D. MacDonald (100% not the Sudbury.com journalist)
NORTH BAY – With 8 years in the business, North Bay video store owner Rob Stewart says he always looks forward to new opportunities.
“What I’m doing here — I just think this is the next logical step,” says Stewart, the owner of How Convenient… Is This Video Rental Store?
“When I heard Blockbuster was closing, I saw an opportunity. There was a hole in the video rental market, and I planned to fill that hole. With DVDs.”
Despite his “airtight” plan to take up the slack left by Blockbuster, Stewart explains that there were hardships.
“The first and biggest issue was that most people stopped renting actual DVDs. I guess that’s why Blockbuster went down, which never occurred to me.”
A Pass to Adventure
Instead of choosing to close, Stewart decided to adapt with the times. In early 2018, How Convenient… Is This Video Rental Store? started renting out Stewart’s Netflix password.
“Looking online, and talking to my customers, the big thing people want is Netflix content. Your ‘Orange Is the Blacks.’ Your ‘Stranger Things.’ Your ‘Ridiculous 6s.’ And what better way to give them that then by renting out my password?”
Stewart hopes his venture into the world of streaming will pay off. Only time will tell if this local entrepreneur finally catches the break he thinks he deserves.
“It’s been pretty good so far. I’m a little disturbed by how many people are watching ‘Sharknado’ though. We’re talking, like, 200 viewings in a month. You can’t tell me that’s OK.”