Say Farewell to The Movie Groove

You can stream movies on demand. Netflix will send them to your door. You can even download them from questionable websites.

But all these choices have placed independent movie rental stores in jeopardy; The Movie Groove on El Camino will have to shut its doors near the end of August, according to owner Scott Sapienza.

Sapienza said that the slowing movie rental business is an industry-wide epidemic. There are very few stores still left around the Peninsula, with a few in San Mateo, Mountain View and San Francisco. The quick convenience of watching movies without leaving the comfort of your home is threatening these stores' very existence.

“This is like my kid,” Sapienza said of The Movie Groove. “Movies have been my life. It’s going to be really weird not to be around movies.”

The other three store employees will lose their jobs and won’t be able to work next door at The Coffee Grind, according to employee Amanda Ramirez who has worked at The Movie Groove for five years. She said there’s no room for new employees.

“I knew this was inevitable,” Ramirez. “Mom-and-pop stores are a dying breed. They’re an American novelty and we’re losing what we stand for.”

The Movie Groove opened back in 1985, then known as Anderson’s Video, one of the first video rental stores on the Peninsula, according to Sapienza. The very first day VHS tapes were available for rent, Anderson’s Video had them on its shelves. It became The Movie Groove in 1998 and occupied both the current space and The Coffee Grind space.

“As VHS tapes died down, I thought, ‘what am I going to do with this’?” Sapienza said.

He said he had always seen customers walking into the rental store with coffee and decided to learn more about the more lucrative commodity.

One half of the store became The Coffee Grind as it stands today, with its signature drinks and friendly employees. Sapienza said the building owner agreed to rent out The Movie Groove side without evicting The Coffee Grind too.   

“I dug up every bit of money I had, but I just couldn’t keep it going,” he said.

Ramirez said, “People have gone with the flow of letting technology take over the world.” She added that she was concerned that people today are losing face-to-face communication skills.

But Sapienza highlighted one thing technology can’t replace: the extensive selection of independent and foreign films that stores like The Movie Groove are known for.

“It’s the stuff you can’t find online,” Sapienza said. “But now it’s too late and customers won’t be able to find them online.”

Ramirez added, “Even though we are such a specialty store, it doesn’t even matter. A lot of people prefer the whole convenience thing.”

Sapienza said he hoped the on-demand selection would begin to expand to fill the void of independent and foreign films in people’s movie libraries.

And for Redwood City residents, more than a movie rental store will be lost. A familiar neighborhood stop will also be forced to close its doors.