Le Video, the Inner Sunset video rental store known for its eccentric organizational system, its wide selection of hard-to-find titles, and its smarty-pants staff, has announced that they expect to stop renting movies to customers by the end of April.

In a Facebook post from early Wednesday morning, the video store announced that (sic throughout) "We're still seeking a solution to keep the doors open but bottom line... we're and - so is now the owner, after 4.5 years of paying LV bills - broke!"

The anonymous staffer is still holding out hope, saying that "Who knows maybe enough of you will come... and give us a life extension or maybe some of you know of another business (cafe for example) who would like to expand on 9th Ave, love cinema and be a co-tenant of Le Video... them occupying most of the ground floor and us the mezzanine.... we could become a movie lounge type of private club... yes no more browsing all the shelves BUT all the collection still available and some fun things we have not been able to do being wall to wall filled with the display boxes... we can always dream or hope someone knows someone who knows someone."

That Facebook-posting staffer might be the only one who still believes, however, as he or she says that "One person is on tour with his band and another quit on Sunday with no notice... resulting in the need to adjust our closing time (man power + $$)."

Le Video was established in 1980, making it one of the Bay Area's longest-running video stores still in business.

Here's the entire announcement of their closure:

SAD NEWS: Unless of a miracle, it looks like we'll be closing (rentals) by the end of April... That's 8 weeks for everyone to redeem their existing prepaids. Until then, we've discontinued selling the package of 20 rentals for obvious reasons. In the meantime, catalog titles can be rented in group of 3,4 & 5 at a discounted price. Existing prepaids can be used on either new releases or catalog titles or if you rent a lot, we suggest using the "packages" for catalog titles and using your existing prepaids for NR. We've added the option of a package of 10 rentals for $35 (can be used as described above... stock/NR but of course not on the packages themselves. In few days, we will raise the price of a single rental to $5.00. That price can be avoided by renting 3, 4 or 5 catalog titles or using the package of 10 - with the understanding that all prepaids will have to be used before the end of April. Tomorrow is the last time we will be offering the rent 2 get 3rd rental free... rentals no longer earn points.

We're still seeking a solution to keep the doors open but bottom line... we're and - so is now the owner, after 4.5 years of paying LV bills - broke! So we have to adjust our hours, rates & policies to give everyone a chance to redeem their prepaids... if not for the prepaids to be redeemed we would already be closed. Please note that we're short staffed. One person is on tour with his band and another quit on Sunday with no notice... resulting in the need to adjust our closing time (man power + $$). Those of you who meant to come by and haven't done so... here is your last chance to see those movies you will not find on Netflix or anywhere else for that matter... Who knows maybe enough of you will come... and give us a life extension or maybe some of you know of another business (cafe for example) who would like to expand on 9th Ave, love cinema and be a co-tenant of Le Video... them occupying most of the ground floor and us the mezzanine.... we could become a movie lounge type of private club... yes no more browsing all the shelves BUT all the collection still available and some fun things we have not been able to do being wall to wall filled with the display boxes... we can always dream or hope someone knows someone who knows someone ... in the meantime, we'll try to hang on so that you can redeem your prepaids. Please be patient and kind with the staff... we are all quite sad... Thank you for allowing us to share our passion for 34 years.