The Inner Sunset video store Le Video is not long for this world, but the question of what happens to the store's huge inventory of films remains to be decided. The store, with its collection of almost 100,000 films (many of them rare/hard to find), has repeatedly come close to closing over the last year and a half, and now it looks like one way or another, this is definitely about to happen. As such, it is with surprise that we learn of a potentially small silver lining to the store's demise ā its entire video collection might be purchased by Alamo Drafthouse.
SF Weekly reports that Alamo Drafthouse, which is set to open their Mission Street location later this month, has been secretly in talks with Le Video to possibly buy Le Video's inventory and keep it accessible to the public ā though in what form remains unclear.
In a post to Facebook this afternoon, Le Video's owner, Catherine Tche, spoke of the potential deal.
The question on everyone's mind is what is happening to the collection. So many of you mentioned the Alamo Drafthouse that it is obvious that this was an open secret. We did not discuss the acquisition of the collection because so many questions we ourselves had... had no answer. We are meeting tomorrow with Tim League and hope that as previously agreed the entire collection will soon have a new home. If not, we'll start selling off the films first to you guys then advertise it to the rest of the world. We know some of you have huge long lists... so hang on to them a bit longer... though we do hope all the films do stay together.
So however things shake down for the store, which Time once called the "best video store in the world," we should have some kind of answer by tomorrow.
Tche quickly followed that post by announcing that if interested, you could still stop by for a quick one night rental.
"Oh... since tonight and maybe tomorrow are 1 night rental... rentals are only $2.99.... just sayin'...."
If Alamo Drafthouse doesn't buy the collection, the films will be sold off individually.
