Since you can’t rewind time, these 15 abandoned video stores sit paused in retail limbo waiting for hipsters to spark an unlikely VHS cassette revival.

Now you see it, now you don’t… a phrase that applies equally to video rental stores AND the movie cassettes they rented. Take Tape Headz Video in Washington D.C., which appeared to be a thriving concern when Flickr user jm3 snapped its brightly-lit overhead outdoor sign in May of 2005. Fast-forward to July of 2006 and, courtesy of Flickr user Daniel Lobo (Daquella manera), we note that Tape Headz Video has joined countless other video rental stores in retail limbo. Hope you returned that tape… well, never mind.

25th Hour

Looks like time finally ran out for 24 Hrs Video, a picturesque yellow-painted video cassette sales & rental store in beautiful Brooklyn, NYC. Flickr user TIA (This is Awkward) snapped the sad but somehow soothing scene on September 2nd, 2013, a short time after the official notice of lease termination was taped (ironic, that) to the store’s front door.

Video Empty

Video MD in Passaic, NJ appears to have died of natural causes: Netflix and Redbox, to be exact. Talk about yer Prognosis Negative. Flickr user Jeffs4653 snapped the storefront (complete with abandoned shopping cart and overflowing trash bin – stay classy, New Jersey) on August 6th, 2010. Still no cure for Snookie.

Desire To Expire

The delightfully-named “A Video Store Named Desire” made quite an impression on tape-renting Angelenos, though whether said impression was positive or negative depended much upon one’s dealings with Mike, the Santa Monica Blvd store’s oft-crusty owner. The vast majority of Yelp reviews bemoan the store’s closing in the summer of 2015, however, and note the loss of a beloved local film-culture icon.

Pat’s Passed

We’re not sure how long Pat’s Video in Carrollton, Kentucky was in business but that sign wouldn’t be out of place a century ago… except for the “video” part, of course. Flickr user Joey Harrison captured the lonely state of this abandoned video store in November of 2011.

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Taped Shut 15 More Closed Abandoned Video Stores

Once as common as the VHS and Betamax tapes they rented out, video stores these days are fading away faster than the images on a well-worn cassette someone forgot to rewind. These 10 abandoned video stores are caught between the night they closed and the day a more relevant tenant takes over the lease.

Terminal Virus

(images via: Tattoed Steve’s Storage Unit Of Terror)

The store sign’s font absolutely screams “EIGHTIES!” but the name – Viral Video – presciently anticipates the advent of YouTube and the corresponding end of the rental video era. As the poster child for classic Mom & Pop video stores, Keansburg, New Jersey’s Viral Video exudes a folksy vibe even in its abandoned afterlife. Repurposed wooden bookshelves ironically hold video tapes organized by genre and the assortment of admonishing signs are only missing “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service.”

Twice Unlucky

(image via: Curtis Cronn)

Kudos to Flickr user Curtis Cronn for composing this cool color-infused capture of a now-nameless abandoned video store on Queen Anne Avenue in Seattle, Washington. The store was obviously a movie theater back in the days when video tape technology was the coming thing. Just goes to show you what comes around, goes around.

Movie Scene No Longer Seen

(images via: RetailByRyan95)

How many movies could a Movie Scene move if a Movie Scene could move movies? Quite a few, considering the Hayes, VA store was in business for almost 7 years before giving up the ghost in March of 2009. Full credit Flickr user RetailByRyan95 for immortalizing the former car garage, Jeff’s Cycle Center and Video Update (an SNL reference?) before it re-opened as an AutoZone.

Hurray For Hollywood (Video)

(images via: j4349 and C-Bunny)

Chewbacca’s star on Hollywood Video’s walk of fame serves to date the era of video cassette rentals with pinpoint accuracy but while the empire might strike back, Hollywood Video is down for the count. Occupying the medium-sized niche between small strip-mall stores and large anchor stores like Blockbuster, Hollywood Video – at least, this location in Savannah, GA – just couldn’t survive the big squeeze.

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Game Cassette Match 10 Abandoned Video Stores