Breaking News: Hollywood Video’s Wallingford location (45th St and 2nd Ave NE) is closed! Rob from 1st Ave NE reports:
My next-door-neighbor just went to return a video to the 45th St Hollywood Video. It’s GONE! CLEANED OUT! CLOSED! Double-bummer!
We wonder if his roommate gets to keep that video, or do the late charges start racking up?
Charlie also writes and suggests someone put in a gym. We think it would be a great spot for Lunchbox Laboratory. Show Dick’s how burgers are done.
I got a movie out too? I guess I’ll go by and see if it says what to do with it. Hopefully it won’t just show up on my credit card – “hope you like the movie you rented, because you just bought it.” I knew when they had a sign saying that ‘game crazy’ was closing that the Hollywood was in trouble. Too bad.
the whole area is going vacant. A large building. It will be interesting to see what they did with it. It was only a matter of time before this happened. Any update on the Winchell’s building?
Ugh. I’ve noticed that our abandoned buildings are becoming targets of taggers (and not the artsy kind). Tweedy & Popp’s, Loki and Winchell’s are all examples. A big building like Hollywood could turn into an eyesore pretty quickly.
I agree with the gym sentiment. Either Hollywood or the old OfficeMax seem like good locations. You’d get business from neighbors as well as commuters.
The sign on the door says to return your videos to their store on Magnolia. I pulled the tape off the slot (tape is probably gone by now!) and put my videos there. No way am I driving to Magnolia!
Another gym? No thanks!
A good spot for a new liquor store to replace the old one!
I was just there on Saturday afternoon checking out what was left at Game Crazy. I didn’t rent any videos since they had a really good deal on used DVDs which made it cheaper to buy then rent. I’ll miss Hollywood, it’s been in the neighborhood for years.
I was wondering if my Hollywood gift card is still gonna be good. I never totally understood if the Hollywoodi were independent or not. I guess if they’re saying to take back rentals to the Magnolia store, they must play together to some extent. So I’m gonna go to Magnolia and suck down the remaining balance on my gift card before *they* go out of business, too!
So, what are our choices now that HV is O-U-T? Scarecrow, Video Isle… what local shops do people like?
Rob C.: You better hurry! A woman in the parking lot on 45th was there because the HV above Whole Foods on 65th, where she used to go, closed several weeks ago! Good luck!
Video Isle!
How bout a roller rink?
Rob C, we put DVDs on hold at the library and pick them up at the Wallingford branch. They have a great selection. It can take a long time to get the new releases, but hey — free movie rentals! And you get them for two weeks! Not too shabby.
I wonder if a bowling alley would fit into Hollywood Video?
If you live in southwest Wallingford, I recommend Rain City Video in Fremont.
is it me or has the commercial vacancy rate gone up in Wallingford?
try netflix for your vids–easy and cheap & no late fees!
I agree with the poster re: new liquor store–I find it appalling that with all the vacancines the LCB can’t find another ‘suitable’ place in Wallingford! Between the former Bastyr (across from Archie McPhee [our sadly departed store!] and the vacancies in W. Center & the new ones, it’s a bit crazy!
liquor store is a good idea. Somebody get the state on the phone. Although it is a little bigger than typical for a liquor store at 7,000 sq ft. liquor stores are usually 4,000 to 6,000 sq ft.
ANOTHER gym? Wallingford doesn’t have a gym. (sorry Fuerte Fitness, but you don’t really count.) A Gold’s Gym or an Anytime Fitness should open at the old Office Max. Tons of parking and right on I 5 and the U District. A no brainer. I am tired of driving to Ballard for an aerobics class.
There’s an Anytime Fitness on Fremont in the place where the grocery store and Asteroid used to be. That might be closer than Ballard, though I don’t know what they have for classes.
But I agree about Netflix. It’s cheap and convenient and now with being able to play their online stuff with an Xbox or PS3 (or a device if you want to buy one) on your TV it’s even better. It’s way cheaper than HV was.
The liquor store over on 45th at U Village is a great one and the folks there are very nice. Would LCB want to put another so close? I think a gym’s a fantastic idea!
And Netflix is definitely the way to go for everyday films, though Scarecrow is a personal local favorite. HV was only a block away, but they lost us a long time ago when they insisted on charging a late fee for a film we’d dropped in the door – on time.
Just contacted Ann Radford, media contact at the Wash State Liquor Board and asked her about replacing the Wallingford store (for the umpteenth time). Her reply I quote here in its entirety:
“We’re still working on it””.
Wow, they also shut down one of the Capitol Hill stores (CHS link).
Bowling alley or roller rink would be awesome. Seems awfully big for a liquor store.
On a related note, will the taco truck move into the Winchells building and be a taqueria? I hate to sound prissy, but eating inside would be more pleasant than sitting outside with the garbage cans.
i wonder what happens to the late fees…
I love the lunchbox laboratory… but what’s wrong with Dick’s? Sometimes you want chateau whatever-the-hell and sometimes you want a PBR.
Count me in for a gym — or, an indoor play center for kids that’s combined with coffee and sammiches for us parental types. Think of those rainy days, letting your kids run amok right in your line of site while you knock back a pastrami on rye. Heck of a thing!
a community center
Just went by there, and there’s an eviction notice on the door stating the sheriff’s office will take anything/everything on the premise Dec. 1. They must have known early – we live a block away, and this is the first time we’ve seen the actual eviction notice.
This matches a recent news story that HVs are defaulting on leases all over the country. Amazingly, the store hasn’t been covered in graffiti yet. The glass store walls get hit regularly.
Hello,
I still have a video (Monk) checked out. I used the ‘store locator’ on the Hollywood Video website and it didn’t show a store in Magnolia. I’ll google it.
I wish they gave us some advance notice. A courtesy postcard would have been nice. I really hope our credit cards don’t get charged.
I’m with you Pete, I’d love a indoor play center for kids as long as it is clean…I’d love a swimming pool, but that’s pretty unrealistic.
I wonder what is going to happen to the TUBS building on 50th. It’s been vacant forever…
Hi! I just called the Magnolia store (206.285.2611) and the customer service specialist said we could just keep the video and we wouldn’t be charged for it. He said if we were participating in ‘power play’, it would have cancelled on Tuesday when the store closed. He said if we brought the video back to his store, we would get a month free of ‘power play’ to help make up for the inconvenience.
I would call the store if you want to make sure. The address is:
2236 32nd Avenue West
Hope this helps!
All this about gyms and liquor stores but what about the reason the Hollywood stores have all now closed.
@Will: Netflix + Internet
Hey I am an a employee for hollywood video at least for now… i have been through two store evictions as far as i know… pretty much positive.. that you can just keep any rentals you have out each store has its own inventory so when you bring it in to another store they cant check it in…there’s no way to hold it to you..how do they know you didnt bring it back to another store and an employee didnt just take it so yea just keep it
ok i read all the other posts and heres the deal. gift cards work at all the stores even all game crazys. if you have powerplay its just going to expire. if theres another store near you, you can go there get a free month of powerplay and they will bring over any remaining credits you previously had (may take a couple of days for them to get the list though to see how many credits you had) if you had any rentals just keep them they wont charge you. (store’s accounts are not universal so you have to make a new one at each store unless they can transfer it over but it only transfers the primary on the account and their info NOT including credit card on file and no IT DOES NOT transfer over late fees or any movies you had out. K i think that’s it. (and if you see and employee please dont give them a hard time its really not their fault and they lost a job which is probably worse than your rental inconvenience and they dont know about the stores closure and sooner than you do they keep them in the dark till the last second probably due to theft reasons. I didnt know till i came in to work and they told me we had to be out in 2 days….and now i was served an eviction notice saying we need to be out by the 23rd at a different store and the higher ups say we might stay open so business as usual its the 20th they still havent told us…but if you have any complaints or anything maybe a refund of some sort call 18speaktous and they should be able to help you…feel free to yell at them 🙂
I live in Petaluma CA , and our Hollywood Video went out of business. I liked it way better than Blockbuster(which is still kickin’). What a shame, but I suppose it’s hard to keep up with on demand, and netflix.