If you used to buy movies at the mall, you probably did your shopping at the same place: Suncoast Motion Picture Company.
Informally known as Suncoast Video to most of its customers, the chain was ubiquitous in shopping malls across the United States in the 1990s. Stores stocked hundreds of titles on VHS and later DVD. They also sold music and various toys and collectibles related to film and pop culture. All the stores had the same distinctive red neon sign hanging at the entrance.
If you grew up loving movies in the 90s, this logo alone will probably make you nostalgic. I worked at a mall in the late 90s; I would go on my breaks to shop at Suncoast. At a time when most films were still panoramic and digitized, Suncoast was one of the few reliable places to get mailbox movies. They had a whole section of titles in proper proportion. For a suburban movie idiot, it was heaven.
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Founded in 1986 in Minnesota, Suncoast expanded rapidly as its parent company changed hands repeatedly in the closing years of the 20th century. At one point, they were part of Musicland – the same conglomerate that owns other physical media stores in malls, like the famous Sam Goody. In the early 2000s, Musicland was acquired by Best Buy.
As this vintage ad boasts, during Suncoast’s heyday they were located in over 400 shopping malls across the country.
Unfortunately, within a few years, the chain filed for bankruptcy. Suncoast was purchased by another major corporation – Trans World Entertainment, the company behind other long-lost retail chains such as Coconuts, Record Town and The Wall. (Remember the wall? Remember The Wall Money Back Guarantee Stickers? Those were the good old days.)
New ownership hasn’t changed things much; Suncoast closed dozens of stores by the end of the 2000s. In the 2020s, there were only three – down from over 400 to three! — Suncoast Motion Picture Company locations remaining in the United States. One is in the Parkdale Mall in Beaumont Texas; another can be found at the Jacksonville Mall in North Carolina. The third is in The mall at Farfield Commons in Ohioalthough this is partially an FYE, another Trans World network that still operates in a few hundred locations.
This video shows the inside of one of the last remaining Suncoasts. It looks… a lot like the Suncoasts of old. It still has that classic neon sign. They never updated the logo.
Even for a nostalgic movie lover, it can’t be too shocking that there are less than a handful of Suncoasts left in the world. At a time when so many people have abandoned DVDs, Blu-rays, and 4K for the immediacy of streaming, there’s little need for a retail store that has a huge library of physical media. Fans don’t want to have to go to a store hoping the movie they’re looking for is in stock; most simply rent or stream at home. If they can’t find the movie they’re looking for at home, they’ll choose one of the hundreds of other titles they’re looking for. he can watch instantly. Suncoast belongs to a different era of cinephilia.
Different – but not necessarily worse. Sure, instant access is great. But there are thousands and thousands of movies and television shows that they are not available on streaming. (Netflix has a few thousand titles in its streaming library. Before they released DVDs at the end of last year your library offered dozens of thousands of options.) Places like Suncoast had all kinds of obscurities that you can’t find anymore, and many of the things that go unnoticed now probably won’t be seen by anyone again anytime soon.
A Suncoast return appears to be the longest of the plans. Frankly, I’m a little surprised there are still so many outlets at the moment! But perhaps when a few more close, this final store could become a novelty just by its mere existence. It happened with Blockbuster; the last outlet of the once-ubiquitous rental chain (in Bend, Oregon, of all places) is now something of a geek mecca. Could the same happen with the latest Suncoast?
![This Popular Mall Retailer Has Only Three Stores Left in the World 1 ScreenCrush logo](https://thegurumedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/1711375856_511_screencrush.png)
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