By Michelle Argueta
Sam Wade didn’t plan on having to muscle Premiere Video through 20 years of success. It just happened that way.
Though chains such as Blockbuster may have the bulk of the public’s attention, Wade and his neighborhood video hub have captured the hearts and loyalty of his customers throughout the years.
Why?
“It’s a neighborhood store, and there’s a neighborhood experience to it,” says 14-year employee and general manager Heather Hankamer.
In June 1984, Wade and his wife set out to create a family-owned video store, laying out a few movies in the uncharted territory of a new business. Their first store was on Skillman.
As Wade recalls: “We put racks out, and people came.”
So successful were they, in fact, that at one point they had three stores running: one on Skillman, another near Town East Mall and the familiar one on Mockingbird.
These days, the Mockingbird store is the only one left, and it still has a loyal neighborhood following. Mention Premiere Video to many neighborhood residents, and you’ll inevitably hear someone say: “Man, I love that place.” It’s a spot where the Julia Roberts and Will Smiths have names such as Anaïs Reboux (star of the French film “A Ma Soeur!”) or Sergei Bodrov Jr. (“Brother,” a Russian film) — a place where you might find a modern-day Quentin Tarantino running the register.
The store thrives, Wade says, because of the community’s affinity for the rare, classic and foreign film selection that it offers.
“It takes people to want the movies, and people in this area appreciate these types of movies,” Wade says.
“I don’t have a job. A job is something that makes you miserable. When I come in here, some of the friendliest people in the city come in to rent a movie,” he says. “They always seem to be in a good mood, but it’s not because they are forced to do it. They come in because they get a night off and get to watch a movie.”
Small as it may be in comparison to the giant corporations, Premiere is rarely empty and its walls are never bare, always lined with thousands upon thousands of movies.
Wade says he was hardly a film buff when he opened Premiere.
“When my wife and I started, I had watched three movies in my life. It’s embarrassing how many I’ve seen [now] — I’ve seen more than I would ever admit,” he says.
As he adds to Premiere Video’s extensive collection of movies, he also adds to the different products that they offer, “changing with the times” and paying close attention to their trend gurus: moms.
Says Wade: “One of my rules is always listen to moms because moms know trends. When video games came out, we started out with one shelf because a mom came in and said, ‘This is what’s hot.’”
He responded quickly, filing in line at Toys R Us to buy every available game.
“Blockbuster didn’t even have them until later,” Wade recalls, a smile forming at the corners of his mouth.
He doesn’t plan to take down Blockbuster, but rather work with them, coexisting and offsetting one another as they have been doing for some time now.
“If the big dog fails, the little bitty store fails. Blockbuster’s not worried, so I see a nice future,” Wade says.
And, with the help of a supportive neighborhood and insightful moms, he’s prepared for whatever changes may come.
“Movies aren’t going to go away,” Wade says. “For the next 10 years, I’m going to listen to the moms.”
