Last video and game rental shop in St. Catharines closing after 33 years

Niagara St Catharines Closings

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Published May 5, 2022 at 3:40 pm

Baby boomers and Gen-Xers will remember the thrill of a Friday or Saturday heading to over Blockbusters or Jumbo Video to grab a weekend’s worth of movies, first in VHS tapes and later in DVD.

Then streaming services, such as Netflix, emerged and suddenly those stores quickly became dinosaurs – fossils of an earlier time.

But a few independent stores – the smallest of handfuls, really – bucked the trend and continued to rent out videos, games and music.

St. Catharines had one left, That’s Entertainment at 353 Lake St, which first opened its doors in 1989 and stubbornly left those doors open for 33 years.

Yesterday (May 4) on their Facebook page, the store announced it was closing.

“All good things must come to an end,” the store posted. “We will have more details about our final closing date for all our valued customers very soon. More discounts and sales will be announced as the weeks go by. Discounts only apply to the video section.”

“Please visit us in store for prices on fixtures,” they continued. “Thank you for 33 years St. Catharines.”
The reaction was overwhelming sad as 800 people posted reactions and 588 left variations of “We’ll miss you so much” in the comments.

In better times on the store’s website, they declared, “That’s Entertainment is 100 per cent Canadian Owned and operated.  We have been serving the Niagara region for over 20 years at the corner of Scott and Lake St. in St.
Catharines.”

“We believe that the movie rental business is all about the experience.  Come in and experience the difference.  Friendly staff, huge selection, and the smell of popcorn in the air is what you’ll remember about your visit to That’s
Entertainment.”

It continued, “From renting VHS tapes and Nintendo games to Blu-Ray discs and Xbox 360 games, the times have certainly changed.  That’s Entertainment has embraced the new technology and continues to provide its loyal customers with the latest games and movies on these hi-tech formats.”

That’s Entertainment had a collection of over 8,500 DVDs and BluRay movies, some mainstream, some cult classics. They rented new and used video games and will be remembered for a 30-foot cooler filled with every type of pop you can imagine.