South End video store with big LGBT collection succumbs to Internet rentals

The latest casualty of the Internet revolution is a local. Mike's Movies on Tremont Street in the South End is closing its doors for good this spring, proving that the days of chatting up your neighbor at the local video store are just about gone for good.

"What's happening with newspapers and the music business is happening with video stores," explained Mike Matrullo, 55, who has co-owned Mike's with Stephen Syta since 1991. "The Internet is redefining how the world interacts, how we consume entertainment. We're like the last man standing."

With the success of Internet-based movie rental companies, such as Netflix or Blockbuster Online and the recent launch of Apple's and Amazon's downloadable movie rentals, going to the movie store is becoming a thing of the past. The latest invention in movie rentals is vending machines in grocery stores like Star Market and Shaw's that offer DVDs for rent for $1. More and more, movie rental stores, even independently owned stores like Mike's, are in trouble.

Mike's will close its doors for good this spring, leaving the neighborhood completely without a place to rent a movie (Mike's lasted longer than Videosmith on Columbus Avenue, which closed about two years ago). Last week, Mike's started unloading its inventory of more than 10,000 movies, including many rare, out-of-print and hard-to-find titles as well as independent films, camp/cult, gay/lesbian, and adult movies. The store is selling VHS tapes for the bargain price of $2 or three for $5 and DVDs for $10 to $12 for five or more.

"To be honest with you it's a great inventory, there's a lot of stuff we have that normal video stores never carry, a huge foreign films selections," Matrullo said. "We probably have the biggest legit gay section anywhere in New England is my guess."

For a neighborhood that was once considered Boston's gay ghetto, the loss of Mike's as a place to buy gay and lesbian themed films (and pornography) is felt even more keenly. Mike's had been the only place to buy or rent GLBT movies for nearly a year, after the closing of The Movie Place and Cuttyhunk, both also on Tremont Street.

Mike's will continue to rent titles through mid-March and close soon thereafter. "Basically the scenario will unfold as our customers dictate; the market will dictate what the timing is," Matrullo said. "We have to be out of the space by May first, chances are we will be out before then."

The building at 630 Tremont St. is owned by ETC Management, the corporation that owns and manages the neighboring Villa Victoria, and Matrullo declined to say how much they pay in rent. Two weeks ago, the South End News called Mike's to inquire about a tip that the store was closing. A manager said it was a rumor. "Things were in flux at that point in time," Martrullo explained. "We were in a situation with our landlord buying the lease out."

Matrullo and Syta, who live in the South End as well as Provincetown, purchased the business, already named Mike's after the original owner, in 1991. The store had opened in the mid 1980s as Video Odyssey (the owner changed the name soon after); Martrullo said it was badly mismanaged and going into foreclosure when they took control. Under new management, however, the store flourished.

Martrullo said in the mid 1990s, the Boston Globe did a story about Tremont Street featuring a photo of Mike's. The caption claimed that the movie store was "the place to be seen" on any given weekend. Martrullo said his South End store peaked in 2001 and 2002 when the store had eight employees, but has been gradually falling off since then. Three years ago, Martrullo and Syta sold Mike's Movies location in Beacon Hill to a former store manager and while Martrullo said that location is doing well, on the whole, video stores are a generation away from jumping into the same sinking boat as drive-ins.

"It's a changed world," said Martrullo, who currently has about four employees with only one full-time manager. "We saw it coming, this actually lasted longer than we thought it would."

Juan Sosa, who has lived in the South End for five years, was browsing through the store's collection last Friday afternoon when he learned the bad news.

"Here I can see all the titles," he said. "With Netflix it's harder to browse. It's unfortunate. You do run into people here."

While Syta has a small gallery in Provincetown, Martrullo isn't sure what the future holds or what passion he'll pursue next. One thing he knows for sure, he'll miss the community aspect of people walking to the video store and interacting with their neighbors.

"Back in the 90s, that was part of the highlight of going to the video store, beside picking up movies," he said. "The neighborhood has been great to us, it was a lot of fun owning this business, being in the South End. While [closing] was inevitable, there is still a little sadness to that."