West Coast Video
| Industry | Video rental shop |
|---|---|
| Fate | Liquidation |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Defunct | 2009 |
| Headquarters | Langhorne, Pennsylvania, United States |
|
Area served
|
United States, Canada, Peru |
| Products | Retailing and renting of DVD and, video games |
| Parent | Independent |
| Website | WestCoastVideo.com (Archived Version) |
West Coast Video was a chain of video rental stores founded in 1983. The company became defunct in 2009, but existing stores could continue to use the West Coast Video banner and run independently. Many locations have since closed, but a few remain open today.
In 1983, Elliot Stone opened the first West Coast Video store in Northeast Philadelphia. During the next three months, Stone established the chain by launching three more stores.
West Coast Video acquired all 455 National Video stores in September 1988. The chain now had 660 stores in total, making it the world's largest video rental chain at that time.
West Coast Video has been sued for using the "MovieBuff" trademark on its website's HTML metatags.
West Coast Video had a revenue of $250 million in 1990. The chain opened its first Canadian store in 1991. It was located in the Orleans neighborhood of Ottawa, Ontario. However, West Coast faced financial difficulties due to increased competition in the video rental industry. The company reported a $120 million revenue in 1991, less than half of what it made the previous year. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 1992 and had a positive cash flow six months later.
In 1993, the West Coast Video company changed its name to West Coast Entertainment Corporation. It would eventually create additional brands. During that same year, a second store in Canada was opened in Ottawa South (now Old Ottawa South) neighborhood of Ottawa. The GamePower Headquarters video game stores franchise was launched in 1994.
Online websites for West Coast Video were launched in May 1999. This included an online shopping store that sold movies.
In March 1999, West Coast Video was sued for using the "MovieBuff" trademark on its website's HTML metatags.
Both Blu-ray and HD DVD movies were offered at West Coast Video in the mid to late 2000s due to the high definition optical disc format war happening at the time. Games for the three most popular seventh generation consoles (the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360) were also added to the stores' inventory. Both of these major additions to inventory placed a financial burden on the chain. In January 2007, the West Coast Video chain was down to only 20 locations in the United States. Five of these would close before the end of the year, another three prior to May 2008, and yet another three by the end of 2008. The chain finished 2008 with only nine locations in the United States. In 2009, the chain ceased to exist, and although remaining stores could keep the West Coast Video brand name, they were now independent video rental stores.
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