Okay, we are recording for the record, it is April 2 2021 I am doing a recording for the University of Idaho oral History project concerning the video rental store in Moscow Idaho.

i'm speaking with well why don't you say your name so for the record, why don't you say.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah my name is Lauretta Campbell and I served on a couple different positions with the board, and I was also a an owner of the video co op and a frequency of the video quality.

Monique Lillard: Very good, very good and again, for the record I need to ask, have you sign the waiver release that I sent you.

I think the answer is yes.

Okay, very good.

All right, you're already ahead of me I wanted to just say to you that.

We can meet again if you wish to say anything else, or, if you wish to correct anything, and you can review this video you can review the transcript you can do whatever you want, you can make.

Corrections so just go ahead and talk and you know what.

we'll just take it from there, which I think is cool.

Can you described your general a relationship to the video co op going back to just you as a patron you as a customer.

How and when did you first go to the video store was it was then Howard Hughes video, I think.

How did you first go there, where was it what.

Are your memories and so forth.

Lauretta Campbell: So my memories are we went there as a family, when I was a little kid and we moved to this area when I was probably I think I was 12 and it was really common to have video stores, then I remember.

We had a blockbuster in town as well.

And then we had Howard Hughes video, and when I started renting videos the BC ours and.

And the tapes that went with them and everything that was that was how you rented videos the DVDs weren't even really on the scene, yet, and the video store at the time was.

i'm trying to remember, I feel like it had just moved, but I don't think it had moved, I think it had moved prior to us moving to town, and it was across the street, from where the video or where the food co op is now.

Monique Lillard: Your wasn't so the north of it.

Lauretta Campbell: This was 1999 2000.

Okay yeah yeah so I remember going in there and.

It was, I mean that whole space i'm thinking of it, right now, I think, is it over 1400 square feet, so I mean just chock full of videos and.

You could ask what you want it and they had posters up on the wall and they had collages that were made from posters up on the wall and and everything like that so.

And that was when they had, I mean the the the tapes were so big but they had things organized, not only by like section, but also by actor, so if you had an actor, you could go and like see the entire genre that they had done so.

Monique Lillard: I remember that too yeah how often did you visit the store.

Lauretta Campbell: And we go multiple times a month that's for sure I mean i'm the oldest and it was something you know we have school and everything so it's not like we we couldn't.

Get videos whenever we wanted, because we had school but yeah we were probably going.

If not, every Friday or sometime on the weekend, probably almost every other because it was just a fun thing to do, and then growing up, we had bunny ears for the TV, so we had PBS.

But that was about it, so if we wanted to watch other videos, we would, especially the new releases or things like that we would go to enter and spread them from the video store.

Monique Lillard: Did you go to the movie theater as well.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah um I don't really remember what we would go and see, but we also we would I most of my movie consumption, I would say it's definitely been at home, not like seen movies, was a nice thing to do, but it would be like a holiday thing or birthday type thing not so much.

Like a rent like going to that's where you'd see and experience that movie in the theater that's never been something my family's really done we've always been more of like watching videos at home and fetching out and getting comfortable and everything like that yeah.

Monique Lillard: Okay, so what was your favorite section, you will not be forever judged on this.

Lauretta Campbell: Oh i'm.

Trying to think like.

I i've always um I don't know I it's everything of like old movies, like Marx brothers and probably my favorite movie is that then man series.

But we grew up on Casa Blanca and a lot of old movies, like that, and really that's because we just didn't have TV growing up as kids so that's what the library had so that's what we grew up watching with our parents and my parents have also always been really good with.

kind of putting a couple ash on things that they don't find entertaining so they have they have a very.

wide range that they like, but things that are.

Like I remember what is it beavis and butthead my dad was like this is just a dumb movie I do not want to watch this but crocodile Dundee was Okay, so it would just be it would just be kind of things like that, where the main focus was watching things together as much as we could.

But yeah I mean, I think it was mainly the classics and then like comic books which are not we're not anywhere as huge as they are now but and then James Bond That was really big in our our family so.

Monique Lillard: It was a family event.

Lauretta Campbell: that's what yeah.

yeah yeah a lot of it, because you couldn't like you could usually get one video maybe because they.

Were I always remember, they would do a deal like seven movies, for five bucks or something like that there's always some kind of package deal so that was enough for everyone in the family to usually get at least a movie.

And so you could pick you know, we had.

It was kind of like everyone could get a movie or we get like 14 movies, everyone can get their own movie and then, there have to be movies, that we knew everyone, or at least a couple other people in the family would like so then no one would kind of hijack the TV all weekend and everything.

Monique Lillard: got it.

got it.

yeah, why was the Howard Hughes store or was the Howard Hughes store different from the other video rental places in town Do you remember.

Lauretta Campbell: A bit a big one, was the selection there's just so much that we could get and again it would you could go in and consistently get something find find that everyone could get something they liked.

And it didn't really matter if it was a new release or an old movie or, that is, they had they had so much in this the whole catalog of it was so well developed and and kind of thought out that it yeah it just provided a really great resource.

Monique Lillard: And then, what did the video store change during the years, what are your what are your recollections about changes in the store.

Lauretta Campbell: The big shift was going from the vhs is to the DVDs and just not needing the same amount of space and then with that.

More people with DVDs whether I don't know if they were cheaper or just that they were smaller, but it does seem like there started to be a shift.

towards watching more things at home that you own, and that was before streaming, though, so there was this kind of in between time where DVDs were going really well.

And it seemed like things were shifting, but it was still a really it was you just kind of shifted from getting a stack of vhs is to getting a stack of DVDs and.

As far as like our video consumption that didn't change that much I feel we just things updated as we got older so less Disney more adventure things like that.

Monique Lillard: And do you remember when it moved from that location to the main street location.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah I remember that specifically because the that's actually where I got the location, that it had moved to was actually where I got my first tattoo so I remember thinking oh it's kind of funny that a video store is now in where a tattoo parlor used to be.

And then the the painted and they they pick some very wild colors to paint and I remember thinking that's not quite what I would go with, but you know it's not my store so yeah.

Monique Lillard: Little did you know right.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah yeah yeah and by that point, I was an adult then.

So it was still it wasn't I mean, I was in school, and I was working as well, so I wasn't renting videos every week, but it was definitely a nice.

thing to go in and it like if you had a video, especially if you paid for it, it would be something like Oh, I need to watch it and it would it kind of prompted like taking a break and watching a video, and that was always Nice.

Monique Lillard: Obvious Nice that is nice, then, do you remember the transition.

Well, were you part of the transition from the private ownership into the Co operative or did you come on to the board after that.

Lauretta Campbell: I came on to the board after that I was in I was an early owner of it, and I remember it was.

It was dark so it must have been kind of wintery or fall because it was just dark outside.

And there was a little pamphlet next to the register, saying that the owner would like to sell and this cooperative was forming and that it must have been actually around Christmas time because I I bought my dad a membership to the video store as a Christmas present and.

Then I and then my sister bought hers I bought mine and I feel like we may be thought one other one and we it that was just of like well yeah Of course you want the video sorta continue and everything so that's how I became a part of it, and then I was asked.

I think a year, maybe a year and a half after if I would be interested in joining the board, but it was it wasn't longer I think than a year and a half after.

Monique Lillard: Do you remember who asked you.

Lauretta Campbell: Jamie from the kenworthy i'm blanking on her last name right now.

Monique Lillard: Female I would guess.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah yeah Jamie hill yeah Jamie hill.

knew me from downtown because I owned hyper spot sports and she was just thinking that having someone who was actively running a business might be helpful in running helping to run the the cooperative.

And then I don't remember, and then I think Melinda traub was also on the board, I think, since the beginning but i'm not positive, but I think the goal was to have someone who.

was also coming at the board from a just a different perspective of the there's the cooperative model with businesses, but then there's also just there's other forms of businesses.

And the main thing that I was told of why I was kind of thought of was because I had helped hyper spread transition.

From a from one owner to another owner, and I might be able to give some insight into best practices, or maybe even like what not to do type things so which i'm i'm fairly good at doing.

So.

Monique Lillard: Okay, good and did you come right in, as was it chairman of the board of President of the Board I can't remember what we called you and I was trying to see it in my notes and I couldn't find it.

Lauretta Campbell: I think I was, I think I was just a board member.

or Member at first yeah yeah I think I was just a board member and then I was a secretary or treasurer I wouldn't I wouldn't have been the treasurer because Andrea was the treasurer.

So I think actually maybe then I jumped to Vice President, I think, because I think you were the Secretary and Andrea was the treasurer.

And then I think when you step down, I became the secretary.

Because I also wanted to step back from Vice President, I think, is what I remember.

And then the Vice President and the.

The President position kind of near the end kind of got combined into into one.

Monique Lillard: Well, that was you.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah yeah so at the at the end.

Of the.

day before Kobe basically is kind of covert is a good marker for a lot of things, but yeah so that would be i'm trying, let me get my bearings here really quick it's 2021 now.

Is when the video store closed.

was a year, where.

I think I think for part of the year, I wasn't officially President, but then, as the year went on, I accepted that position.

Just to give gifts stability for lack of a better term which isn't to imply that the Board was imploding or anything like that, but there were definitely things that needed more experience to deal with.

Then I think it was emp and Cook, who was the, who was the President at the beginning of.

And he's just never had run a business before and that's really where some disconnect was happening because of that, so I I came back on and and said that I would be president.

Monique Lillard: Interesting This is all after the time I was on the board, so I know nothing about this history.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah yeah.

yeah yeah interesting.

So.

Monique Lillard: Talking first early on.

Once.

You were on the Co operative board.

But before the end right so.

What do you think the biggest challenges were early on.

Lauretta Campbell: um the biggest challenges were definitely so getting people initially when it started the corporate of model, I still think is a wonderful model but it's not a very common model.

For a lot of businesses and consumers have a hard time understanding that when you sign up to be an owner, you are an owner of the business and with that comes responsibilities as an owner and so.

The breakdown of the video store was that you could pay your fees in portions either by quarter or by year, or kind of as you wanted to as well, but um.

And a lot of people said yes and all sign up and they would pay, maybe a year or pay a month or a quarter and then they never paid the full value of their ownership, which was $200 and that's something that on paper.

structure.

hey Maggie.

Maggie.

Monique Lillard: i'm going to pause the recording for just a second.

Lauretta Campbell: Sorry, my dog is a little lady and she's very opinionated sometimes.

Monique Lillard: that's fine.

Lauretta Campbell: See here hang on a moment I think I may have lost you I gotta reconnect.

Monique Lillard: Oh no i'm right here i'm here, I can hear you I think you're there, or it can you see me.

And you see me hang on.

So okay.

Lauretta Campbell: I can see you Sorry, I can see you I just can't hear you and that's on my end.

Oh.

Okay.

Monique Lillard: Now, can you hear me it takes a little bit okay.

I turned off the recording and then I turned it back on which might have.

upset your machine somehow.

Lauretta Campbell: I don't know.

Monique Lillard: Why that would happen, but you never.

Lauretta Campbell: can tell, here we go okay.

Okay.

Monique Lillard: oops now I can't hear you, for some reason say something again.

Okay here yeah.

hmm.

Monique Lillard: check your mute button.

and check your are you there you did you just freeze.

Oh.

There we go.

Is your wi fi signal gotten week or something.

Okay try say something I think I can hear you.

There we go.

I heard you i'm hearing it, though that's good.

That was loud.

Okay, can you hear me.

i'm talking.

i'm actually recording all this funny stuff because I don't want to mess with anything, can you hear me.

Lauretta Campbell: There you go there, we go there, we go.

Monique Lillard: Now sorry I don't run in there, that is okay.

So that you were saying yeah people paid in portions.

Lauretta Campbell: that's where you were yeah yeah so people would pay in portions and that's a pretty that's that's basically the way the cooperative model works, because it allows people to.

Instead of putting up thousands of dollars to own a business it distributes it and then it also allows to that not all the responsibility of running the business falls on one person or a couple people that falls on the board, who are voted on by the owners and then.

They are they act in the best interest of the owners, and so the the initial buy in for the video call on paper.

We had we had more than enough money to pay all the debts for the video store to to buy it to pay things off to buy the assets everything like that and to keep it running, but unfortunately paper doesn't mean money and.

kind of regardless of the board's best attempts, we just couldn't get the stoke up to have people literally put their money where you know they signed on the dotted line and.

I think a big part of that that impacted That was the rise of streaming services.

And for me, I know I spoke with people in town just about the video store and why I thought it was important and one of the big things for me is.

As time went on the video store shifted from being a video store as we thought, have to be in a library and to being a catalog that could provide.

A lot of different resources that you do something where.

Monique Lillard: you're free you're freezing.

I don't know if it's my Internet or it says that i'm Okay, but it was right when you were saying we couldn't get them to put their money where their mouth is and then we kind of lost you and i'm sorry because it was really important.

Lauretta Campbell: snow it's okay i'm off repeat it i'm not gonna be there because I says i'm good but um yeah, so I think the reason that people.

The I think the reason that the owners didn't basically put their money where their mouth is and hold up hold their commitments.

To saying yes, will support this and pay $200 it's just because it it came on the it partnered with the rise of streaming services.

And for me I I began to shift and to see the video store as a library in this really wonderful resource in town that you couldn't you could find things that weren't available everywhere online.

And, such as foreign films, such as alternative films classics just the video store did a wonderful wonderful job of keeping a huge catalogue of videos and providing something that I really thought that Community would would more than support and love and I know a lot of people did.

And, and it was nice to to just be able to walk in and browse and be able to pick things and not have an algorithm kind of suggests things for you.

But.

But at the end of the day, you still have to you have to pay the bills that's really what it came down to, and if the owners weren't putting the money forward and the amount of sales being generated wasn't generating enough money.

That it just makes it so that you can't you can't pay the bills so yeah.

Monique Lillard: yeah I understand everything you just said.

me ask you about a few specific things.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah.

Monique Lillard: Do you think parking or lack thereof played an important role.

Lauretta Campbell: um.

I think so.

That.

It definitely didn't help anything that's for certain and and.

It.

Moscow is a funny town in that.

i'm always amazed when there's a parade or when there's farmers market but it's mainly the parades actually or trick or treat downtown things like that.

How many people come out and I walk I walk my dog a lot I just walk around town a lot and I feel like I see a large amount of people.

But there are so many people who come to certain events that i've never seen before.

And so it gives the sense of security or I guess I it gives us false sense of security, sometimes where if you're downtown you're in this hub, but.

you're not really because not everyone thinks to come downtown and i'm always amazed, how many people i've lived here for 356 years kind of thing.

And they're like i've never been in your store and i'm just like how have you never been like in some of these stores downtown I don't understand.

And, and so I think that that was a big thing with with the video store of people just kind of forgot that you had access to it.

And, and again the streaming services gave you this perception that you had access to all of these videos when really if you looked at it, you didn't or maybe one month, you did, and the next month, you didn't and so.

And for some people i'm sure that that works just fine, but for a lot of people who really consume.

Media this way through videos it, it was a it's a big problem, because then you wind up paying 20 $30 a month to to watch, you know one video or or one series that kind of thing, whereas at the video store you could get a whole series for like $7.

Right oh.

Monique Lillard: yeah yeah tell me the saga or tell, I guess, I should say tell the future the saga of the computer changeover I remember you're working so hard.

Lauretta Campbell: On oh yeah.

yeah so um, this is just a kind of a best practices thing with businesses have you shouldn't.

have computers that are really have software on them that's more than five years old, that you haven't actively tried to backup.

And you haven't actively tried to boot, on another system and that's pretty common I have found with businesses nowadays it's not as common because so much is in the cloud, but the video store had a computer system that ran the the rental.

program that had people's names have the videos a lot think things to be able to be tracked where are the videos is it in is it out, is it late that kind of thing.

And it was a DAS based system which dos definitely has some benefits but it's very antiquated at this point and it crashed, and it crashed basically when the the video co op itself went to take over the actual running of the store from the previous owners.

And that was something that we knew as a problem we were working on trying to we had a backup which was great we were working.

To try to get a new system but going from I mean this is in the late 2000s and going from a system now that was last really used in like 1998 and early 2000s is quite like that's a big gap.

And so there were a lot of systems that just didn't didn't talk to this, the whole file system itself from the.

From the rental was downloaded into a text document which most computer systems now don't read text documents needs to be in a csv file usually or an excel file or something like that, and so.

We thankfully had a backup of all the videos of the the titles of the videos and we it was something that I just sat.

For I don't exactly remember how many days even but for a number of days, and it was thankfully slow at my business, so I kind of just stopped doing my work for my business and I did the video store to pull all of these titles out of the.

Out of the text document and put them in an excel document so we could actually manipulate them.

So that's kind of one of the key things like if anyone ever has some sort of system, make sure it can download into excel because then you're fine.

But if if it can't you've got a big problem which I was able, actually to pass that information on there's a video store in bozeman.

And I spoke with the owner there and I was she's like yeah This is our system and I looked at it as like have you tried.

To actually upload that to something she's like no we just back it up and i'm like yeah you better make sure that you can actually upload the backup because if you can't upload it to anything, then it's useless so.

And that was something the staff were really wonderful with that, because some of the videos weren't didn't make it into that backup, and so they went through and they updated.

The videos as they needed they had to put all of the new videos that have been received in like the last month, all the new releases and things like that they had to put all of those in.

Along with the numbers, in addition to doing their normal jobs of running the video store and everything like that, so that was quite a little or deal that I actually it kind of forgotten about that as.

Monique Lillard: Well, yes.

You remember, there was a contract with somebody and then some.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah.

Monique Lillard: Through and wait and you know.

We don't have to record all of that it.

I just remember so much effort.

on your part.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah yeah and that was something that.

The.

The what happened there is we, we knew that we needed a new videos rental system and.

We couldn't find one because, believe it or not, video stores.

And so we couldn't find one, so we, I had a connection for someone who assured us that it could be made because he's like it's just a database, and so it should just be able to be made and I was like great that sounds wonderful and I don't know that much about the front end.

In terms of making money.

should be should be a little better um, that is, and so, so he and he basically had a person who was working with him, who was a computer scientists.

who unfortunately had never worked retail so he didn't understand that component of it.

And they they kind of kept assuring us, it can be done, it can be done, it can be done, which is what happens, a lot of the time, and then it just became very obvious that it couldn't be done.

So we had actually in the meantime researched and we had found a rental software system, which was newer than dos but still old.

from South Africa and so that's ultimately what we went with, and we were able to upload to it and so that's again, in addition to the staff, maintaining the excel database, they also now had to learn a new database.

which I was, I was just amazed they they did, and they ran it and they did it and everything and we had looked into.

computer systems that were more cloud based but, unfortunately, the cost of them was just pretty prohibitive, it was something where we were more interested in paying a one time fee or a license that was definitely less than $100 a month.

Because at that time the video store it was basically breaking even and so that's where we just knew it couldn't take a big.

A big budget hit for a computer software system.

And we, thankfully, had the computers, they were the computer itself the guts of them were up to date, because they were donated to us by the video or by the food co op by the Moscow food co op and so that was really wonderful all we needed to do is just find something that could actually.

Talk to the list of the videos essentially so.

Monique Lillard: Okay, I remember that, and I also remember a lot of people.

kept saying why can't they do online ordering.

And just for the record, which what was the answer to that.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah so.

websites are complicated that is essentially what it is and then websites that have databases in them are very complicated, especially when you have.

Thousands of videos and we're not talking like a couple, and not even videos but items we're not even talking just a couple.

thousand items we're talking like over 30,000 items that all need to be tracked.

And the big thing is, if it was just uploading them, so people could see it in a list we could advertise it, that would be easy, but people don't want just a list, they want to be able to check out from the actual computer system and.

That that was it was basically just so cost prohibitive for us, it would be like running a whole nother store.

But your online it's definitely a desire and it was a desire, all the way up until the very end of have been able to offer that functionality and how I mean how wonderful would it have been encoded.

have been able to do that, but the when we priced that out, it was I mean we were we were talking like $5,000 for the whole like a really robust software system.

That could handle that and be able Rentals are also a unique thing because they don't technically leave.

Like if someone buys a candy bar from the grocery store that candy bar is gone and, yes, every now and then there's returns and things like that, but that's not a common practice with that candy bar.

Whereas for video Rentals you rent them you take them, but then they come back and so having a software system that understands no this isn't new inventory it's the same inventory.

It just went out and then came back because you have to know that for taxes that's really important because the.

Every you know state irs everyone they really care is this inventory new inventory, or is it the same inventory and then it goes in out.

And so rental software there's not as many options when it comes to programs that track what happened with the sales are and things like that specifically for Rentals and understanding that Rentals are different than regular retail and that's a common thing.

that most people did not understand and I totally understand why because think about it, how many places, do you really go and read things from it's it's really not that common so.

Monique Lillard: it's really interesting and I think that's why they wanted to do this or a.

History because.

it's pretty unique you know unique maybe not but very few.

places would have that problem so.

interesting.

Monique Lillard: You kind of answered this but.

What were the biggest challenges toward the end.

Lauretta Campbell: i'm the biggest ones, towards the end we're just getting people to come in and spend money that's really what it was of when when your product is a rental people have to rent it.

And the there were definitely things of we didn't have quite the same competition now as with Disney and things where things would launch right away.

We knew that that was coming up, but it was still something where we could usually get things the same the same week as they came out anywhere else, and people were there and wanted to rent them.

But the challenge is really were just that, if if people don't come in and rent then that's your income and then you don't have income.

to buy more movies, or to pay staff or and pay taxes and to pay rent and things like that, so that was definitely one of the big ones, the the other one was just kind of lack of owner engagement, the board.

Had the ability to be I think 12 people was the Max and and that's something that I can fact check for you, if you'd like but it had the ability to be that big but we just didn't have the the amount of people.

We just didn't have people who wanted to volunteer on the board, which.

that's one of the reasons why cooperatives are awesome is because not everyone has to be there every day to run the business, but the business still has to be run.

And so, if you don't have owner engagement, either in funds and or time then, how is the business supposed to run and that's that's just kind of math unfortunately so.

Monique Lillard: So now, just to cheer us up a little bit.

What went well what went well.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah so I mean with the board, specifically the I think everyone who was there, they they wanted to be there and they cared about the video store and that showed and for the staff that was something I mean how like it's so the the amount of knowledge that the staff had.

it's just amazing to me, and that is one thing of again I viewed the video store, not so much as a rental store, but as a library and as this big catalog and they I thought did a really, really good job of knowing that product there's always of course different ways that you could present.

The product and have things cleaner or moved around or things like that, but if you really got.

Monique Lillard: Talking I think.

Lauretta Campbell: To some of the staff about suggestions.

On what what to rent and things like that they did a wonderful wonderful job about that, and they really cared about their their customers.

All the animals know they know it's Friday they're like, why are you still working stop working.

Monique Lillard: Sorry yeah she's out.

There, so that was a big bad thing that she just did.

But.

Monique Lillard: yeah I think you're right, I mean I remember the staff really well.

let's see you've kind of answered this, but what were the biggest costs to the store.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah um the biggest cost rent rent was really big and that was something we did look at other places in town and trying to find a location, that would still be.

big enough to as the videos big enough for people to access and but at a at a less expensive price and, unfortunately, Moscow just doesn't have that many options.

It for the rent that we were paying.

For the space, was it was very comparable for Moscow, but to go down into a less expensive rent like under $1,000 we would be talking about like an office space and there's just no way that you could have run.

of video rental store out of an office space and we did look as well about moving to a different place in town, maybe better location better parking things like that, but again, it was almost double the rent then we're talking.

Something like 1600 $2,000 and that's and then you have utilities and everything like that, so that was definitely the biggest one and then payroll taxes payroll taxes is always and.

And then sales tax as well, so just taxes in general that's always a big one as well and and payroll so yeah.

Monique Lillard: And the only revenue was the Rentals.

Lauretta Campbell: Obvious pretty much yeah yeah so like 99% of the revenue was the Rentals there, I mean they sold popcorn and candy and some drinks and things like that, but.

yeah having just a strict video rental store it's really hard and i'd like to say that it's easier if you're in a larger city and there's more people, but then with that you have the same kind of things of rent cost more.

and employees, you know employees costs more things like that.

But but yeah that, by and large, it was really just location and rent we were like I we've talked about already our hands were tied a little bit in that the location, that we had for the cost was actually a very good deal and so so that's why we stayed because there are definitely differences.

If you've moved a Blocker so off of Main Street so mainstream when I talk about it i'm talking about from.

Third, to sixth street that's kind of the main business hub in downtown and it's expanding a little bit more to the north, but if you started moving off like off the side streets, you know north or south.

or not rather north or south east or west you there was definitely a marked difference in how much money you could generate and a big part of that is just when people are downtown they tend to walk north, south on Main Street, and they see you and things like that so.

Monique Lillard: I seem to remember, you would think sometimes about being closer to the university, do you think that would have helped or not.

Lauretta Campbell: No, I do not, I don't think it would have hurt that's for sure, I think it would have helped it would have been a, especially with this resurgence now in the 90s.

I think that would have been a real cool thing for a lot of people to see and we talked as well about having DVD players for people to rent because a lot of people now don't have DVD players.

And also partnering with family promise and with the hospital and try and just to work with as many nonprofits as we could.

And we we reached out honestly to a good chunk of nonprofits in town and people were excited but then nothing ever kind of came of it and.

Which is, which is honestly kind of disappointing because movies have this ability to take you to another time in place, and if you were at the hospital I could definitely see you wanting to not maybe focus on you've been at the hospital so.

Monique Lillard: yeah yeah I remember a lot of those things we tried a whole lot of promotions about.

Lauretta Campbell: bring a friends yeah.

Monique Lillard: specials on the movies, you know what was it was.

Lauretta Campbell: You know it owner discounts like if you became an owner and you were paid currently you would have access to certain deals.

And, and the owners who did did take advantage of them, really, really liked them but that's just again it was.

It was the kind of thing of it used to be a thing to go out and you know, on a Thursday, Friday Saturday night and get a movie and rent a movie and take it home and.

In my family, I know you know we'd have popcorn or we'd stop and get snacks or we'd have pizza for dinner that kind of thing and like yeah we're going to just watch movies or sleep over and we're going to watch movies and.

And that's again with the advent of streaming that kind of became something where people don't go out anymore, they stay in and watch the movies so yeah.

yeah.

Monique Lillard: let's see here.

But I actually somewhat answered this but I haven't done as a question so ask it as general question did your own experience in retail.

affect how you guided the board, do you think.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah so my my background in retail came really suddenly, so I said in 2014 in April.

It was like mid April, I said that I would buy hyper speed sports, which was an outdoor gear store and it was established by a man named john croc in 1989.

And in 2014 he was dying from stage four melanoma and there were some other buyers who have been interested and john was a really wonderful guy but he didn't have a shit together, to be perfectly honest.

His inventory wasn't correct, he was another example of a doss base POs system that needed to be updated and I was in my 20s mid 20s I think 2625.

And I said that I would buy it so on, there was a Monday and the previous buyer it said, you know I can't take this responsibility, I need to back out, which was a good decision for him.

It was a shock at the time, but it was a good decision for him, and so I just said, I buy it and then the next Monday john died so when I actually started owning you know I, and I signed the paperwork to own papers, but the day after he died.

or may have even been the day he died so so my transition into business was very much based in how to keep things organized because I came into a system that wasn't organized.

And also trying to be very realistic about what my inventory is and realizing that I live in a small town and my businesses in a small town.

Because moscow's I mean it's 30,000 people like it's sometimes not even I think so it's a it's a small town in northern Idaho and you're just trying to provide a great service but it's also realistic, of how big the town is and how many people are here, so I took a lot of that same.

mentality, with over to the board of the video store and I remember before the video co op actually bought the video store that there was real questions about cannot survive or not, and I I.

I remember at least being pretty upfront with I do think it can survive I don't think it's going to make a huge profit, but I think our owners would be happy if it just broke even and if it could do that, I think it would be fine and.

At the time, as well the the all of the videos were valued at $2 apiece if we were going to sell them and some of the video that was minimum.

And some of the videos like the criterion collection and things like that those were going to those were valued as more because there's definitely some videos that you just cannot get anymore.

And so those would be videos that you know that are worth actually like 3040 $50 $100 apiece and we had a separate list of that as well as those videos that were worth a little bit more.

And so, on paper at least the assets covered the debt that was going to be owed and to me, I was like well that you know it's a risk businesses is always a risk.

But the fact that we have these assets and the fact also that most of these assets aren't going to going to be damaged people take care of them things like that I think we're going to be okay, and so.

um but it's work I do remember telling the board at the time that I was like it's it's a lot of work to run a business and.

The big thing that I focused on was making sure that we had backups of.

Again, the computer system of taxes of all that kind of stuff and that really comes from.

Just john didn't have that when I bought hyperspace and it's something I think is really important for every business to have so that's definitely a big part of what I brought to the Board was just kind of this insistence in a way on like things on paper, have to match.

And and that's something I don't I know I have, I have copies and copies and copies of things and.

Because i'm just always worried that things are going to delete.

But I definitely know that I I didn't have the fundraising side of things as much as I think could have could have been helped I had just kind of the.

Maybe the the realism side of things which which doesn't always match if you're if you're kind of running it in a way that's just based on numbers.

And everything but, at the end of the day when cove it happened that was something that it is this the second year, I think that the the because we bought it in, let me see think here in 2020 and then.

For 2019.

Monique Lillard: We bought what.

Lauretta Campbell: The video store was actually bought like cooperatives.

It was either.

Lauretta Campbell: let's say.

Monique Lillard: 2018 or 2019 i'd say.

yeah I know it's actually I have it on my computer somewhere I don't.

Lauretta Campbell: Know okay.

Monique Lillard: Okay, if you.

Lauretta Campbell: Actually yeah so.

The main street video cooperative.

took ownership on January 1 2018.

yeah so 2021 know 2020 sorry last year.

In January was so that's That was the two year anniversary, and what we had been seeing was a decline in people just coming into rent all throughout 2019.

And we had talked with the landlord about can we adjust the rent and.

I remember that conversation with the board, where I said it's really not real it's like we will ask it's really not realistic, for her to say yes, and as a business owner.

If I own a building in downtown Moscow, to be honest, that rent that she's charging us right now is really fair.

And, but that was kind of the only wiggle room that we really could have you'd already cut the stuff back as much as we could we had already cut back buying inventory as much as we could for new Rentals and things like that and.

It just became a thing of how do you how do you make people come in your door and spend money.

And we had collaborated for a little bit with where else could we move the collection, because that was a big part to have we just didn't want to see the collection split up.

And the then coven hit and with coven it was something where the owner and at least this is the way it was explained to me the owner knew that we weren't making as much money.

She had been the owner of the building and then she was also the owner of the video store and we were behind on our payments to her.

And then she she just wanted to sell the building and what I was told at the time.

Was that her husband or her partner had gotten sick and it actually brought up a lot of kind of flashbacks to me again of john being sick.

Because it was something where there's a big business transaction happening people obviously have a lot of love for this business.

And everything like that, but in the meantime, there is something you know someone is sick at home.

And this really, really matters, and so I didn't speak with her that often but I remember when the last time I spoke with her, I said, you know I.

Really, I just been told this, this is what i've been told it's happening, if it is, I really am sorry, and I really do understand what you're going through.

Because the last thing you want to deal with at that time is a business and and anything like that you just want to be done with it and so.

coven kind of offered everyone, I think, an opportunity to say look it's not working, we need to make a change and it kind of forced our hand in the doing it and so she actually sold the building.

And the new tenant wasn't interested in extending the lease of the video store and so they wanted us to be out and then, in the meantime her lawyer.

worked on a new home for the videos and so they are actually we actually then moved, all of them to the kenworthy and it was something that, in exchange for the debt being forgiven the videos were all going to be moved to the kenworthy performing arts theater That being said.

The kenworthy then was able to do what they felt was best with the videos so the kenworthy is not maintaining a rental store.

Of them, but they I know they did keep as many of those videos as they could use to be here in the Community, which I think is really, really important, and then I i'm not positive.

Where the rest of them went I know they sold, some of them that they didn't need, and I think the rest of them may have been donated to the Moscow public library system or to the later public library system or to the University of Idaho but i'm not positive about that.

Monique Lillard: I actually don't know that either I think i'm going to be finding it out and just to be clear, I think the owner that you're referring to is pat angle.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah Patricia.

Monique Lillard: angle, and I am going to be interviewing her.

i'm pleased to report that her husband is doing pretty well actually.

Good so he was my former colleague so just.

Lauretta Campbell: Okay.

For the record, yeah Thank you.

yeah.

Monique Lillard: So, but what you've said is actually really interesting, which is that it was not the decision of the video cooperative board to give the movies, to the kenworthy it was pat angles decision.

To give them to the yeah okay.

yeah okay yeah mm hmm.

yeah.

Lauretta Campbell: Because that happened, something that had been talked about of selling the videos, but when a pandemic hits that throws a lot of things kind of up in the air and.

The.

The thing, my main goal was if it was possible to try again to try to keep the collection as intact as it could be somewhere in town that's what I was hoping to do and.

And also have it be something that that hopefully was helpful to pat because she was really gracious and working with the video cooperative and working with the board and trying to make this work and.

I kind of wondered at the time, did we make the right decision in even buying it from her or not.

And I really would like to think that you know, we were able to keep it going for two more years and I think that means something, and it is unfortunate that.

It didn't it wasn't supported by the owners and by the Community as much as we had initially thought, because a lot of the calculations that were made were really based on how many owners, we had and as those owners and we had.

I have to look at the exact number but.

Just do some math here really quick.

We I know we had over 200 donors and wanted to say that we had over 300 but I can't remember that exact number, right now, but that was more than enough at $200 apiece that's $60,000 that's a lot of money, and that was more than enough to pay Pat, and that was more than enough to.

To run the video store and and it was in Dubai new inventory and pay the bills and everything like that, and it was just the reality that we we just didn't have enough the owners ultimately put up.

About $20,000 and that's just the thing of like you can't pay a third.

of your bills and expect that it's going to work so.

Monique Lillard: yeah is there anything you would have done differently.

Lauretta Campbell: um.

I mean you have to keep this within what is reality and that's the part of it, would it would be, it would have been so wonderful to have found someone who was wonderful at making websites and building computer programs, which are two very different things.

And who knew how to run a database and to say yeah i'll donate my time like that would have been wonderful, but or to move to another location things like that, but those are all what IFS right when it comes down to it.

I don't.

If I mean if anything I would have said, you know we probably should just have it close, but I really don't like that I don't really still think that's not what I would have wanted to do.

And maybe i'm just too invested in local businesses and trying to keep them going by the I really, really thought that the video store.

offered a great resource to a lot of people in town and to a lot of people who might be not see themselves in current media and so and treating it as a library and as a resource and I wish that that had been that kind of mindset been adopted by more people.

But.

I still think there's a lot of validity in being able to say, we got two more years out of it and we don't we don't know what kind of who we touched in those two years and everything in it.

it's something that at the end of the day it did close, but I still think those two years mattered.

And I don't I don't think that it was it was a failure, and I really think that the the owners of the video store to and and pat.

As well we're just so gracious in allowing it to go and to try and I think that that matters and and that trying really wasn't based on a pie in the sky idea I mean again.

Those numbers were there and we had people who did put money up front and who really, really did want it to succeed it's just at the end of the day, the amount of people who were who was putting the money wasn't there so yeah yeah.

Monique Lillard: Do you use the word exhausted about Oh, I think you're talking about pad and her situation did my recollection is that you spent so many hours and as you're telling it again so many hours.

Did you feel exhausted.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah it's hard to running a business and anyone who tells you that otherwise must be making a lot of money and they don't remember anymore.

What it's like to run a business.

Monique Lillard: So yeah.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah but yeah I mean it businesses, they I i'm i'm really intrigued by businesses, I like seeing how they work and they're like a puzzle that you're always trying to put together.

But businesses that are very difficult, especially something like a retail store and and the video store was a retail store, and that is something.

Where its retail is hard it, it is really, really hard and.

The you just have to kind of.

devote a lot of a lot of time to it, and the reason I specifically devoted so much time to it really was just that my skill set.

related really easily to the video store and I think I had a little bit more freedom than some of the other board members I in comparison to some of them I was more mobile than some of them physically I was downtown more consistently than some of them I didn't have.

At the at the time when it started I didn't have older family members in town I didn't have young kids my dog wasn't as grumpy is she is now.

So there's just things like that that allowed me to to, and then I was also just literally right down the street from it so something was going on, I could pop up down and and I had my staff as well, so that allowed me some more flexibility to it but but yeah there was I.

Never kept track of my hours at the video store, but there was quite a lot of time devoted to it and.

I don't think it was a wasted effort.

It was just something that I wish could be a little more fruitful, but like I answered before I don't really know what what more I could have done so yeah.

Monique Lillard: Everybody i've spoken to is wanted to say thank you to you so i'll go ahead and put.

austerity.

Lauretta Campbell: Our efforts were noticed and appreciated.

yeah yeah yeah.

Monique Lillard: One more question about this and then i'll pan back out to more general comments, but.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah.

Monique Lillard: Can you describe your emotions at, and can you describe, where you were when you realized oh my gosh This really is going to close we're done.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah I think I was at the video store so, because just context here so that was the.

The video store closed, that was the end of March, and I know i'd shut down because of covert and so, not only am I was I helping to pack up the video store, but my own business was closed, I had to close and.

It I just definitely remember being like we have to get this done because I have no idea what's going to happen to meet personally, and I also remember being very concerned about the taxes.

Just of light and not so much like the actual amount of taxes or anything like that, but just making sure.

That I know the seven seven years, like, I have to have the taxes for seven years, because even though the video store.

is closed the owners are still dependent on these taxes being filed because that's one of the things that happens when you're an owner.

So, so that was something of so they knew the the video store itself couldn't just like I can just put it in a box and never pay attention to it so that's actually one thing of.

When we correspond via email, you were talking about the records which I have here next to me and that's something that we can probably arrange but a big part of it is, I have to make sure that I have things for my six more years now, so.

But anyway, I remember being very concerned about that, and then the staff again we're just so wonderful in coming in and helping and.

And it was really a comfort that pat and then corey who was her lawyer and he was also on the.

I don't know if he still is, but he was at the time on the board of the kenworthy had arranged that the kenworthy and then with Christina and Jamie at that can run the as well.

had arranged for the videos to be able to go over there and and hopefully to benefit to their benefit, I really, really hope that that it is.

But I just remember it being kind of like Okay, you know we we we did it we had two more years and we tried and.

The best like the easiest thing, I guess, I can equate it to is we had, I had a dog, who we had to put down last November and we knew her spine was degenerating.

And at the time we thought we were going to have six months with her, and then we got two years out of her actually and we got to take her on rafting trips and we got to go around and I just remember.

I mean we were carrying her around in a backpack and everything, and the reason I say this is just to paint this picture of.

The video store was very much loved and it was a huge benefit to have, but I think everyone kind of knew that it wasn't going to be here forever either.

And so that was the big thing when we actually closed the video store up and all the movies were at the kenworthy it was just kind of comforting to know that.

These videos will still and all of this work that they represent will still go on to benefit the community somehow but it just needs not be in this form anymore and that's very bittersweet it's really bittersweet yeah yeah yeah.

Monique Lillard: What do you miss the most now just back to being a customer, what do you miss the most about not.

Lauretta Campbell: How my gosh.

So, like I The other day I was like I really want to watch what were the two videos Oh, I wanted to watch all the president's men and field of dreams and I was like where, am I going to find these videos.

And that's that's just the biggest thing of like I saw I have you know, maybe you can find it online maybe probably not, though.

And then you have to sign up for maybe another streaming service and it's then it's like well I don't want this service all the time, so get it can't watch the movie cancel it data.

And, just like I really do miss being able to go through, and just it's it's still kind of fun to like instead of our remote, like you, pick your video.

And you know, this is the video I picked and i'm going to put it in the machine and i'ma sit and get ready and and that's definitely a carryover from when I was a little kid and you know it's like this is my video I picked this video so.

yeah just definitely missing that and then being able to go through and walk through and physically see things and find things that maybe you weren't looking for and again it's not like I could pick whatever I wanted an algorithm algorithm is it suggesting anything for me.

yeah yeah.

that's definitely I definitely like, but that was literally just this last week and I still haven't figured out where i'm going to watch these two movies, I actually wound up getting the book.

The all the president's men from the library, because I was like I might have to find the movie I just read the book, I guess, so yeah.

Monique Lillard: I had that exact same thing happened just about two weeks ago I can't remember what movies it wasn't that I don't know where to find them yeah yeah.

yeah yeah.

what's a funny memory that you have of the store in any of the ways that you've interacted with it, or a memorable memory either one.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah um.

Well, I always I really appreciated that they, let me bring my dog in.

Like that would be one of our things to like go on a route and and walk with her, and they were always really sweet and they had dog treats and she would be like well that's why we're here right it's for the dog treats um.

But I think the biggest thing is just the i'm like I said before, i'm the oldest and I have, I have my siblings and.

When the girls get together a big thing we would do actually is go and we would all rent just oodles of videos and then go.

To my house and snack and sleep over and everything like that, and so it was just really fun to be able to do that with my sisters and we we don't really have that now and.

We would do that, we were all in retail and working in on Main Street actually and I remember Christmas time, especially Christmas Eve, we were all just done, we did not like.

We didn't want to do anything else, with people, and so we would get done close our shops and everything, and we would usually have like a stack of videos that we could take home and just chill out and.

Just start watching these videos until Christmas morning, which is then we would be with our family and stuff.

And that's definitely that's again for my family at least the video store it just always offered a family connection for us, and that was always a really a really nice thing so yeah and that's even for Christmas actually.

Well, we didn't do this last year because of code that would mess a bunch of stuff up but we watch bad James Bond movies on Christmas morning and so that would be the thing to have you know go part of the movies would get would be like Okay, we need them really bad one.

yeah yeah.

Monique Lillard: I remember saying I thought, some of our most valuable movies, were the worst movies, the movies that nobody would ever think to preserve.

You know, because.

Lauretta Campbell: they're so terrible streaming on netflix you know.

Monique Lillard: yeah so.

Lauretta Campbell: yeah yeah.

Monique Lillard: What have I forgotten to ask you anything else you want to say.

Lauretta Campbell: Ah um.

I think the biggest thing.

I think the biggest thing just really and i'm by no means trying to shift blame here at all, but the thing that really surprised me the most was that.

I guess is like the last thing, this is a bittersweet thing is that so many people at first said yes, I want to support it and then just didn't follow through on it and, and I mean, I know I come from a privileged background and everything but i'm I say that and.

I, I think.

The 2019 extra remember I made $19,000 that year but that's what my taxes say I made and and I still was like well i'm gonna pay my videos and I still did it and so that's that was just kind of one thing that always was like come on.

We just want to break even please.

And so that that was actually kind of a bittersweet surprise.

And, and I know I just come from it, I think, from a different angle of I I bought hyperspace very.

Without thinking of it much my dad always ran a business, as I was growing up, and so it just was kind of like well, what do you mean we wouldn't.

support it, we wouldn't have a video store and everything and then I remember talking with some of my friends, though, and they're like what do you like a video store or you legit and.

You know i'm like yeah video store.

Which is where when I started changing my narrative a bit more to like it's a library.

yeah.

yeah but.

um but yeah I might that might be something I get back to you on if I think of anything but just the biggest thing.

I mean, I remember some of the kids I babysat for even it would be a thing we'd go to the video store.

And I mean this is just a couple of years ago, so these are kids who have grown up with cell phones their entire life and instagram and streaming and everything.

But it was such a novelty to go to the video store and I was amazed at how few of their friends knew that it was right downtown and everything which was really just for their parents when i'm like did you know that that we have this we have this awesome awesome resource, but yeah yeah.

Monique Lillard: Okay anything else.

Lauretta Campbell: I don't think so, but all I know, though.

Let me know and when I.

Monique Lillard: read this i'm going to turn off the recording and then, if you'll stay on for just a second.

Okay let's see here.

We go do I want to stop recording.