![\"Ken](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/web-The-staff.jpg\")
Back in the 1980s, Hanford, a schoolteacher, got permission from his mom, Winifred \u201cWinnie\u201d Hanford, to utilize part of her gift store located at 4067 Adams Ave. for video rentals.<\/p>\n
Over time, gifts gradually gave way to videos. Kensington Video prospered for 30-plus years as perhaps San Diego’s premiere movie-rental mom and pop.<\/p>\n
But the internet and video streaming, plus heightened competition from mail-order businesses like Netflix and Redbox, dramatically altered the industry landscape.<\/p>\n
Corporate rentals like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video died. Demand for “old school” video stores like Ken Video dwindled.<\/p>\n
In March 2015, the Hanford family opted out of the video-rental business, closing their doors in the building they owned.<\/p>\n
But after an outpouring of support from the public, their initial \u201cretirement\u201d lasted only three months, with Guy resurfacing to announce plans to resurrect the video shop.<\/p>\n
Hanford’s new hybrid business model incorporated a juiceria in a remodeled, downsized space coupling it with a higher-tech, sleeker video-rental counter.<\/p>\n
The new concept allowed customers to find movies online, to be retrieved by Hanford and staff, rather than browsing store aisles themselves.<\/p>\n
Hanford noted that the new business concept didn’t \u201cfail,\u201d as much as it \u201cjust wasn’t as successful as we’d hoped.\u201d He said the juiceria, Vidajuice, didn’t catch on as quickly as expected, pointing out that fruit-juice places \u201coften take a couple of years to work by building up a reputation and a clientele.\u201d Vidajuice closed Dec. 31, 2016.<\/p>\n
And Hanford admitted that luring enough of his old customers back for a return engagement after their first retirement, necessary to make the new business model viable, proved to be a formidable challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are lots of places, including Amazon, where people can buy movies now, and they can get them on-demand or by streaming,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Of the newer video technologies, Hanford commented, \u201cWe’re on a technological super bullet train. It’s going in that direction, and you’ll have to either jump on \u2014 or jump off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanford said people \u201cjust don’t have as much time\u201d to watch movies now with all the varied interests vying for their time.<\/p>\n
Plus there’s now a generational divide with movie viewing. Older people are holding on to the hands-on video-store model, while younger people prefer the internet and the newer technologies.<\/p>\n
Hanford also lost some of his old clientele to his new business model, not quite realizing his other video storefront succeeded \u201cbecause people wanted to come in and browse and put their hands on it [videos]. That’s why I had thousands of films out on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is Ken Video’s demise a harbinger of the beginning of the end of movies as we’ve known them?<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Hanford answered unequivocally. \u201cBelieve me, movies will never go out of style. It’s a medium that will continue to change, imitate life, and create a reality that doesn’t even exist. Movies are so necessary as an art form, especially in the times right now that are so very divisive in this country. People can go to the movies and escape. People love this kind of stuff. And there are so many more great films now, especially from foreign cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 68-year-old Hanford said his re-imagining of Kensington Video might have succeeded if he and his 89-year-old mother Winnie were a bit younger.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don’t have the energy now to be any more creative than what we have been,\u201d he confessed.<\/p>\n
In the end, Guy said, \u201cwe just didn’t have enough customers to make it the second time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ironically, Kensington Video’s business, which was real slow the first of the year, has picked up considerably now with their going-out-of-business sale.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have joked with my saying I need to go out of business more often,\u201d Hanford said.<\/p>\n
Guy said his family is in the process of picking a retailer to occupy Kensington Video’s space once it closes. He wants the replacement to \u201cfit the neighborhood, be family oriented and a draw for customers bringing them to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the second coming of Kensington Video is drawing to a close, there will be an \u201cafterlife\u201d for Kensington’s home-grown mom and pop, Guy Hanford, and his lifelong movie passion collecting and exhibiting films.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a select group of customers I’ve known over the years \u2014 about 500 people \u2014 I will retain a relationship with and continue to rent\/sell to them,\u201d he said noting, though the details are yet to be worked out, that Kensington Video’s \u201cnext life\u201d will involve mail order and customer drop-off in Kensington.<\/p>\n
Of retirement, Hanford counseled, \u201cYou will have an adjustment, a sadness, a refocusing in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanford added that retirement is also a period of reflection. And for him, looking back on brick-and-mortar Kensington Video will always be a joy.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople just weren’t customers \u2014 they became our friends,\u201d he said. \u201cThey got to know our family, and we got to know theirs. My mom, especially, is going to miss that interaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continuing customers will be able to watch movie trailers and order movies online at kensingtonvideo.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n