York Town News
Family-owned York Stop N Go Video bids farewell after 22 years
By Melissa Wood
YORK - The most surprising news about the closing of Stop N Go Video is not that it is closing but that it was able to remain open for so long.For the past 22 years, this family-owned and operated business has had three locations, adapted to technology changes from videotapes to DVDs, built an impressive collection of movies and developed a loyal customer following of both town residents and summer visitors to survive long after other "mom and pop" video stores in the Seacoast area shut their doors.
However, high rents and continued changes in technology have made it impossible for the popular store to beat the odds any longer, and it will be closing for good at the end of March.
When former owner Steve LaPointe, whose daughter Jen Clark currently owns and operates the video store, announced the closing to the York Rotary Club, he said the news was met with disappointment.
"They said, 'How come? What are we going to do?'" said LaPointe.
The LaPointe family has owned Stop N Go since 1985 when Steve, who held a job at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and his wife Marilyn, a manager with Continental Cablevision, jumped at the chance to buy the video store when it was up for sale at its original location on Route 1.
A couple of years later they moved the store across the street to the upstairs location at Dick Chase's, and in the early 1990s moved one more time to its present location in the Long Sands Plaza, taking the place of Norma's Restaurant, which had moved to its present location on Route 1.
LaPointe said the location was made possible by their landlord, the late Fred Baldwin, who, in a show of support for the locally-owned store, had to undo a lease with a video store chain in Kittery to rent the spot to the LaPointes instead.
"He saved our lives," said LaPointe.
That move was made overnight with just "me and three guys and two pickup trucks," said LaPointe, adding, "We opened up the next morning at 10 o'clock."
They have been at the Long Sands Road location ever since, building a steady stream of regulars who come not only to rent movies but also to "shoot the bull."
LaPointe said that although the store faced tough competition from services like Netflix, which offers movies by mail, and Blockbluster, which no longer charge late fees, Stop N Go had a large collection beyond the new releases usually offered by those stores and often require weeks of waiting to rent.
LaPointe said the arrival of DVD technology started the downfall for video stores.
"When we bought it (the store), it used to cost $72 to buy a VCR tape," said LaPointe.
On the other hand, he explained, DVDs cost around $20, making it attractive for people to buy movies rather than rent. Also, compared to videotapes, DVDs are easily damaged, and their sensitive surfaces require cleaning almost constantly to be read by the laser.
"The night staff, that was their biggest job," said LaPointe, who paid $3,000 for a machine to clean the disks. "All it takes is a fingerprint on the back side of it."
LaPointe said technology is expected to continue to change with the arrival of smaller disks - about the size of silver dollars - and the ability to download movies instead of rent them.
"It's all going to be on the Internet," he said.
Several years ago, LaPointe was on the verge of selling the store when his daughter said she wanted a chance to run it. LaPointe backed out of that sale and sold the store to Clark, who had started working there when she was 14.
"She just stepped right into it," said LaPointe, who now manages American Legion Post 56 in the same plaza. "She knew the business better than I did."
Clark knew the store so well that she could instantly recall account numbers when customers walked up to the counter.
"She knew every account number," said LaPointe.
LaPointe said that closing was a hard decision for his daughter to make. Although she has not spoken to the press about it, she has mailed letters to her customers explaining her decision. The store is selling all of its movies and electronics as it prepares to close its doors.
LaPointe said an overall increase in town rents was a major factor for the decision to close for the store, which needed enough space told hold all of its movies.
"If she really, truly, could have found a place that had the room and the parking she would have kept it open," said LaPointe.
He said the closing will also be felt in a couple of months by summer visitors who depend on the store's wide selection of movies for entertainment on vacation.
"The town of York does have a need," he said. "I don't know what they're going to do."
