Students seeking a specific movie may not have to look much further than Video Spectrum at 122 E. Washington Street. Co-owner Suzanne Wilkins described Video Spectrum as a ‘movie buff’s paradise.’ According to her, the movie rental business has over 20,000 movies. ‘We have a lot of the movies that people are searching for that you can’t find anywhere else because we have been collecting for 29 years,’ she said. ‘We try to get a little bit of everything instead of just a whole bunch of copies of just the new movies,’ employee Sarah Doyle said. The store opened April 6th, 1981. Suzanne and the other co-owner, Bill Wilkins, decided to open the store after getting a beta player, a competitor of the VCR over two decades ago, and being fascinated by it. ‘We were able to watch movies at home and we thought, ‘How neat is this?” Wilkins said. ‘And then we thought, ‘Why don’t we just open up a movie store in Bowling Green?’ and that’s what we did.’ Wilkins said they were careful when they opened because the industry had not decided on Beta or VHS. ‘We bought real light,’ she said. ‘We were real careful. When we first started the business, the trade magazines seemed to be leaning toward VHS at the time.’ When it opened, the store only had 65 VHS tapes and 13 Beta tapes. Since then, the store has been gaining movies and rarely getting rid of them. ‘We haven’t thrown away too many movies,’ Wilkins said. ‘We have an extensive back catalog. We carry VHS, DVDs, and Blu-ray.’ The store gets a wide range of customers, from students to faculty members to regulars who have been coming in for years, Wilkins said. She said customers come from all over, many even come down from Toledo. Customer Nathan Sherrick said he likes to rent from Video Spectrum because it doesn’t cost very much. ‘It is cheaper than Blockbuster or Movie Gallery,’ he said. ‘But it has the same movies and more of a variety than one of those video kiosks at like Wal-Mart.’ While economic issues typically mean a decrease in sales, Wilkins said there has been an increase in rentals. Doyle, who has worked there for five years, believes this is because Video Spectrum offers a low cost way to spend an evening. ‘It is like the cheapest you can spend on an evening,’ she said. Though services that allow customers to rent by mail or watch streaming videos online have become more popular, Wilkins said some customers still prefer to just come in to the store. ‘People still like coming here where they get personal service, a smile, and knowledgeable people behind the counter,’ she said. Customers who may not know the title of a film are advised to just ask the staff. ‘That’s one of my favorite games. ‘It’s this movie about a guy, and he is doing this thing,’ Doyle said. She said she has learned a lot about films from working at the store. If the store doesn’t have the movie you are looking for, you can request it. ‘We take requests. Especially from faculty and students who need it for class,’ Wilkins said. ‘All you have to do is come in and talk to me.’ Besides guessing movie titles, both Wilkins and Doyle said their favorite part about the store was just talking to customers. ‘You make good friends. Some of our regulars come in and it’s like ‘Cheers,” Doyle said. She joked that the store just needs a theme song and bar stools. ‘There is a personal touch here,’ she said. ‘We get to know our customers. Some people have been coming here for 20 years. It is just a fun place to come in.’