Rain City Video

I love Netflix, but I also like to balance it with a visit to our local video/dvd store. Rain City Video on the corner of Market and 8th is quite small (if you blink, you might miss it jammed next to the Texaco) and yet it manages to have a remarkably diverse and deep selection of movies in all genres. You can still find movies like Female Trouble alongside Harry Potter here. Okay, maybe not right alongside but you get my meaning. The bonus of Rain City is that they carry many of the same movies as Scarecrow Video without the credit card deposits. People in the know will tell you that because it's not as popular as Scarecrow (the Seattle film buff's paradise) they actually HAVE the movies you're looking for. Lastly, the staff is friendly and helpful in recommending new flicks. If you're a horror film fan, check with Tom for the latest releases and old school must sees. more

Rain City is my favorite local video store. They have two locations in Ballard, so I can’t even imagine going anywhere else. The main difference between an independent video store and the chains is that places like Rain City have the weird, hard to find stuff, and the staff seems to have intimate knowledge of their entire stock. Screw Netflicks! When I want to interact with a human being, or just rent something obscure that hasn’t been released on DVD yet, I come here. They have a two-for-one special twice a week (Wed and Thurs I believe), so it really isn’t that much more expensive for the savvy renter. more