Like so many other video stores, TLA migrating online

Philadelphia’s TLA video stores are the latest casualty of a national movement toward renting movies by mail or streaming them online. TLA once had stores throughout the area. Now the shop at Locust and 15th Streets is getting the ax, and there are plans to shutter the one in Bryn Mawr.

TLA Entertainment Group President Raymond Murray said it’s kind of like when your 90-year-old uncle dies.

“It’s sad, but it’s not unexpected,” said Murray. “You’ve prepared for it and it had a good life.”

Murray said after decades of success, it’s time to move on. He said the closing is a direct result of the growing popularity of movie streaming and rentals by mail.

“We held on for a really long time and then just a few years ago we started to see the drop and we thought OK we can live with this—cut some things and get a little better at running things—but the last I would say 18 months, the bottom fell out of it,” he said.

Murray said the Locust Street store had a diverse group of customer including students, professionals coming from nearby office buildings, and people from Rittenhouse Square. He says TLA is focused on offering services through its website.

 

 

How do you feel about the shuttering of the TLA stores? Will you now support TLA online? What are your best movie memories from TLA? Let us know in the comments below.