ALPHAVILLE 1997-2010
THE SHORT VERSION (the long version)
After more than 13 years in business, Alphaville International Video Store has decided to shut down for good.
We will be selling off all our stock beginning Sept. 1st 2010 while still retaining a healthy selection of Rental DVDs.
Sales will continue until early November, ending with a farewell-party to which you are all cordially invited.
We invite you to come visit, buy a piece of history, pay up your debts or just say bye.
It's been nothing but grand.
THE LONG VERSION (the short version)
Ok, so we all deserve a bit more than that, right?
Here's the thing: times change. And in regards to our line of business, they changed radically. It's not even about new forms of availability, legal, illegal or otherwise. It's about expectations, about the way we perceive and consume, how certain demands can no longer be satisfied with archaic forms of commerce.
And people change. Many of us moved on, went on to new directions, found other things to waste their time with. Some of us continued in one form or the other, but we just realized we could no longer invest the time and love that would be necessary to keep the business going the way we wanted it to.
And as much we loved being your friendly neighbourhood videostore, a neuralgic meeting point for all types of cineastically and culturally interested minds, an integral part of the Freihausviertel - we had the bitter realization that it was simply time for us to make a hard decision in regards to the future of Alphaville. We spent many months considering various forms of remodelling, went through different scenarios of collaborative efforts that could continue, in some form or another, what we envisioned all those years ago.
In the end, we opted for the only version we could stand behind with all our heart: a clear and clean cut.
When we opened back in Spring of 1997 we obviously had no idea of the incredible impact this small germ of an idea would have on our lives. After a couple months of searching for an adequate locale in an interesting location we stumbled upon the Schleifmühlgasse which, we can assure you, was nothing like it is today. Few bars, no galleries, lots of long-empty stores - tumbleweed city. Hadn't it been for Bobby's Food Store (and Johnny's Pub, we admit it), we had never even considered moving into this area. But as fate would have it, it turned out to be the best decision we could have possibly made. We had 9 new members the day we opened, and rented out 11 movies.
Years passed, formats went, others came, some made it, some didn't. New neighbours moved in, others moved away, we hired people, fired people (ok, so we never actually could bring ourselves to do that), some didn't work out, others never stopped working out but had to move along anyway. We had grand celebrations and even grander ones, made great, great friends and even a few enemies. We had our own soccer-team (Realphaville, FTW!), award-winning advertising and even our share of celebrities, go figure. We wanted to be pioneers, mediators, advisers and raconteurs and tried never to lose our passion for the thing that connected all the dots: namely film, in all its forms and appearances and trends. We like to think we did pretty well...
And if all of this was way more than we could've ever hoped for, it's you (yes, you) who made it truly worthwhile. We could not have survived without all the years of support, patronage and copious late-fees. Or without the suggestions, criticism and, erm, interesting questions some of you came to us with.
We have countless memories of the thousands and thousands of people who walked through our doors and we couldn't possibly begin to recount them all. But we'd ask you, if you're in the mood for it, to share some of yours.
As of Sept. 1st we will be offering the majority of our stock up for sale. We'll still have a healthy selection of rental titles for you to keep you going until we shut down for good, but most everything will be sold and once it's gone, it's gone!
Every Saturday we plan to have a little flea-market with some special deals and maybe music and drinks. And us.
We plan to continue the sale until early November, when we will host a farewell party to which you are cordially invited. Details on that - and more - coming soon on www.alphaville.at
Until then.
If you'd like to contact us directly we'd be happy to hear from you:
office@alphaville.at
Norman Shetler (norman@alphaville.at)
Georg Schneider (sho@alphaville.at)
Gox (gox.at)
Lucas Vossoughi (www.birdman-artboy.com)
Claus Goldschmidt (claus@alphaville.at)
P.S.:
cold turkey? we heartily recommend the following alternatives for your viewing pleasure:
http://www.oz-cinethek.at , 1070 Vienna
http://www.8einhalb.at , 1090 Vienna