A comeback for Charlotte retro retailers

A version of the following article appeared in the Aug. 17, 2026, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.

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by Cooper Hall

By the end of 2010, both Blockbuster and Hollywood Video had declared bankruptcy. Around that time, VisArt Video, a local independent video store, seemed to be headed for the same fate.

The store was in the process of selling rare film titles and was planning to close when Mickey Aberman, a local attorney, walked in.

“Mickey went in the middle of that and said, ‘Whoa, this place should be here. Can we stop this?’” said Gina Stewart, the executive director for VisArt Inc., the new name for VisArt Video.

Aberman bought the store and hired Stewart to manage operations. She looked over the store’s books and immediately questioned how it was ever going to survive. 

Fast forward to 2026, the store houses over 50,000 titles, which Stewart says is more than Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu combined. VisArt is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, featuring a courtyard, a small screening theater and a cafe, offering beer, wine, coffee and food.

In the past few months, Stewart said she has seen a growing number of people coming into VisArt to rent or buy movies, searching for the security and quality of a tangible good. 

Other retro stores in Charlotte have been experiencing the same heightened interest, some for even longer. 

Troy Tomlinson, the general manager at Biggs Camera, said the store processes more film now than it did in the 1990s.

“In the year 2025, we processed about 36,000 rolls of film, and that was up even from the year before that, which was up the year before that,” Tomlinson said. “It’s been trending up quite a bit.”

Tomlinson said the trend largely involves younger generations and began about 10 years ago, after the usage of film and film cameras dropped during the rise of digital cameras. 

Jimmy Parker, founder of Commonwealth Park record store Repo Record, had previously closed his store in 2005 when downloading, burning CDs and Napster, a platform for sharing music, became popular. But he decided to reopen the store in 2012 because vinyl was starting to make a comeback.

Scott Wishart, the founder of Lunchbox Records, a record store in Plaza Midwood, said his store has grown every year since it opened in 2005. 

“At this point, it’s a lot easier because records are cooler now than they were 20 years ago,” he said.

When Wishart first opened Lunchbox, he had more CDs than records because not every musician released their music on vinyl, but now, everyone does. Parker carries younger artists like TV Girl and Olivia Rodrigo in his store. He also noted there’s been a swell of effort in newer records’ design, with many featuring gold lettering, embossed covers or colored vinyl.

In part, it seems people are returning to retro products because of quality.

Wishart and Parker both said they think records sound better than music played on a phone. Parker described records as having “pop” and seeming to “come alive.”

Similarly, Tomlinson said film photo quality is different from a photo taken on a phone or a digital camera.

“It’s a true look,” he said. “It’s not a fake look that we’re seeing now coming out with some of the AI-generated stuff that you even have built into cameras and phones now. There’s a tonality to it that, especially with film, there’s a tone that you just can’t get even with regular digital cameras nowadays.”

Laura Lundie, a customer at Biggs, told The Ledger she noticed a difference in quality and vibe in how she looked in film photos her husband took of her versus a phone camera.

Stewart also said there’s a quality of experience that a movie rental store offers customers over streaming a film.

“There's a real nostalgia attached to walking in that store and having that movie in your hand,” she said. “People are very connected with spending a Friday night picking out two or three movies at Blockbuster.” 

Beyond quality, some feel that the renewed interest in older goods came from a desire to put down phones and get off social media.

“I think it’s kind of a backlash against all the digital stuff, and the way everything on social media is constantly just crammed down your throat,” Wishart said. “Well, I want something real in my life. It’s something that I chose. It’s real. It’s not just forced on me, the way everything is digitally.”

For a generation that grew up with a camera in their pocket, Tomlinson said he thinks film cameras take away the instant gratification of seeing a photo pop up as soon as you snap it.

Lundie brought two girls she nannies, Josie and Anna Clary Weindruch, to Biggs to buy Kodak Charmeras, small keychain digital cameras. The group agreed that using the Charmeras and disposable cameras, which the Weindruch girls bring to camp each year, forces you to be in the moment, taking away the option of checking a photo, putting on a filter or retaking the shot.

“You pull out your phone to do something, you can do a million different things and get distracted, but it’s good to be in the moment,” Lundie said.

Stewart said that, recently, more movies have been taken off streaming platforms, and people are finding out that they didn’t actually own the movies they bought online. This realization, she says, has created distrust of online platforms and companies, which has compelled more people to buy physical copies of movies and is bringing customers through VisArt’s doors.

“People are returning to us and walking out with armloads of movies that they want to have in their collection because it's so unsure whether you'll be able to see those movies [on streaming],” she said.

Wishart said owning a tangible record is more meaningful, and Parker noted that having the physical vinyl means customers don’t have to rely on their phone for streaming.

Both Weindruch girls also said they enjoy getting physical prints back after developing film from their disposable cameras.

“It’s tangible,” Tomlinson said. “You have something in your hand. It’s not going to get necessarily lost online if your phone dies or the internet goes down. It’s going to be there.”

Even with their recent success and popularity, retro stores are still faced with problems. 

Parker said he gets lots of customers looking for “old vinyl,” but he only gets records from people when someone dies or is downsizing, and most of the time the collection has already been picked through. Stewart said that VisArt continuing to be able to sustain itself is always a worry. However, she believes that the store's customers care about the business and the goods they offer.

“I have lived in Charlotte for 40 years now, and I've watched things go away that are heartbreaking, and I'm hoping that that isn’t what happens with retro organizations — Repo Records and Lunchbox Records and our friends who are doing similar things,” she said. “I'm hoping that Charlotte loves us enough to make sure that we don't close.”

Cooper Hall is a summer reporting intern for The Charlotte Ledger. She is a rising junior at UNC Chapel Hill, double-majoring in media and journalism and exercise and sport science. She can be reached at [email protected].