When Craig Smith opened the first Kitsap County video store at Kingston’s Country Corner in 1984, few would have predicted how the home video business would transform our viewing habits and usher in an era when our entertainment dollar could be invested in local businesses, each one a kind of local box office on the world stage of motion picture and video game entertainment.

But the dollars spent on home video are more than special effects, and the local success stories are writ large on the marquees of video stores throughout the county. Indeed, consumers rented videos more often than they went to theaters in 2001, according to the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA). Total video rental revenue hit a monstrous $8.42 billion in 2001.

And Craig Smith? He’s now the president of the VSDA Association’s Washington chapter, and was named the Rookie President of the Year for the entire USA in 2001. His Kingston and Hadlock Peninsula Video stores, while on the outskirts of the county’s population centers, are testament to his longevity and are a video lover’s delight, holding an impressive inventory in their vaults including the AFI’s Top 400 films and Top 100 Foreign films as well as special subject sections with hard-to-find titles and categories like Silent and Cult films.

In each Kitsap neighborhood, burg or warren, (including gas stations and grocery stores), there is a video rental outlet, each with its own distinctly local flavoring, each with its own special offerings to entice consumers, from 2-for-1 specials to scratch-off games, to drive-thru espresso and free movie posters. Hollywood Video’s most popular promotion is a $9.99 frequent buyer program - for 30 days, a customer can get 2 video titles or games for the price of one as well as select kids’ titles for free.

Total Video, owned by Gary Lundy, is an independent with five county-wide video stores that prides itself on service with a smile and on a first-name basis. Regular catalog titles can be checked out for a county-leading 7 days for the one low price of $2.17. Show your Kitsap Card and get one general release “catalog” title free with every new release rented. A $30.00 pre-pay Club card also offers a discount of $.50 on each item. Video game software and consoles are available for rental as well.

Some stores, like Bainbridge Island’s Island Movies, which stocks a large variety of foreign and independently-produced films, offer highly functional Websites where customers can reserve movies and track the accumulation of free movie credits (rent ten, get the 11th one free). Island Movies came out on top of our survey for best pricing on Bainbridge Island, just a dollar a day for first-run new releases and classic films, plus a 3-day rental period.

Silver Screen Video, the granddaddy of north county video with a single Bainbridge location carries a wide range of both VHS and DVD titles as well as game cartridges and consoles for rent. On the video side, Silver Screen is the only store in miles that still rents new release movies for just one day (Hollywood Video rents for 5 days, Blockbuster for 2 or 4 days on new releases, and Island Movies for 3). Owner Jerry Clark explains that the policy is to allow for hot titles to stay in circulation rather than be chronically out-of-stock.

But other stores, like Hollywood Video and Blockbuster, stock up on new releases and even guarantee those movies will be there for you when you arrive or you’ll get a rain check to rent them for free at another time. Blockbuster puts the most movies on “guaranteed-to-be-there-status.” For customers who upgrade to the Blockbuster Rewards program (a $10 annual fee), a second catalogue title is free with every new release rented Mon-Wed. How do they handle the excess inventory? The hot, new trend is to sell the movies as P-V, or previously viewed titles - and they go like hotcakes at greatly reduced prices.

Since market research data indicates we spend roughly $2,000 annually on entertainment, knowing where to shop can help s-t-r-e-t-c-h your entertainment dollar.