Kim's Video: A Eulogy
Kim's Video in NYC is closing. I worked for the company for six months. Memories...
I often found myself working at video stores after I made movies. The cycle went like this: I'd have a great time managing movie theaters (and by great time I mean working 80 - 90 hours per week when business warranted it, usually without extra pay), and then I would quit those jobs to make movies, and then when I absolutely ran out of money, the first work I could find was usually managing a video store. That's not even an option any more!
But Kim's was one of a kind...even when there were four of them. Now there's one, and it's going out of business.
I trained at the West Side store, but wound up at the Bleecker Street store - directly beneath the location that had once been the Bleecker Street Cinemas, where SLIME CITY had its midnight run. That was great for my self esteem...not.
Mr. Kim was a Korean (I assume he still is). A tall, imposing Korean. A bootlegger once set up outside one of his stores, and became testy when Kim ordered him to move. I did not witness the violence that followed, so I must use the word "allegedly."
Mr. Kim had four children at the time: Gold Kim, Silver Kim, Platinum Kim, and Copper Kim. I always wondered if Copper suffered from self esteem issues.
The District Manager among the four stores was Mr. Cho, a former army general. I liked him. Our bathroom didn't have warm water, and we weren't allowed to run AC during the summer. A young lady who worked there passed out from the heat. Mr. Kim sent Mr. Cho to take her a sandwich at her home. That was nice.
We had a couple of Jamaican security guards at our location. I liked both of them. One of them was famous for standing outside the store, asking customers what they wanted, going inside, stealing the item, going back outside, and selling the item to the customer. Everyone knew him.
Most of the staff was stealing too. From a manager's POV, it wasn't "if" but "when," and I had to fire them by the truckload. Give a hipster college kid who pretends he hates money the key to the store room and he will rob you blind. Of course, my fellow manager was stealing too. When we had a big meeting about store theft, she loaded two shopping bags with laser discs just in case she got fired. She didn't, and she took the two bags home anyway. There was no way of stemming this corruption, which is why I finally quit.
The sweatshops conditions weren't the only thing that motivated the staff to steal. Kim's was basically a criminal operation, with four duplication machines running in the back room. We rented and sold VHS tapes that came with "Please turn disc over" messages halfway through each tape. The illicit activity began at the top and went to the bottom.
It was a great place to work, though; every one of us used our employee benefits to take home four free rentals a night, it was a great way to see films you'd never even heard about. And we were paid off the books, which is always nice when you're young. I remember when the other manager (with all the laser discs) and I had to fire someone for some reason (could it have been...stealing?). She actually said, "I have a friend who writes for the Village Voice, and if you fire me I'm going public that we all get paid off the books and don't get breaks." We relayed this to Mr. Cho, who laughed and said, "Let her." All of the people who passed through that place, got fired, and probably reported them, and nothing ever happened. There must have been payoffs galore, suggesting that the corruption didn't start at Mr. Kim's level.
Chloe Sevigny was a regular customer there. She'd rent four movies at a time, all of them starring the same actress. Marky Ramone came in a lot too; he liked the Mondo films. And Spike Lee used to buy a lot of laser discs.
What a crazy place.
I often found myself working at video stores after I made movies. The cycle went like this: I'd have a great time managing movie theaters (and by great time I mean working 80 - 90 hours per week when business warranted it, usually without extra pay), and then I would quit those jobs to make movies, and then when I absolutely ran out of money, the first work I could find was usually managing a video store. That's not even an option any more!
But Kim's was one of a kind...even when there were four of them. Now there's one, and it's going out of business.
I trained at the West Side store, but wound up at the Bleecker Street store - directly beneath the location that had once been the Bleecker Street Cinemas, where SLIME CITY had its midnight run. That was great for my self esteem...not.
Mr. Kim was a Korean (I assume he still is). A tall, imposing Korean. A bootlegger once set up outside one of his stores, and became testy when Kim ordered him to move. I did not witness the violence that followed, so I must use the word "allegedly."
Mr. Kim had four children at the time: Gold Kim, Silver Kim, Platinum Kim, and Copper Kim. I always wondered if Copper suffered from self esteem issues.
The District Manager among the four stores was Mr. Cho, a former army general. I liked him. Our bathroom didn't have warm water, and we weren't allowed to run AC during the summer. A young lady who worked there passed out from the heat. Mr. Kim sent Mr. Cho to take her a sandwich at her home. That was nice.
We had a couple of Jamaican security guards at our location. I liked both of them. One of them was famous for standing outside the store, asking customers what they wanted, going inside, stealing the item, going back outside, and selling the item to the customer. Everyone knew him.
Most of the staff was stealing too. From a manager's POV, it wasn't "if" but "when," and I had to fire them by the truckload. Give a hipster college kid who pretends he hates money the key to the store room and he will rob you blind. Of course, my fellow manager was stealing too. When we had a big meeting about store theft, she loaded two shopping bags with laser discs just in case she got fired. She didn't, and she took the two bags home anyway. There was no way of stemming this corruption, which is why I finally quit.
The sweatshops conditions weren't the only thing that motivated the staff to steal. Kim's was basically a criminal operation, with four duplication machines running in the back room. We rented and sold VHS tapes that came with "Please turn disc over" messages halfway through each tape. The illicit activity began at the top and went to the bottom.
It was a great place to work, though; every one of us used our employee benefits to take home four free rentals a night, it was a great way to see films you'd never even heard about. And we were paid off the books, which is always nice when you're young. I remember when the other manager (with all the laser discs) and I had to fire someone for some reason (could it have been...stealing?). She actually said, "I have a friend who writes for the Village Voice, and if you fire me I'm going public that we all get paid off the books and don't get breaks." We relayed this to Mr. Cho, who laughed and said, "Let her." All of the people who passed through that place, got fired, and probably reported them, and nothing ever happened. There must have been payoffs galore, suggesting that the corruption didn't start at Mr. Kim's level.
Chloe Sevigny was a regular customer there. She'd rent four movies at a time, all of them starring the same actress. Marky Ramone came in a lot too; he liked the Mondo films. And Spike Lee used to buy a lot of laser discs.
What a crazy place.
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