Be Kind, Rewind: Bardertown Brings VHS Rentals Back to West Michigan

In a world of endless scrolling and digital overstimulation, a new business in West Michigan is inviting you to slow down, press play, and maybe even rewind.

Bardertown, a soon-to-open specialty shop on the corner of Porter Street and Byron Center Avenue in Wyoming, is throwing it back to the days of late fees, tape tracking, and Friday night trips to the video store.

With a name that nods to both Michigan slang and a Mad Max outpost, Bardertown is all about one thing: bringing physical media back into the spotlight. From VHS tapes and DVDs to Blu-Rays and refurbished VCRs, Bardertown offers a curated collection of thousands of movies for rent or sale.

Most rentals will cost around a dollar, with many movies available to buy for as little as $5, and the kids’ section will be completely free to rent. (Could you imagine how great this would have been in those blockbuster days? Might as well make up for it now!)

Bardertown’s opening comes at a time when streaming services, despite their convenience, often leave older films behind. Cult classics like Dogma have never been released on streaming platforms due to licensing issues, and many beloved ’80s and ’90s titles have quietly disappeared.

For film lovers, collectors, and nostalgic moviegoers, Bardertown offers something many thought was lost forever: the ability to hold a movie in your hands and watch it as it was originally intended.

The shop will be open Friday and Saturday evenings, the perfect window when families, couples, and film fans are usually looking through streaming menus wondering what they're going to watch again. Instead, they can now pop into Bardertown, rent a movie and even borrow a player if needed.

It really is like the revival of those family trips to Blockbuster and Family Video that we always took when I was a kid. I can't wait to share that with my son, too.

And if you’ve got an old VCR collecting dust? Bardertown’s owner, Grimes, will gladly fix it up so you can build your home archive.

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Ahead of its grand opening on August 22, Bardertown is hosting sneak peek weekends to give curious movie buffs a glimpse of what’s in store. So dig out your popcorn bucket and get ready, because movie night in West Michigan is about to go fully analog again.