For 33 Years, The Video Store in Levittown Has Stood the Test of Time

Video stores have come and gone, but one remains engrained into the history of Levittown, molding and developing as technology does everything it can to put it out of business.

Despite the times and how they’re changing, on April 15, John and Alice Tardino, will celebrate 34 crazy, but proud years as owners of Levittown’s The Video Store.

The quaint, but expanding store nestled between a small strip mall and a Wells Fargo on New Falls Road has become used to adapting to whatever it has to so it can remain in business. Once across the street from a now closed Blockbuster Video, The Video Store has stood the test of time, and Alice said they keep working to expand and fit the needs of the neighborhood.

Once just a store for videos and equipment, over time the Tardino’s have included the sale of video games, lottery tickets, passports, picture developing, video transfers and even fingerprinting services.

“We want to keep ourselves relevant that’s why we continue to bring in needs that suit the community,” Alice said. “We do so many darn things here.” In fact, they may be one of the few places that still develops 35mm film.

As a young couple with a family in the late 1970s, John and Alice thought owning a business in the electronics industry (at a time when video stores didn’t exist in the suburbs of Philadelphia), would put them at the forefront, today they remain one of the lone soldiers in a fight against tangible video stores and Redbox or Netflix.

“We wanted to go into a business that would be up and coming. John understood the electronics and that’s why it’s worked, we’ve gained trust from the community because he could always explain things to customers,” she said. “There are advantages here and that’s why people keep coming back.”

“We are not for everybody, I can’t compete  with the person that wants to order a video from their tv, that customer is just not my customer,” Alice said. “But not everybody in Levittown can afford to do that, so we offer the cheaper alternative.”

In fact at the Video Store you can rent three movies for three days for only $4.50. “We are able to get the movies sooner than other places, it’s part of our contract, people can even special order movies or call ahead and we’ll have the movie waiting for them.”

In a time of hustle and bustle and changing technology, the Tardino’s don’t seem worried for the fate of their business, as Alice so eloquently put it, “The competition has come in and out, and we just keep doing what we do.”