Employees and customers of Le Video are waiting to hear whether a prospective buyer will acquire the store and its massive film archive. If the deal goes through, the 90,000-title collection will be preserved, but "if that falls through, then we're probably going to have to start selling everything off," said store manager John Taylor. KQED first snagged the news yesterday.

"I was hoping we'd hear yesterday. We're on pins and needles," Taylor said. "If we hear back that they aren't interested or can't get funds together, then we don't really have time to find someone else," he added. "We're going to be out of here by the end of the year, regardless of what happens."

Le Video has operated in the Inner Sunset for 35 years, but the business has lost money in the years since cinephiles stared consuming more digital content. Last year, Le Video held a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to relocate the store to a smaller second-floor annex at 1231 9th Ave. The move enabled Green Apple Books on the Park, an offshoot of the Richmond district bookstore, to move into the ground floor.

Green Apple Books on the Park now occupies the entire ground floor.

To date, the change has worked out well for the bookstore, but Le Video hasn't seen an uptick in business. Taylor said he's optimistic that they'll find a buyer who'll preserve the archive and maintain it for the public. "I feel like there's going to be a future where we'll be viable again, especially since we were able to condense the amount of space we take up by quite a bit," he said.

The fact that Le Video has one of the largest private video archives in California makes the business inherently valuable, said Taylor, even in the age of streaming video. "When Netflix stops sending out discs completely, that's going to change things. All of the streaming sites seem to be specializing and shrinking their collections. Netflix now makes their own shows. They're going to be less concerned in the future with other people's movies because they're creating their own content," said Taylor.





With so many platforms for content delivery, Taylor said consumers will end up paying for cable as well as Internet broadcasters like Hulu, Netflix and others. "To have it all, you'd have to be paying for a lot of different services. I would think at some point, people will start realizing that."

Taylor said Le Video has considered partnering with other companies like ride-sharing services and food-delivery companies to reach customers. "It's been thought of, but I don't know if it went past that stage," he said. Top Video World, a nearby store that closed in May, "did local delivery service for the Sunset and the owner told me that a month later, he realized it was costing more money to do it," Taylor said.

Le Video doesn't need a larger space, Taylor said, "but [storage for] VHS is always a catch, since that's part of what makes our collection special."