In an era dominated by streaming apps, a Lakewood shop is betting that browsing shelves still beats scrolling a menu. Vinegar Syndrome sells physical media, including new and used DVDs, Blu-ray discs and VHS tapes, and it recalls the days when a quiet Friday night meant a couple of rented movies and a pizza.
The appeal of a video store, as The Denver Post's Staff Favorites series describes it, lies in pulling a disc off the shelf, reading the synopsis and studying the cover art. Shoppers can stumble onto titles they never knew existed. A store's inventory is not governed by a streaming algorithm, and a physical copy does not vanish from an app's catalog.
The shop also carries T-shirts along its back wall and a few bookshelves near the entrance. Cult cinema is the emphasis, but the store stocks more mainstream titles too, especially in its used DVD section, for customers who prefer something less adventurous.
The name comes from the parent company, an independent film preservation, restoration and distribution firm based in Connecticut. It specializes in lost, forgotten or endangered exploitation and genre films and releases them under the Vinegar Syndrome label. The Lakewood store sells those releases along with titles from other labels. "Our number one goal is film restoration, and that's the roots," said David Britton, the store manager.
The retail operation opened in 2022 as The Archive, attached to the company's distribution warehouse in Aurora. When the company sold the warehouse, the new owners did not want to lease space to a video store. The shop closed for a few months and then reopened in Lakewood in 2025.
Britton said he does not want the focus on obscure films to put off newcomers, and he acknowledged that independent record and video stores often carry a reputation for pretension. "You're not going to find that here," he said. Customers who feel lost can ask staff for guidance. "We don't expect every customer that walks in to be fully educated in the obscure titles we tend to deal with," Britton said. "It's a celebration of genre and cult cinema through and through."
With Halloween approaching, the store offers plenty of horror. A recent visit by the Staff Favorites writer yielded "Rush Week," a 1980s slasher, and "Bring Her Back," an Australian supernatural horror film, both from the new shelf. Also in the haul was "Good Luck Miss Wycoff," a 1970 Norm Chomsky film that touches on menopause, sexuality and racism.
The used bins produced "The Dynamite Brothers," a 1970s mashup of Kung Fu and Black action, a Frankenstein double feature from Universal Studios, and a $7 copy of "Toxic Shark."
Vinegar Syndrome is at 6451 W. Colfax Ave., in the same plaza as Casa Bonita. It is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and closed on Mondays.
