Welcome to episode 239 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T and Yeastie Boys
Now – as you probably know, as well as the usual platforms (this site, soundcloud, iTunes/Apple) you can now get to Sweetman Podcast on Spotify – follow it there and have it saved in your Spotify library.
This week’s guest is Andrew Armitage, owner of Aro Video – one of the very last DVD and VHS rental stores standing and a legendary Wellington hang-out for film buffs. I’m lucky to live just up the road from Aro Video and for the last decade I’ve been a regular. I was a fan of the store and a visitor the decade before that too. When I arrived in Wellington in the mid-90s it was already the stuff of legend.
I’ve known Andrew for a while and have wanted to talk to him on the podcast for a while too – particularly because I’ve been a fan of his own podcast series, Back To The Disc Player; that’s on hiatus (there are just 20 episodes so it’s an easy enough thing to catch up on). Fingers crossed it returns.
We had a huge conversation – we have had a few rambling chats over the counter and occasionally at gigs – but here we talked a lot about Andrew’s life and the twin passions of music and movies. From there to the opening of the store and we get the life-story of Aro Video from its hit-the-ground-running VHS years, developing its cult section and status through to the DVD years and now hanging on for survival in the age of streaming.
But in and around this is Andrew’s story – his passion and knowledge and the way he built the story from the ground up.
We also geek out about podcasts and since Andrew has listened to a lot of the episodes of this show we do talk a bit about the Sweetman Podcast and how it too has been built, based on passion and knowledge and love for pop culture.
So it’s a big one – a long chat. But I loved the chance to finally get this story on tape. And I hope you enjoy hearing it too.
Aro Video’s service extends beyond Wellington with home-delivery and curated selections. So do check them out if you haven’t already.
Here now is episode 239 of Sweetman Podcast – my conversation with Andrew Armitage of Aro Video.
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