Reckless Turns 20
An interview with Mike Kelley, owner of Reckless Video
For 20 years, Reckless Video has proudly been a staple in the Maple Leaf community. Most people don’t simply stop by Reckless to rent movies, that can be accomplished by other means. What makes people stop by Reckless is the people they recognize in front of the counter, like friends and neighbors and the staff behind the counter who are always prepared to send people home with a good movie in their hand.
The origins of Reckless lay within Owner Mike Kelley’s passion for film. He briefly co-owned a video store in Ballard before leaving that venture and opening his own store. “We split our shares and I opened up Reckless Video on my own up here, because I wanted to stay in the video business, and it was a lot of fun. Good service, good place to apply service principals and concepts. Mostly just a very fun industry, and I wanted to stay in it. And Maple Leaf didn’t have a video store really to speak of and there was a great opportunity up here on the hill,” Kelley said.
In the last two decades, a lot has changed in and around Reckless, including Mike’s acquisition of Ace Hardware next door. But the core ideas that he founded the store on have endured to this day, even in the face of a ever-changing industry. One that has seen the rise and fall of competitors such as Hollywood and Blockbuster Video.
“The basic premise of the business hasn’t changed a bit, but everything around it sure has including not just the formats, but when you got into it twenty years ago it was a growth industry. People were opening up video stores all over. Which we saw again later in the coffee industry. Similar widespread independent pursuits, and the chains evolved and became enormous. Blockbuster became the gorilla, and they were revered and feared and resented all at the same time. Nobody wanted one coming into their neighborhood because they changed the economics of video rentals within their market.” said Kelley.
Reckless’ biggest set back occurred on Thanksgiving 2001, when it burned down at it’s original location. The neighborhood quickly and loudly requested that Reckless return to the neighborhood.At closing on Wednesday night before the fire 649 movies had been rented. The neighborhood not only came together with a fund raiser for the newly jobless employees, but returned 629 of the movies.
“There was a very vocal component from the neighborhood saying, ‘Hey, please reopen’. I got letters, cards and people telling me in person when I’d run into them really encouraging Reckless to reappear,” said Kelley.
Reckless Video quickly reappeared at the corner of 91st and Roosevelt where it stands to this day. Most people know it as “that little blue house” which is a very apt description considering that the store was in fact a previously unoccupied house.
“We changed the zoning with the city and rebuilt and reopened all within 4 ½ months. The fire was Thanksgiving Day and we were open for St. Patrick’s day, so that was fast work,” Kelley said.When asked if he envisioned Reckless still being a preferable destination in the neighborhood after 20 years, Kelley replied in Yoda like fashion.
“Hard to really see that far into the future. Cloudy, it is. The idea was the same and the idea at the old spot had lasted about that long. I think at the time I was just glad to get it open, glad that people responded and saw that we had a lot of growing to do in a new space and how we were going to run the business and right away saw that it was part of community interaction again. That re-enforced the whole point of making the effort and the risk to reopen the business. So yes, and no. I’m very pleased that it is, certainly”.
And for those who ever wondered why the store is called “Reckless Video”, Mike replied with a smirk on his face. “Because that’s what Yoda calls Luke in the cave.”
David