Want to know more about how Morningside managed to trade a DVD store for a makeup establishment? While the Columbia location of Kim’s may have closed at the start of the school year, the East Village location closed up shop January 17th, and on Thursday, The New York Times ran an article about that location’s rise and fall.  

By 2008, according to the article, Kim’s had 55,000 films in its collections, many of them were quite rare. But without the benefit of Netflix or other rental facilities, the DVDs went without customers. At its peak in the nineties, 200,000 people were in the Kim’s database.  In 2008, roughly 1,500 were still active members.

What will happen to the East Village’s location’s collection? Last year, Mr. Kim promised to donate his entire collection to anyone who would maintain and make available the entire collection. However, he failed to find anyone in the United States who would do so. Instead, collectors in Salemi, Italy offered to take the collection, where it will arrive later this month.

As we’re stuck with Netflix now, check out our post on good things to watch instead of doing homework.