VIDEO RENTALS BOOM AT LOCAL BUSINESSES

If it were up to Virginia Wiedefeld, Cape Girardeau summers would bring nothing but rain, and winters nothing but slush and snow and freezing temperatures.

It's not that Wiedefeld dislikes the outdoors; she would just rather see people indoors - watching movies.

"This business is so weather-oriented. You do your best during the extremes," says Wiedefeld, co-owner of Videos 'N' Creme.

"Winter is a much bigger rental time, especially when it's real cold. I had a man come in the other day who hasn't been in since March," Wiedefeld said.

This summer, however, has been better than most, says John Jump, a senior vice president of sales at St. Louis-based Sight and Sound Distributors. Sight and Sound Distributors is the primary wholesaler for about 30 video rental businesses in the area from Southern Illinois to as far north as St. Genevieve.

"The flooding helped a lot of our retailers down there," Jump said. "Comedies seemed to be the most popular. It's an escapism, and the flood accentuated it."

Just as everywhere else, the video rental business has expanded rapidly in Cape Girardeau. In the city alone, there are nearly 10 stores that rent videos, including the major ones: Food Giant, Schnucks, Videos 'N' Creme, Fun Flicks, Shop N Save and Del Farm.

Come Nov. 12, the newest kid on the block will be video behemoth Blockbuster Video, which has more than 3,200 stores in the system.

The 5,400-square-foot store at 2502 William will offer some 10,000 video titles for rent and about 2,000 titles for sale.

Jeff Rosenberg, vice president of the franchisee, Florida-based Bluegrass Video, said the store will stock videos in six categories, including 1,000 different games.

Like many residents, Cape Girardeau's Steve Fritzler has memberships at five different stores and uses them for the sake of convenience. "They're free. It just depends what part of town I'm in. I was at the post office so I came over here," he said, referring to Del Farm on Sprigg Street.

"We hardly go to the movies, so we'll scan the new releases, then we'll go to the $1 movies to see if there's something he likes," he said, pointing to his son Jonathan.

The competition apparently isn't discouraging entrepreneurs from entering the video business. Rathael Fambro and Leonard Johnson opened Mo' Better Videos in July.

"Around Cape it's very competitive, but if you pick a good location it can be lucrative," Leonard Johnson said. "You have to give the customers what they want."

Mo' Better is trying to build its niche by renting films of particular interest to African Americans, and then expanding its collection of popular new-release movies.

Overall, it is nearly impossible to tell how many movies are rented a day. Most stores are reluctant to divulge such information. However, Wiedefeld estimates that she rents between 150 and 200 a day during the summer. During the winter that number can jump to as high as 400.

If the other major rental places do similar business, anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 movies depending on the time of year may be rented nightly. The figures are even higher Thursday through Sunday, the peak rental days.

"What's surprising is that the level of marketing is as good as anywhere in the country," said Jump, who estimates that about 5,000 tapes are rented nightly in the Southeast Missouri region, including the cities of Cape Girardeau, Sikeston and Jackson.

What Del Farm and others have done is to allow members to take movies out for at least two days instead of one. "No one gets just one tape anymore. We rent them for two nights because it encourages people to get more tapes," said Jim Sturm, Del Farm store manager.

Typically, according to several store managers, once a tape has been rented 20-25 times it has paid for itself. Any rentals beyond that constitute profit.

Video and shopping stores buy movies from retailers like Sight and Sound for $79 to $99. For new releases most stores then rent them for $3. For a popular movie like "A Few Good Men," a large grocery store will buy at least 15 tapes.

A store's movie-buyer will select films that did extremely well at the box office. When it comes to a B movie, one that may be interesting but is not generally known, a store will buy only three or four, Sturm says.

The smaller video rental shops cannot afford to purchase the B movies, said Jump. "The larger stores can buy the B movies and give them exposure. With the small stores, they have to concentrate just on the hits."

The hits are the newly released films - ones that any good manager knows she must stock up on. "People used to watch more of a variety. Now you have to keep your store full of new releases," Wiedefeld said. "Everybody wants what's hot."

"New releases are by far the most popular, especially among the young," said Denny Marchi, Schnucks Food and Drug store manager.

The hot new movie now is Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven." A film like that will sell briskly for over three months; then, all but a few tapes will be sold for a minimum of $9.99.

There are exceptions. Movies featuring stars with staying power are kept on store shelves for years. Hollywood actors with that kind of pull include Eddie Murphy, Tom Cruise and Kevin Costner.