The last 18 months have been rather unkind to 5th Street. Since the beginning of last summer, the Walker’s Point thoroughfare has seen some notable local businesses leaving the street in fairly rapid succession. Hamburger Mary’s made the decision to close last July and embark on a (still active) search for a new space. MobCraft Beer closed its brewery in late 2024, quickly followed by Fuel Cafe in February of this year. Finally, The Laughing Tap made the decision to leave its original digs on 5th Street back in June, with plans to open elsewhere in the city in the coming months.
Still, there’s hope on the horizon for 5th Street. MobCraft reopened under new ownership last weekend. And starting next month, the street will also be home to a brand new video store that will specialize in selling classic titles in forgotten formats. You read that right: Milwaukee is getting a new video store! Good Shit Video will officially open for business at 908 S. 5th Street on Wednesday, October 1.
The new video store venture with a decidedly old focus is owned and operated by Mick Cleary, a lifelong film fan who started to significantly build up his VHS, DVD, Blu-ray collection at the outset of the pandemic. Now with thousands of titles in his possession, Cleary decided to funnel his love of movies and his appreciation of endangered media formats into a full-fledged retail store.
“I don’t like the notion of streaming services being able to put on and take off whatever they want when you’re paying a monthly subscription for something,” Cleary says. “For me, I’d just rather have something tangible to have, hold, and play myself without any ads popping up.”
Knowing he’s not alone in wanting to acquire physical media at a time in which streamers are charging more money than ever and titles both constantly bounce around and are regularly pulled from services with little-to-no notice, Cleary set out to find a space where he could set up shop and sell items from his ever-growing collection to other film fans. By sheer chance, he happened upon a vacant retail space near the heart of Walker’s Point when he drove by the property in June and spotted a “For Rent” sign in the window. He signed the lease in July and moved in shortly thereafter.
“It’s a beautiful space. It’s massive and it gives me room to expand things if I need to,” Cleary says. “I’m planning more movies, more decorations, and possibly more shelves.”
At this point, Good Shit Video’s 1,500 square feet of retail space features a wide range of VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray selections stocked on sprawling shelves that line three walls. There are also tables with discounted titles on tables in the center of the store, and a case in front with some relative rarities. There will also be a table near the shop’s entrance where local artists and makers can consign items.
Shoppers will encounter some familiar faces while browsing the more than 5,000 titles currently in Good Shit Video’s inventory. Full size figures of Beetlejuice, Leatherface, and Michael Myers all make cameos. Between the film-focused decor and the massive selection of titles that include horror films, classic comedies, and action flicks from the ’80s and ’90s on VHS, early aughts DVDs, TV show box sets, comedy specials and animated favorites, modern Blu-ray and 4K offerings, irreverent obscurities, and everything in between, it’s apparent that Cleary’s love of movies is at the forefront of the endeavor.
“I’ve noticed Milwaukee doesn’t really have a designated video store. A lot of media places will have lots of other things, but for a lot of cinephiles out there, I think it’s a nice thing to have a designated video store so they don’t have to go to a record store that has some videos or a video game store that has some movies,” Cleary says. “It’s a haven for like-minded cinephiles.”
Not only is Cleary making a point to not gatekeep by giving customers access to a wide selection of visual media in bygone formats, he’s even planning to up consumer accessibility by selling VCRs in his store to give folks the ability to watch their VHS purchases at home.
“I’m just very excited to get people excited about physical movies again,” Cleary says. “I think the market is here. It is very niche and I’m not going to become a millionaire overnight, but that’s okay. It’s more about the love of the game.”
Once it opens to the public in October, Good Shit Video will be open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Any changes to its hours will be announced that week on the store’s Instagram page. Cleary says he’s not interested in purchasing items from collectors at this time, though he would entertain trades. Reach out to him on Instagram to coordinate and do NOT show up with items without prior correspondence.
“The philosophy is I want the selection to be good shit, the customer service to be good shit, and the prices to be good shit,” Cleary says. “When customers come in and they look around and maybe buy something, I want them to have a good shit experience.”
