[Dave Ringer] won't be around for the pumpkin-foolery this time. His wife landed a job in Kelowna in 2004 and Ringer now spends about two-thirds of his year out west. ("It's amazing how much you can accomplish on a phone and computer," he says.) Come Oct. 31, Ringer will be at home in B.C., chaperoning his three trick-or-treating daughters.

"(The first store) was 675 square feet, with a tiny little basement," Ringer says. "We had so many movies but we could only put a finite number on display. It used to kill me when people would ask for a movie that I knew I had in a box in the basement or in a storage room back home."

"I felt it was worthwhile to keep the doors open so people who were going back and forth knew I was there; it always surprised me that people were renting late, late at night." (Ringer suspects, mind you, that the majority of midnight rentals are returned unwatched. "I think people put them in and then doze off; I know I do.")