Evanston filmmaker plans movie store on Chicago Avenue, betting on physical media

Award-winning director and screenwriter Stirling McLaughlin, an Evanston resident, always thought that if he won the lottery, he would open a video store in Evanston. He never won the lottery, but he’s opening the video store, Movies the Store, anyway. “Kind of without me noticing,” McLaughlin told the Evanston RoundTable, “I just started moving into what was pretty serious business planning.” From fantasy to reality His fantasizing about a lottery win led him to start thinking about what kinds of products he would sell, how much money he would realistically need to start and what storefronts might be able to house the store. This summer, he started looking seriously for a place to make his once far-fetched dream come true. On Nov. 1, he got the keys to what will be his video store at 1043 Chicago Ave. He already has most of the inventory loaded in, he said, and hopes to open in late November if all goes according to plan. The store will not offer rentals, he said, in