Rent-a-Video Warehouse

Rent-a-Video Warehouse Corporation is an American chain of home video and video game rental and entertainment retail stores, founded in 1990 and headquartered in. The chain was the third-largest video store chain behind and  at the height of the video store format's success, but largely transitioned into a general entertainment retail store akin to  and  in the wake of the dissolutions of various rival chains.

History
Rent-a-Video was founded by Shimelis Aweke and Aaron Yemane, two Ethiopian immigrants originally from. A friend had given Aweke a VCR, which he used as a form of low-cost entertainment. Aweke gained the idea of starting a video store to spread the "home theater experience" he enjoyed to others. In 1988, Aweke and Yemane received a loan from the, which they used to open a 500 square-foot video rental store with 300 films, located in the neighborhood of. In 1990, Aweke and Yemane formed Rent-a-Video Warehouse Corporation, with Aweke serving as the company's president and CEO. Rent-a-Video Warehouse stores later opened across the D.C. area,, and.

In 1993, Rent-a-Video, which owned 20 stores, became a public company.

In 1998, Rent-a-Video purchased another D.C.-based retailer, 7th Street Comics, for US$15 million.

On October 2, 2011, Rent-a-Video Warehouse Corporation was purchased by ArrowStar, LLC for US$17.9 million.

2014 saw ArrowStar opening Rent-a-Video concept stores in various locations (such as at in ) with a new logo and look, a larger focus on pop-culture related items, an expanded selection of DVDs and Blu-Rays, and the inclusion of a larger store-within-a-store section for GameOn.

In 2017, co-founder Aaron Yemane died.