There's nothing sexy about running St. Paul's last porn video store

Lonely is the retail porn business at Video Lease II on West 7th St. in St. Paul. Owner Jeff Noreen has operated in the same space since 1983. It's mid-morning on a weekday and Noreen has the store, the last of its kind in Minnesota's second largest city, all to his lonesome.

"We're still in business, but just barely in business," he says. "It's mainly because I'm stubborn and I provide jobs for people who need jobs and I provide rent for my landlord. But you wouldn't start a business like this now."

Back in the day, rentals drove sales. Noreen was already using a blue and yellow color scheme when Blockbuster came to town. He rented "Cockbusters" to fend off the national retailer. His movie titles, numbering in the tens of thousands, ranged from Beauty and the Beast to The Devil in Miss Jones. Blockbuster would put a hurt on Video Lease II's business. Netflix would do the same years later.

Thirty years ago was also the halcyon era of porn retailing, when XXX starlet Marilyn Chambers alone could keep the cash register busy. Today, he says, there isn't a single porn star who can drive that kind of traffic.

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