Dinner (and a Movie) Break! - Marco's Pizza and Family Video - Anoka, MN

Anoka recently lost one half of this magnet, after losing the other half four years ago...

What was once a logical (if not outdated) pairing of pizza delivery and movie rentals, is now neither. 

It's not Anoka, but it's about the same thing...

Anoka chapter of Marco's Pizza, August, 2018. 

In February of this year, I found out our convenient Marco's Pizza franchise, had closed. 

And that sucks. Since we moved back to Coon Rapids, in June of 2018, Marco's has been our go-to for pizza delivery. 

Though we never had a DVD delivered with dinner, despite what the magnet (that is still on our fridge) is suggesting.

Yeah, but they're not going to deliver to our house.

And while I feel your product is really good, it's not "drive to Blaine" good.

And come on... Shakopee is about 25 miles south of here. Be realistic.

Maybe if you're on your way home from Valleyfair or something...

The Family Video/Marco's Pizza sign is overwhelmed by the 2022 mid-term election signs. With Hans' Bakery behind, under the comforting watch of the Anoka "Home of the Tornadoes" water tower. Family Video had been gone for almost two years at this point, yet they still have top billing. Kind of misleading for anyone driving by, looking to rent a BluRay of Madea's Magical Bris, then being denied. 

At least they can still get a pizza.

Which made me wonder... What is Marco's origin story? 

What say you Googles?

Marco's Pizza was founded by Italian immigrant, Pasquale Giammarco. His family moved to Dearborn, Michigan, when he was 9. After arriving from Italy, his family opened a pizzeria. Pasquale starting working there as a kid, and as he grew up, he learned the business until he opened his first restaurant in Oregon, Ohio, in 1978. The recipe for Marco's Pizza sauce in the same that was served in his family's restaurant.

Even though you cant read the menu screens above the kitchen window, it's your expected fare. Pizzas, sammiches, chicken wings, salads, CheezyBread, CinnaSquares, and Ghirardelli branded brownies. Which are really good if they're not overcooked.

Which reminds me... What's Pasquale Giammarco up to?

Giammarco eventually opened a number of Marco's Pizza locations in Ohio, catching the eye of Jack Butorac. In 2002, Butorac was analyzing restaurant concepts for potential growth opportunities. Marco's Pizza was one his list, stopping at five of their restaurants on his drive. He loved their product, which was the same at each location he tried. The problem was the presentation. Citing different building exteriors and inconsistent branding, in a 2014 New York Times interview.

Pizza has always been kind of a birfday tradition for me. Dating back to all those years in Englewood, with Frank the Pizza King. Marco's was the 2020 edition of birfday pizza. Being 2020, and very early into the pandemic shutdown, I was happy Marco's was still open. They were already doing a curbside service, according to the directions on the paper stuck to the door.  You can see the paper, but you cant read it. Wish I would have taken a picture of it.

Tell me more about this Jack Butorac guy...

Butorac purchased the franchising rights to Marco's Pizza, from Giammarco and took leadership of the company in January 2004. Under Butorac's plan, Marco's Pizza began national expansion in 2005. As of July 2024, Marco's Pizza expanded to over 1000 stores in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, India and Mexico.

Marco's Pepperoni & Sausage. My typical order. Big fan of the "tator-tot" sized pieces of Italian Sausage. To me, the combination of pepperoni and Italian Sausage fit best with the Marco's sauce. Laura would usually get a deep dish pizza with extra sauce, olives and pineapple. We would order enough for leftovers. There's an actual pizza oven in our office kitchenette, so I have an excellent method for re-heating a few slices at work.

On August 26, 2018, I sat on the Marco's bench, waiting for my order. The rare Marco's Karen came in and was arguing with the poor cashier. This was about something that happened previously, not today, yet she felt she was wronged. Now it's his problem to deal with! From my point of view, she was blowing up a non-issue, and just needed some attention. The funniest part to me was the cashier couldn't see the picture she was angrily pointing at. Not sure how she can be so confused and angry about pizza...

She looks to be very familiar with pizza.

Behind her and behind the counter, is the pass through window into Family Video. Video store workers would pass DVD's to Marco's, to go out on delivery with pizzas. Or, you could order a pizza for carry out, then go next door and look at movies. When your pizza was ready, you'd get notified by some lights on the wall around the window, and Marco's would pass your order through to you in the video store. 

While it's not going to set the world on fire, I could see where that concept could be a nice little money-maker.

If it was still 40 years ago.

Marco's Pizza in Anoka.

Occupying two storefronts of a small shopping center. That underwent a facelift not too long ago...

Before Marco's served delicious pizza and related products from this location, one half of it used to be the Anoka Pizza Man. A locally owned pizza chain, with 10 locations around the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, and 1 in Wisconsin. Very similar to Marco's origin story. Difference being, Pizza Man hasn't had their own "Jack Butorac" walk into one of their stores.

There used to be wall dividing Pizza Man from Curves for Woman, next door. (I found that pairing of neighboring businesses rather amusing.) Mike's Discount Foods was (and still is) next door. The larger retail space to the right of Pizza Man, would eventually be the home of Family Video. I don't remember what this space was in September, 2006, when I took this picture... Perhaps it was still the Hostess Bakery Overstock store?

Pizza Man endeared themselves to my limited circle of friends, thanks to the "carry out special" painted on the windows. A medium, one topping pizza for $6.99. Or a large one topping for $8.99. This was a really good deal, and they had a really good product.

Inside Pizza Man was incredibly small. You'd walk in, there was a cooler full of cans and 1-liter bottles of Coke products immediately to your left, a couple of chairs and the front counter to the right. Barely any room to move. But it was fun to watch the pizzas being made. Anoka Pizza Man had some decent dough spinners at times.

Pizza Man replaced Zebra Pizza (who was sold, then lost their way), in the late 1990's, as the cheap local pizza of choice. Tracked by what was enjoyed the most on my time away from Colorado, over the last 30 years. Be it at 99 Spillihp, Jen and Trav's house, the basement of Crazy Carl's, or just eating in my car while sitting in some random parking lot. 

After I moved back to Colorado in 2005, I made it a point to collect printed Pizza Man flyers, when I'd come back to town, and enjoy their food at least once while I was in town.

Pizza Man - May 2007 Flyer

When I took a lengthy housesitting vacation to Crapids in February 2007, I enjoyed several meals from the Anoka Pizza Man. (Stories of that time period are shredded amongst the Famous Dave's BBQ.) This is the front of a coupon flyer that came in the mail while I was there. 

Some thoughts on the back of that flyer... 

Hanging on the Pizza Man wall, was the round mesh and extra large paddle, used for the 30" Super Party Pizzas. Trav and I once debated buying one, to see how much of it we could eat in one sitting. 

The Taco Pizza sounds like it would have been pretty good. I should have tried it at some point.

I forgot all about the FYCC ("Fun & Yummy Chicken/Cheddar Calzone"), but shouldn't that be spelled FYCCC?

That Oreo Cream Cheese Pie was really good too.

Pizza Man Box Topper from 2005. My photo of the other side of this sheet didn't turn out. And I haven't dug out the paper copy, to properly scan it. I'm almost possibly certain that I might know which set of folders it could be in. But I'm not sure.

For 2007, Pizza Man went all in with a 4 color printed menu.

Quite a few new specialty pizzas have been added to the menu. Including a "western" pizza, which seems pretty normal. A Shrimp Scampi pizza, which may have an audience... That I am not a member of... The Capone, a Chicago style deep-dish. And they lost me with The German, pepperoni, sausage and sauerkraut. Big nope on the kraut from me, but Laura likes it on pizza. She once order a pizza with Olives, pineapple and sauerkraut. She liked it, but it gave her brutal heartburn.

Wrapping up the menu with the steady and reliable daily specials. The price is significantly more today, but since I tend to only hit Pizza Man on weekends, the 16" 2-topping daily special is my regular order.

Canadian Bacon with Extra cheese and an order Italian Cheese Bread for Laura. At Marco's, I typically go with Pepperoni & Italian Sausage, because it compliments the sauce. Now with Pizza Man, Canadian Bacon is a better fit for their sauce. Which is also really good. 

Neither of them are overly sweet. And that's key to good pizza sauce. 

Pizza Man moved out of the shopping center in 2010, with Curves and whomever was running out of the future Family Video. This was pre-renovation of the building, which got rid of that tacky and dated white with red ornamental shapes, facade. Also didn't remember that space having two overhead garage doors. Trying to remember back to when I was a little kid and would ride with my parents, by this place. I think it was mainly used for car related businesses.

These photos were taken on September 27, 2012, part of a fairly extensive Anoka photo tour, piloted by Trav.

Was funny to see the old Pizza Man, closed up with clear windows. In addition to the windows being painted over with store promotions, several times during their run at this location, the windows would be cracked or shot out with bullet holes. Likely multiple reasons beyond the "who knows why?" behind this, but it led to a classic inside joke: "Why is Pizza Man dealing with the Russian Mafia?" fueled further by a one time visit in the mid-2000's with guys in suits and sunglasses, sitting in a parked car, across the lot from the entrance.

Mike's Discount Foods store has been here for at least 30 years. For some reason, I'm thinking this used to be a Tom Thumb convenience store, before that. Vague memories from about 40 years ago, keep pointing that out. Even picturing a set of two gas pumps out in front of the store. Like most of the Tom Thumb stores of that era featured.

Really wish I had a good digital camera when I was 7 years old...

Of course, I could be completely wrong...

And this building has always sold 10 pound boxes of Atlantic Salmon, for bargain prices...

******

Back in September of 2015, Laura and I were in Waterloo, Iowa, visiting my sister, on our way from Colorado to Minnesota. While weaving around town to her apartment, I saw something unexpected...

A Family Video store?!? As in movie rentals? In 2015?!? While we waited for the light, I pointed it out to Laura and commented: "I always thought it was about five years ago here, all the time..."

I didn't think anything of the Marco's Pizza next door. They had no presence that I was aware of, in Colorado, so I was unfamiliar with the concept I found in Waterloo. I figured it was just a random pizza place, next to a video rental place, that didn't know what year it was.

Fast forward to June, 2018. Laura and I had just moved back to Minnesota. A few days after arriving, I was driving through Anoka, with my camera ready to go.

Rounding the corner where 5th Avenue becomes East River Road, I see that not only has the former home of Pizza Man got a new pizza tenant, but the whole building has undergone a facelift. And a new anchor! Family Video and Marco's Pizza?!?

Did Anoka become Waterloo over the last 6 years?

Think I need to learn some stuff about this whole Family Video and Marco's Pizza pairing... Say Googles!

Charles Hoogland inherited his father's business, Midstates Appliance and Supply Company, in 1953. His company later became a distributor for Magnetic Video. At one point in the late 1970's, they were storing a large inventory of excess video cassette movies. To make use of this product, Hoogland formed the Video Movie Club in Springfield, Illinois in 1978. Charging a $25 membership fee and $5 rental fee, per videotape.

Video Movie Club was later renamed Video Movies Inc. in the 1980's before rebranding as Family Video. Their main competitor, Blockbuster Video was focused on larger cities, so Family Video looked to  establish themselves in more rural areas, suburbs, and small-to-midsize cities. Unlike their competitors, Family Video bought and owned the movies they rented, so they would keep all the profit. Which is smart.

Another smart move on their part, Family Video's parent company, Highland Ventures, owned the real estate their stores operated in. So company didn't have to deal with lease negotiations. Thousands of poor leases helped lead to the demise of Movie Gallery, Blockbuster, and Hollywood Video chains. Family Video used the retail centers they owned for not only their own business, but would lease out additional space to other retailers. 

In 2012, Marco's Pizza partnered with Family Video to open Marco's locations adjacent to one of their video stores. At their peak, the Family/Marco's combo video/pizza buildings had over 350 stores in the United States. Including this one in Anoka, MN. This partnership set up a convenient way to deliver video rentals with pizza orders. When you ordered your pizza, you could also order some DVD's to be brought along with it. 

Hollywood Video was gone by 2009. By 2013, Blockbuster had closed almost all of its remaining stores. In 2016 Hastings Entertainment (Movie Gallery) liquidated their assets. Which made Family Video the last standing video rental chain in the United States.

Notable achievement, but it's still being the last survivor of a dead business model. By late 2019, the number of Family Video stores was under 600, down from a peak of 800, a few years earlier. After the COVID-19 pandemic, another 200 or so stores closed, in the fall of 2020.

On January 5, 2021, Highland Ventures announced all remaining 250 Family Video stores would close permanently.

Given their close association with Family Video, Marco's Pizza quickly put out their own statement:

“Family Video has made the difficult decision to close all locations. Its Marco’s Pizza franchise locations will remain open and have never been busier serving our local communities." 

Soon after the initial closure, Highland Ventures announced the Family Video name and trademark would continue on as an online store. The online store offered new and used video sales along with Family Video branded merchandise such as t-shirts, coffee mugs, baseball caps, gym bags, key chains, water bottles, and all sorts of cheap garbage you can bulk order with a screen printed logo.

Are you certain?

I'm 4Imprint certain.

Sounded to me like the online store was just a way to try and cash in on whatever remaining inventory that Highland Ventures filled warehouses with, after closing all of the retail stores. After just over a year of trying to move as much of it as they could, the Family Video online store was shut down at the end of March, 2022.

Or maybe not...

Officially ending Family Video's business after 44 years.

It was a good idea... Just the wrong century.

May 21, 2022. Looking inside the vacant Family Video store, left side of the sales floor. On the left wall, is the Family Video side of the Marco's Pizza pass-through window. The Marco's sign above the window is still pointlessly lit.

October 9, 2022. Not much has changed in five months.

Same day, center of the Family Video storefront windows.

I only visited Family Video once. It was 2019, when I came to pick up a pizza from Marco's, and I thought I'd wander the aisles and see what a video rental place looked like in the age of no one using video rental. Funny thing was, I didn't recognize anything. Felt like I didn't recognize at least 80% of what was on the shelves. Now, I haven't paid attention to movies in well over 25 years, so I wasn't expecting much. This made me feel completely detached from a reality that I didn't belong to.

I covered this in a story a few years ago, in a story I wrote about Second Spin, in Denver, who closed after being a part of my life out there. I'd hoped that Family Video would have presented an experience like that. Knowing none of the new releases would resonate, I wanted a good selection of used disks to mine for gems. Nope. Nothing of interest there.

I'm so out of touch with entertainment...

Do consider myself as dabbler in DVD collecting. I own very few actual movies, but I will buy TV series I like, or cartoon compilations, standup comedy and music that I'm into. While I'm aware that most of this stuff can be found online, in a growing number of cases, media found on YouTube and a lot of the streaming services, are edited from the original airings. Some of the early Warner Brothers cartoons are pretty much banned from airing, but some can be found on DVD. Plus I'm a fan of physical media. If I like something enough to pay money for it, I want a physical object in my hands.

Right side of the store, in much poorer photo quality. Not sure why that happened.

There isn't much else to say about Family Video, there's a couple of other nearby properties I'd like to briefly speak of...

After finding out that Marco's had closed, I knew I had to get over for pictures. As soon as I read that news, I started writing this story in my head... Knowing we were flying to Florida soon, I needed to get my pictures, so I could work on this story while on vacation. The story of that vacation itself, Four Baggers Does Fort Myers, came out last week.

Oh look, the independent Anoka Gas station (at 7th Ave & East River Road) has re-branded to BP. Guess they wanted a better name for competition? (But being out of my brand of smokes doesn't endear yourself to me...) Doesn't matter to me what they want to call themselves, because I will forever recognize Anoka Gas as...

The last of the PDQ convenience store chain. At least that I knew of. This picture is from September, 2011. I don't know when Anoka Gas dropped the PDQ affiliation...

But they shouldn't have.

A few blocks to the west, I was shocked to see that That Building was getting a new tenant. Three Rivers Mechanical: Furnaces and Air Conditioning, are currently renovating a building that had been vacant since before we moved back to Minnesota, in June 2018. 

That Building on June 7, 2018. It has been vacant far more often that it had a tenant. Kind of bummed out they are drastically altering the outside appearance of That Building. It had looked virtually unchanged since the mid 1980's, when I first noticed it. I remember several flower shops and/or small nurseries. When I was in 7th grade, it was a shop being run by one of the teachers at the Crapids Junior High. She had one of the first hyphenated names I'd heard of, in 1987. I remember other antique shops and later, a coffee shop. After it closed in the early 2000's, a bunch of video games sat inside. Locked away in a prison of bankruptcy. They were so sad to see when I'd drive by... (On my way to Pizza Man...)

That Building on May 21, 2022. Since it was vacant more often than leased, I never knew what to call it. So in all of my notes and photos, it's labeled "That Building - Anoka".

I know what it means.

******

Saturday March 15, 2025

The sign on the northwest corner of the property still gives Family Video top billing, despite having closed over 4 years earlier. Now Marco's Pizza has left. Mike's Discount Foods has been here longer than I've been of drinking age, but has never appeared on this sign...

However, the Marcosmobile was still representing in the parking lot.

Some pieces of P.O.S.'s left behind on one of Marco's few guest dining tables.

This photo showcases the very spot where I had a sighting of the rare Marco's Karen...

The Family Video window still hadn't been covered up.

I'd soon find out that it has been walled over, on the former Family Video side. As if it were never there.

Not very exciting because it still looks open. There's no food happening behind the counter, but they never turned off the menu boards. Looks like they could whip me up a Pepperoni and Italian Sausage, and I'd be on my way home in 20 minutes. 

But that's not happening here anymore. 

And that sucks. I really liked Marco's for what it was.

Seeing as there's a window still intact, in the closed Marco's photo, what's on the other side of the window...

Well, now it's Mike's Treaure Hunt!

Sneaking suspicion that the same Mike, who is selling foods at a discount a few doors down, is now cosplaying a pirate, for his newest venture!

The store is filled with tables with boxes on and under them. The boxes are filled with random overstock merchandise, retail returns, scratch and dent for a bargain price. No matter what you buy, it's $3 a piece. Clothes, toys, arts & crafts, medicine, food, tools, spare body parts, books, or whatever else happens to be on the sales floor that day. It will always change. The idea is, you go there and dig to find what you want. As the name implies...

I've long had recurring nightmares about shopping in retail stores. They're not really nightmares in that they are inherently scary, more like frustrating and irritating. It goes like this... I enter a retail store. Could be any type of retail, and I could be looking for anything. Whether it's something I would normally buy or not, is irrelevant to the dream. After getting to the area of the store where my targeted item is, I find it on the shelf (or hanging on pegboard). But as soon as I go to grab it, that item turns into a cheap knock-off of what I thought I was getting. As I try to grab that same item from a different spot, it also turns into a cheap knock off. Or a variation of what I wanted, only now it wasn't what I needed. As all of this is going on, the store is getting busier and people are starting to crowd into the area I'm in. I keep trying to grab the item I need, but I can never get it. People are crowding around me, growing impatient because I'm in their way. But they're in my way of that last box on the shelf. That certainly wont turn into broken garbage, shortly before my fingers reach it. 

This scenario went through my mind as I was reading customer reviews of Mike's Treasure Hunt, on the Googles. I told Laura about the place, and she though it sounded intriguing. Not for me... I learned enough about it to realize that -for me anyways- shopping here might be traumatizing.

The more I thought about this concept, it started to remind me of an updated version of Sylvester Salvage. I wrote this next piece for a baseball card story, that likely didn't reach the audience that may have appreciated it. 

So I'll reprint it here!

Finally! Confirmation that Sylvester Salvage was indeed a thing!

I'd started to wonder if a 10 year old me had just imagined this place. I'd never really found any information about it online. My dad and I went here one afternoon. He explained it as a second-hand retailer that would buy bulk items that were either rejected from other retailers for flaws in packaging or whatever, and sell them at a discount. They would also buy items "salvaged" from retailers that for whatever reason, were no longer selling it. Be it bankruptcy or natural disaster. 

The complex was several buildings, with lots of larger items spread out in areas around the property. The main store was a large metal building, that looked like it was ready to fall over. Propped up only by the add-on buildings, which looked just as crappy, but newer. Inside was a maze of tall shelves lining narrow aisles. Dim and dingy with flickering fluorescent lights overhead. A lot of their inventory consisted of clothes and small household appliances. Faint smell of smoke and rusty metal lingered in the air. Stronger in some parts of the store than others.

Thanks to this ad, I now know where Sylvester Salvage once operated. According to the satellite views of the Googles, 219th Ave. is now paved, and leads to several new houses. Spaced well apart from each other, as this part of Bethel, MN, hasn't yet seen the inevitable urban sprawl reach here. 

Don't know when Sylvester Salvage ended business here, but the satellite images show no trace.

******

And that wraps up the whole Anoka Marco's Pizza & Family Video connection.

Guess the only appropriate thing to do is a "where are they now" epilogue on the Anoka Pizza Man...

Trav and I outside the former Anoka Pizza Man, in September, 2012. Which was a place we grabbed food from, fairly often in the 2000’s, whenever I was in town. He informed me of Pizza Man’s relocation, via email, in the spring of 2010: "Anoka Pizza Man is now on Main Street, near the court house. I got a carry-out, and it was decent, but I'm gonna give Frank's the win. Pizza Man wasn't bad, but today it just wasn't as good as Frank's was in January, or Galactic was a few weeks ago. The new store has a dining room. Looks like they are offering some lunch specials too. Not a bad idea, considering the areas other options." 

(Nod to Englewood legend, Frank the Pizza King, which he and I enjoyed on his January 2010 trip to Colorado.)

Pizza Man’s new location, at 231 East Main Street, next door to Danno's (no relation), and Sew & Press. 

Looking into the new Pizza Man kitchen, which has actual room to move inside, compared to their old East River Road location. But that big pizza tray and pan that I remembered hanging on the wall in the old store, has been moved to the wall of the new place.

The new and improved Pizza Man has its own bar (with pull tabs!), when the old store barely had room for two chairs. So if you’re concerned about there being enough room in the new Pizza Man (as the guy on TV appears to be), no worries here!

(If you can’t read it, the closed captioning reads: “They’ve got big balls!”)

There’s even room for one of those Ms. Pac Man/Galaga tabletop combo 20th Anniversary machines. These were released in 2001, the celebrate the 20th anniversary of both of these games. Funny that now we’ve reached the 24th anniversary of the 20th anniversary. Sure didn’t feel that long ago back then…

Not that it matters much, but I did have the high score on this machine for a night…

After picking up your order, and walking back to the rear entrance (you park in the back, so you don’t have to parallel park on Main) there’s a framed poster of the city of Anoka, from 1890. No highway 10 here...

Time to take the Pizza Man home.

Unfortunately something that didn’t move with the Anoka Pizza Man, was that cute, tiny, pierced, metal chick, that was always working the counter, at the East River Road store. She was there for years.  At least from 2000-2007, if my memory is as intact as it shouldn’t be. Always friendly, the Pizza Man experience is lacking without her running the register.

But this story is about Marco’s…

Which is still closed.

Around the time the Anoka Marco’s closed its doors, a nationwide ad campaign started, calling Marco’s “America’s most popular pizza chain”, or something like that. Laura saw the ad and asked how they can make that claim, if they’re closing locations? Without yet having done any research on the subject, I told her “I think this has much more to do with the building, than it does the business.”

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and the time taken to write this story... So what have I learned?

This was part of that: “With Highland Ventures closing all of their Family Video stores, Marco's Pizza locations have started breaking away into their own independent stores, due to repurposing of the previously shared buildings.”

There may be something to this.

I hope the Anoka Marco's Pizza closing is somewhat temporary, and they’ll find a new building nearby, to sell me more Pepperoni & Italian Sausage pizzas soon. After all this talk of pizza, we needed to grab some carry out. 

Did I got to the Blaine Marco’s?

Did I call Pizza Man?

Which of the vast options did we choose, Saturday night?

Stay local my friends!

Wait... What?!

Jesus... They got Jerry's Schwinn too?!?