More activity at local video stores: owners
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/01/2012 (5076 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The demise of Blockbuster Video and Rogers Plus have led to a boost in business for locally owned video stores.
David Lindenberg, co-owner of Jiffy Food & Video on Richmond Avenue, said movie rental sales have gone up considerably.
“Sales have doubled,” Lindenberg said. “We’ve also doubled our purchases … and the late list has doubled too.”
Jiffy has seen a lot of new memberships, and hired more staff.
“We increased our staff somewhat for the extra work we have to do on Friday and Saturday nights,” Lindenberg said. “Those are the busiest video nights of course.”
Rogers Plus at 18th Street and Park Avenue shut down last month. Blockbuster Video on First Street closed its doors last June, while the 18th Street location closed last fall along with the remaining Blockbuster Canada retail stores across the country.
While many people choose to click a button on their remote to order a movie, some people still like picking out a flick at the store.
“Some just don’t want the hassle. They want to go get it, plug it in, play it and return it,” Lindenberg said. “And that works for us.”
Jiffy Food & Video has been in business since 1987, and has had its share of ups and downs.
“When the big guys, Rogers and Blockbuster, came to town … it knocked business down,” he said. “(Video rentals) were just shrinking every year.”
The recent increase is a nice change, he said.
“We’re not back to where we were back in the ’80s, but it’s good right now,” he said. “We’re very happy. We’ve got a lot of great customers.”
Another store seeing an increase is Clemmensen’s Movies & More.
“We’re buying a lot more movies than we were before,” said owner Neal Clemmensen. “We saw an increase right away and it’s still growing … There’s less choices now, and we want to make sure that we have all the movies that everybody wants and when they want them, so we’re trying to keep up with what the demand is.”
Murray Hurl of Hurl’s Food Mart & Video said they are also seeing more activity on the movie rental wall.
“We’re a smaller outlet that provides for our immediate neighbourhood basically so we didn’t do big numbers,” he said. “But I do see the rental tags are up considerably.”
While the increase of roughly 20 per cent has been nice, Hurl realizes there is not much of a market left.
“There is some (business) to pick up but probably 70 per cent of people are choosing to get them through MTS and Westman (Communications Group), and then there’s the Internet as well,” he said.
“It saves going out, taking it back and everything else. I really think that’s the direction it’s gone and will continue … I don’t think any of us are going to see the old days.”
» jaustin@brandonsun.com