It's just a temporary result of market shrinkage.
When I opened my store it was with one of the biggest and most successful local chains in the industry. Within the two years I operated my store, seven other stores in this franchise closed before I had to shut my doors as well. Within two years of me closing my store, the franchise had shrunk to just ten stores state-wide, down from roughly a hundred.
Combined with the big international and national chains closing 90% of their stores, the remaining stores actually saw an upsurge in business. This was simply due to the available market being concentrated on the remaining stores. The upsurge was enough to maintain a business and even expand libraries; you may have noticed a big influx of older and weekly titles especially due to the sudden and massive availability of stock.
But it is still slowly declining. The key element there is slowly. The only thing that has changed is that the sharp decline of the last few years has levelled out somewhat. I pretty much guarantee you, though, that in another five years time there won't be any such thing as a 'brick and mortar' DVD or even Blu-Ray rental store.
It's sad for me because the video store for me was a kind-of refuge where I'd go to hide from the world and live amongst the fantasies of film. I love movies and grew up renting betamax, then VHS, then DVD's and then owning my own store to now, where even I download movies from iTunes.
But, that's progress. Hate it all you want, we're all going to move forward and embrace the next step whether we like it or not. I'm just curious what that next step will be.
When I opened my store it was with one of the biggest and most successful local chains in the industry. Within the two years I operated my store, seven other stores in this franchise closed before I had to shut my doors as well. Within two years of me closing my store, the franchise had shrunk to just ten stores state-wide, down from roughly a hundred.
Combined with the big international and national chains closing 90% of their stores, the remaining stores actually saw an upsurge in business. This was simply due to the available market being concentrated on the remaining stores. The upsurge was enough to maintain a business and even expand libraries; you may have noticed a big influx of older and weekly titles especially due to the sudden and massive availability of stock.
But it is still slowly declining. The key element there is slowly. The only thing that has changed is that the sharp decline of the last few years has levelled out somewhat. I pretty much guarantee you, though, that in another five years time there won't be any such thing as a 'brick and mortar' DVD or even Blu-Ray rental store.
It's sad for me because the video store for me was a kind-of refuge where I'd go to hide from the world and live amongst the fantasies of film. I love movies and grew up renting betamax, then VHS, then DVD's and then owning my own store to now, where even I download movies from iTunes.
But, that's progress. Hate it all you want, we're all going to move forward and embrace the next step whether we like it or not. I'm just curious what that next step will be.
