The last remaining video store in the Comox Valley is closing its doors at the end of August.
Issues with supply, among other challenges such as building costs, have left the owners of Gone Hollywood with no choice but to shut down.
“It’s a whole bunch of issues,” said owner Kevin Dol, who took over the Comox establishment 11 years ago with his wife Patricia. “There’s lots of other outlets we could get things from, but it’s not the same as the one-stop shop that we had before.”
Online video streaming, YouTube and Netflix have also affected business, though Dol notes the latter has been around for several years.
“We survived nine years of Netflix being around, so what has changed outside of Netflix? Not a lot. VOD (Video on Demand) has been around for a long time, too.”
Over the years, he said the store’s biggest renter has been TV series. British films have also been popular.
“Game of Thrones is huge,” said Dol, who also works as a Realtor. “We would bring in at least six copies each season, and we couldn’t keep them on the shelves if our life depended on it. Our first day of sale, we sold them all.”
Dol figures at least half the customer base has been families with young children. Many out-of-towners have also frequented the store for weekly rentals, he added.
“Campbell River, when they shut their last video store down, they started coming to us, basically.”
A store liquidation is running from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. daily until Aug. 27. Dol has been selling about 1,500 DVDs, Blu-rays and games each day.
Gone Hollywood is located at 1-640 Anderton Rd. in Comox.
