WATCH: Gone Hollywood in Comox outlasted other local rivals like Blockbuster Video but competition from online services such as Netflix has proven to be too stiff.
Customers are reacting with sadness at the news that local video store Gone Hollywood in Comox is closing for good at the end of August.
“It’s sad,” said Betsy Muir.
“There’s so many good movies and to really find the ones that maybe don’t hit the mainstream, this is where you would see them.”
However, in a world with Netflix and other streaming services, storefront video stores are becoming a thing of the past.
“A lot of factors you know,” said Gone Hollywood owner Kevin Dol.
“Netflix definitely did have an effect on us, the online streaming and stuff but the movie supplier is no more really. They’re really not supplying movies anymore and we really had to make that decision that if we couldn’t source it that easily then maybe it’s time for us to close.”
Gone Hollywood has been in the Comox Valley since 1999 and the Dols bought it in 2007. Their biggest rival at the time, Blockbuster, closed a few years later.
“We beat Blockbuster, Movie Gallery and all those ones and even all the little guys in town, we were the last one,” added Dol.
Janice Lawrence has worked at Gone Hollywood for three years and was the manager at Select Video, the second-to-last video store to close several years ago.
“Very sad, very sad to see the end of an era,” said Lawrence. “I love to see all the young families coming in with their kids and experiencing what my kids experienced when they were young. They loved choosing their own movies.”
“It’s very disappointing actually,” said Dol. “It’s hard because every time someone comes in the door they’re saying they’re going to miss us and they don’t know what they’re going to do. Not everybody has internet, there’s a lot of people actually who are disabled, there’s a lot of factors that really do affect certain people that aren’t able to do the online streaming thing.”
They are thousands of copies of videos to be sold but Gone Hollywood will be gone at the end of August.
Dean Stoltz
