DeKALB – Dollar Video in DeKalb is liquidating its inventory and closing its doors, succumbing to a cultural shift that has hit the video rental industry hard in recent years.
Manager and co-owner Rob Molina isn't sure exactly how long Dollar Video has been renting movies from its location in the 1100 block of West Lincoln Highway near Annie Glidden Road. He said he joined the company in 2001, and despite never raising prices in that time, the store recently has seen a steady decline in customers.
"It's been declining for the last, probably two years, but this year hit really hard," he said. "A lot of it has to do with Redbox, Netflix, movies on demand. Nobody's really coming in wanting to rent movies anymore."
Dollar Video is the second local video rental store to close in a year. Last winter, Blockbuster closed the smaller of its two Sycamore Road locations as part of an optimization strategy that saw the chain shutter nearly 1,000 stores nationwide.
"Business has dropped so much, we're just not getting the support we used to have," Molina said. "We didn't want to do it, but we made the decision to close."
The store is selling off its inventory now, Molina said, and plans to close permanently at the end of September. The exact date depends on how long it takes to liquidate the stock, he said.
The other half of the building, which houses L.A. Tan, will remain open, and the tanning salon will stay in business, Molina said. The salon will continue to operate during its normal business hours and won't be affected by the closing of the video store.
Eventually, Molina said, the building's owners hope to open another business in the Dollar Video location, though it isn't known yet what that enterprise will be.