NZ’s biggest DVD store to shut
New Zealand’s largest DVD rental store is to close and sell its collection of about 60,000 movies and games.
Nick Thomas has owned Civic Glenfield in Auckland for 21 years, but has decided to bring the curtains down with DVD rentals on a steep decline, and online gaming killing the games rental side of the business.
‘‘We have no regrets. We have really enjoyed ourselves in the industry. We always knew nothing is forever,’’ Thomas said.
It’s been a season of little cheer in the DVD rental industry for the city, with artsy-movie rental business Videon on Dominion Rd closing on December 31.
The rise in online movie streaming has had a huge impact on the DVD rental business, Thomas said.
For many older customers, a trip to the DVD store has provided the reason for a trip out.
But it was now just not profitable enough to continue.
‘‘I feel devastated for those people because they haven’t embraced digital technology, and they don’t know what to do. It’s quite sad.’’
This holiday season saw a new low in visits from the youngest movie-watchers, which Thomas believes is another symptom of the rise of movie streaming.
‘‘This is probably the first school holidays in which we haven’t had many kids come in with their parents,’’ he said.
But there have been some behind-the-scenes movie business changes that have made it doubly hard for DVD rental businesses to stay in business, Thomas said.
Movie distribution companies have closed their New Zealand arms, and are operating out of Australia. That could lead to a two-week delay in new releases making it into Thomas’ store, and in recent years the movie distributors haven’t even been sending posters for window and in-store advertising.
‘‘We have had to buy them from Event Cinemas,’’ he said.
The dwindling market has also meant the distributors aren’t willing to pay the fees to have all but the highest profile movies to be rated in New Zealand.
At one point Civic Glenfield was so popular, Thomas needed a roster of 22 staff to run the shop.
By 2009, there were more than 650 DVD retail stores in New Zealand.