Video store closing down
Taranaki’s only remaining video store is shutting up shop after 20 years.
United Video, on Devon St West in New Plymouth, rents thousands of DVDs out each year and has not seen a decline in rentals.
But owner of six years Sam Bansal said it was too big a risk to renew the lease with the continuous changing nature to the way people consume DVDs.
‘‘If we renew the lease it goes for another three years. Three years is a little risk and we cannot take it,’’ he said.
After putting the store on the market at the beginning of the year, there was interest but Bansal said banks wouldn’t financially help anyone wanting to buy the store.
‘‘Banks don’t give finances on DVD stores,’’ he said.
In 2012 Bansal added an American candy section to part of the store and later expanded it to a variety store, selling all sorts of home products to try and boost public appeal. ‘‘That’s always required because you have to move with the times,’’ he had said earlier in the year. ‘‘You have to evolve, it’s not like everybody wants the videos.’’
He said the community was upset at the closure of the only video store in the region.
‘‘They’re losing something special because they’ve been coming over here for 20 years so regularly and still they have some kind of attachment.’’
Bansal said one of the best things about a video store is that you have multiple options to look at from every genre.
He said people of all ages were continuing to come into the store on a regular basis although the numbers have dropped since he took ownership with his wife Ritu in 2012.
When he took over the video store there were more than 22,000 members and it used to be one of the top five performing stores in the country.
Online streaming service such as Netflix, Lightbox and Amazon Prime Video have taken over from video stores in the digital age allowing cheaper, faster and
24/7 access to movies. In January
2018 1.2 million people were subscribed to Netflix in New Zealand and it was still on the rise.
United Video New Plymouth will close it’s doors for the final time in four weeks. Everything must go from the store, even the shelves, and Bansal said if some things don’t sell he’ll have to give them away.
One of the last remaining United Videos in Hamilton announced its closure at the start of September, a continuing trend that is not slowing down.
United Videos are now often
Bansal will be taking a well-deserved break before deciding what his next venture will be.
hard to come by. In 2007 there were 107 United Videos across the country and now there are only 27.
Video Ezy was the second to last remaining video store in Taranaki and closed in 2017 after it closed all of its New Zealand stores.
For now, Bansal will be taking a well-deserved break before deciding what his next venture will be after becoming well known in New Plymouth for being ‘the video store person’.