Family Video to close its doors after almost nine years in Windsor-Essex
The U.S. video rental chain had more than 10 stores across Canada
A U.S. video rental chain that had more than 10 stores across Canada at its height is set to close its final Canadian location in Windsor-Essex later this week.
Family Video, which opened its Tecumseh Road store in Windsor almost nine years ago and had five stores across the southwestern Ontario, will close its doors on Sunday.
Manager Machele Shearer, who runs the only Family Video currently operating in Canada, said she and her team found out about the store's closure about a week and a half ago.
"We were all pretty shocked," she said. "We knew our lease was coming due for renewal, and it's always a little bit of a nervous time … So we were hoping that we were going to get another year, but it just didn't work out."
Shearer remembers when the video rental store first set up shop in Windsor-Essex. At the time, new movie rentals cost between $3.49 and $3.79.
"Everything had moved out of the city," she said. "We had no Blockbuster, no Rogers — there were a few independents, but nothing big."
Customers looking for an easy way to rent movies and television shows flocked to Family Video.
"It was the nostalgia of video rental, and people were thrilled to come in and show their kids how they would spend a Friday night," she said.
Curtis Holden, a Family Video customer who describes himself as part of one of the last generations to really experience video rental stores, said he'll miss "being able to just walk in and you've got all the physical copies there."
"Rental is so different now," he said, pointing out that streaming services like Netflix have changed the way people consume movies and television.
"It's more convenient," he said. "But you don't get any of the human experience … talking to people. I miss waiting to get in the store and see if [movies] were there, and the hype that came with it. With digital, it just feels like you don't actually have a physical. I feels like 'Poof,' and you suddenly lose your data."
Interest in physical rentals 'ebbed and flowed'
Despite his fondness for physical rentals, Holden had trouble remembering the last time he rented a title from Family Video.
"It was probably a year or two ago," he said.
And while customers like Holden might still prefer physical media, Shearer explained that interest in renting physical copies "ebbed and flowed over the last three years."
"I saw quite a resurgence in the last year or two, with a lot of young families coming in," she said. "We were signing up new members constantly."
Shearer acknowledged that the store has always faced competition — whether from other video rental businesses, physical rental services like Redbox, or streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video that have become seemingly ubiquitous.
Ultimately Shearer said the likely reason for Family Video's closure has to do with an inability to afford the cost of running the business.
"We're basically a mom-and-pop video store," she said. "We're renting movies for $1 or $2 and rents in the city are becoming astronomical."
"When you match up what you're pulling in with the leasing agreements, sometimes you just can't make it work."
Family Video also never dramatically increased its prices. Over the course of almost nine years, Shearer said the cost of new rentals only increased to around $4.50 and $4.99.
"And we offer free kids movies," Shearer said. "So when a parent comes in and rents new releases and the kids come with them, all their movies are free."
'I've just loved the whole experience,' says manager
Shearer said she was heartbroken when she learned the news about Family Video's upcoming closure, adding that she "got a great sense of humanity" from working at the rental store.
"We sit at a bus route, so we get lots of interesting people that are waiting for the bus that come in and chit-chat with," she said. "It's been very eye-opening. It's changed my whole outlook on retail and what retail workers do."
As a result of her time with the store, Shearer said she's grown into a "much more patient and accepting person."
"You don't understand just what's going on in each person's life," she said. "And when you start doing this day-to-day and you're realizing now everybody is going home to a family that loves them and not everybody is working steadily, you gain a greater acceptance of everyone and so much more patience with everyone.
"I've just loved the whole experience."
With files from Amy Dodge