Last video rental chain, Jumbo Video, closing shop in St. John's
It's the end of an era for video rental stores in this province, as the last Jumbo Video gets ready to close its doors in the east end of St. John's at the end of the month.
What once was the picture of strong local business on Highland Drive is forced to close because of a change in the times.
But, it's too late to save the store.
"We'd have lineups back to the back counter continuously, especially on the weekends or if you got bad weather," owner Ken Ryan said about better days. "You know, it was really, really busy, no doubt about it."
With the advent of Netflix and other online streaming services, there's little hope for a local video store.
"You always think that things were going to get better and better, and it's not happening so you sort of have got to cut your losses and move on," Ryan said.
You always think that things were going to get better and better, and it's not happening so you sort of have got to cut your losses and move on- Ken Ryan, Jumbo Video owner
Business has been dropping for years, but Ryan relied on rainy days and long winters to keep up the traffic — this year was an exception.
"This December we had a really good December, and it was one of the worst months we had since, well, I can't remember," he said.
"When I came back and saw that, that was the final decision right there."
What's next?
Ryan's sad to let it go. As are the customers who still come regularly.
"When you get a blu-ray you get the nice quality sound, you get the nice surround sound system, I get the nice picture, and I don't have Netflix anyways, so I usually just go with the blu-rays," customer Terry Burke said.
"I can come in and get some good deals on movies, so they're for sale and [my daughter] got the DVD player in the truck, so it's always good to come in and get a deal," Marc Holloway said
Ryan said he's not sure what's in the cards for him in terms of finding a new job.
For now, he plans to take a little break from it all.
With files from Leah Balass