THE Civic Video store at Caringbah closed its doors on June 30 — for the last time.
Civic Video management decided to close the store at the end of the lease period and the outlet has spent the past month selling off its extensive catalogue of DVDs and Blu-ray discs.
The outlet was a corporate store, meaning it was owned and managed by Civic Video's head office.
A staff member told a customer that the store had many members as it had taken on memberships of nearby DVD rental stores that closed previously, including Civic Video outlets and a privately-owned store.
There are now only two Civic Video outlets in the region: Cronulla (private) and South Hurstville (corporate).
This follows the closure of Civic Video outlets at Miranda, Engadine, Menai and Jannali.
There is one Video Ezy store at Ramsgate and a handful of privately run DVD rental outlets in the region.
The demise of the DVD rental store had been predicted for several years and was linked to new technology that allowed consumers to download movies over the internet.
The advent of DVD dispensing machines and the cheap availability of DVDs for sale also was thought to have spelt the final death knell for rentals.
A report released earlier this year by IBISWorld, analysing the industries tipped to "fly and fall in 2014" found DVD hire outlets would see the biggest revenue decline in 2014.
IBISWorld predicted revenue would drop almost 15 per cent this year from $627 million to $534 million.
"IBISWorld predicts video and DVD hire outlets will be affected by significant competition from pay TV, the internet and new online entrants to the market, such as streaming services," the report said.
"Traditional video and DVD hire from rental outlets has been on a significant declining trend for some time."
Civic Video did not respond to Leader inquiries.
JUST WILDE ABOUT DVDS
DVD rental outlets may be tipped to be the worst performing industry this year but try telling that to Lillian Wilde.
The owner of the Civic Video outlet at Cronulla said business was booming despite long-held predictions that downloading from the internet would kill-off DVD rentals.
‘‘I have got 150 new members just this month,’’ she said. ‘‘[Business] is going very well actually because I have customers who do not know how to download [from the internet].’’ Ms Wilde said customers begged her daily to stay open. While many of her elderly customers did not have the technology or know-how to download from the internet, others simply enjoyed coming in and browsing.
Her biggest demographic is males aged 18 to 36 while families with young children are also big customers.
Ms Wilde said DVD dispensing machines, like the one a short walk from her store, were only really popular with shift workers and often broke down.
She said renting DVDs was less expensive than pay TV, especially when factoring in special offers.
‘‘Tuesdays and Wednesdays is $2.95 for new releases and you can get four for $16 on weekends,’’ she said. ‘‘You should come in on a Saturday night: we are full.’’ Ms Wilde said she would stay open as long as it was viable financially.
‘‘You feel for the older generation,’’ she said. ‘‘At the moment, they are all worried that they will not have anywhere to get their movies from.’’
Do you still rent DVDs and are you disappointed the store has closed?
