“There is a silver lining to all this,” said company District Manager Matt Hill. “It’s not all of our stores. Unfortunately Hamilton is one that did not bounce back as well as we hoped after being shut down for COVID, but all good things must come to an end at some point.”
The company has about 400 stores across the Midwest, including in Fairfield, four stores in the Dayton market and southeastern Indiana, plus quite a few still in Ohio.
Hill said he hopes all the Hamilton employees, whose store is at 429 Main St., will be able to transfer to other stores. In addition to selling movies and games, the company also is selling shelves and other fixtures.
Sales and rentals of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs have faced difficult times because people have been able to access films online
“That was already a big fight for us and something we competed against every day when things were quote-unquote ‘normal,’ in a regular world,” Hill said. “The video rental business, physical media, definitely has been touched by Netflix and streaming, and all that.”
“But prior to COVID, things were not in the shape they are, where we were even remotely considering anything happening like this,” he said. “If you would have gone back to January or February, we would have said, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re fine. Business isn’t what it was 10 years ago, but we don’t foresee closing in 2020.'”
The COVID-19 pandemic and forced closure of non-essential businesses made things difficult. Afterward, people have been staying home more, Hill said. Also, Hollywood has delayed releases of many films that bring in much of the stores' money, when they are released for sale or rental after leaving theaters.
“Those people who don’t have the streaming services, that don’t have any other way to watch it, those are our patrons, our customers keeping us in business,” he said. With the difficult economy, some are no longer able to afford rentals.
The company, which owns the property, plans to lease out the property, which will be available after Oct. 30, with the store being stripped down to bare walls and carpets. For rental information, send an email to matt.hill@legacypro.com.
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