New life for video network owner

LEONGATHA mourns its video store.
After seven years of effective and loyal services, one of the last Network video owners of the region, Julie Grant, said she had no other choice than to shut the front door for good.
While for the new generation to pay for a movie seems unreal, the others who still give money for a good Sunday night film can now do it online.
“I felt a bit of a decline as video-on-demand services such as Netflix or Foxtel grew, but it was okay. People continued to come to the shop sometimes,” she said.
“The move of mercy came last June when the NBN was set up in town. The internet is so fast now. People who have already registered their way of payment don’t even have to wait to see their movies.”
Ms Grant said she would have loved to have kept the video store open, but with the rising cost of electricity bills, rent of the store and insurance, she was losing money.
The era of dematerialisation do not spare small businesses such as video and record stores, and as they disappear, the habits and memories of a generation fly away.
“It wasn’t only about movies you know; it was social. The video store was a place where people loved to come, and that’s what I could hear when people came and bought my last DVDs,” she said.
Since the business was on the way to closing, Mrs Grant liquidated her stock of 13,500 DVDs and video games, on her way to a new life.
“I’m still going to work, but on Phillip Island now, as a personal care assistant in aged care,” she said.
“I’ll have a little bit of time for me in this new job hopefully.”
That is a complete change of life for the movie addict, so if you want to wish her good luck now that the shop has closed, watch The Green Mile, one of her favourite movies.

New chapter: Leongatha’s Network video owner Julie Grant in front of some of her 13,000 DVDs and video game stock. After years of struggle, Mrs Grant decided to close the store and make a new start.

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Posted by Sarah Vella on Apr 10 2018. Filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry