Last Wednesday I did some shopping, then decided to stop at Hollywood Video to pick up a movie.
I got about 10 feet from the door when I looked inside and saw that the place had been emptied out. Another guy walked right to the locked door before looking inside. “Wow!” he exclaimed.
I called back to the office to ask if we’d done a story about the closure. I was told there had been a story awhile back about Hollywood closing stores, but Albany apparently wasn’t on the list. On Thursday, Steve Lathrop wrote the front page story, “Hollywood closes its Albany store.”
A reason for the closure was not given in the story, but we can make a safe guess that competition from Netflix, Redbox, On Demand and other download services has taken a major toll on Hollywood Video.
The video store was open 365 days a year. It’s taken a few days for me to get used to seeing an empty Hollywood Video and nearby parking places. The last time that building sat empty was in the late ’80s when Firestone closed its doors.
I’m sorry to see the Hollywood employees lose their jobs, and I’ll miss their good customer service. The manager was a friendly and helpful guy. Whenever I asked for an opinion about a movie, he and his staff weren’t afraid to tell me if it was lousy.
I’ll also miss the sense of community about the store. I’d often bump into someone I knew there. Sometimes I spent as much time yakking as I did perusing the videos.
I love movies, and I won’t waste any time finding another video service. For this week at least, I’m feeling a loss.
