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By Ash Priest, Bond University journalism Student
Internet downloads are one of the reasons the owners of Network Video have decided to close shop after six years at Varsity’s Easy T Centre.
Robert and Gayle Taylor have been in the rental business for 15 years.
“We haven’t made a profit in five-and-a-half years,” Mr Taylor said.
“We’re just tired.”
The store loses $36,000 a year on unreturned and stolen movies.
“We spend three hours a day on the telephone chasing up unreturned movies alone,” Mr Taylor said.
“I’ve been verbally abused! I’ve had things thrown at me!”
The Easy T store, the last in the Varsity area, is home to about 18,000 DVDs and VHS.
“The DVD rental industry is definitely dying,” Mr Taylor said.
According to the Australian Home Entertainment Distributors Association about 200 stores have closed in the last 12 months and the closure rate is accelerating.
Internet piracy is the main factor attributed to the decline, as well as DVD vending machines set up in shopping malls.
However, Varsity resident and Canadian expatriate Trystan Elvins prefers the personal touch of her local rental store.
“They advise me of what’s great and what to stay away from, and they are normally spot on,” Miss Elvins said.
Mr Taylor, self proclaimed movie tragic, agrees.
“Our staff know movies, you don’t get that with a vending machine,” he said.
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