By David F. Rooney
Business is so bad that Revelstoke is on the verge of losing its video store.
Four of its five employees have been let go and, unless the company can hang until the autumn when business has traditionally picked up for the winter, store manager Joe Martini will likely follow them.
“We need at least $1,000 a day to stay in business,” he said. “We’re barely making $300.”
Martini blames changing demographics, social customs and the advent of cheap online downloading sites for the losses suffered by the local branch of the eight-store Movie Company chain, formerly known as Video Express.
“The demographics have changed so much we can’t compete with all this new technology,” he said.
But it appears that this may be a highly localized problem for the company.
“It’s only here that they’re losing money,” Martini said.
He hopes people who enjoy watching DVDs and who value the store’s long service to the community as both a retail business and as the donor of thousands of Video Bucks to children’s programs and school will help keep it alive.
