PORT TOWNSEND — Hollywood Video, met by loud anti-chain store protests even before it opened in August 2005, will quietly fade to black, closing its doors in the coming weeks after its parent company filed for Chapter 11 restructuring under the U.S. Bankruptcy code.
The store at 2223 E. Sims Way has had a clearance sale under way since parent company, Movie Gallery Inc., filed for restructuring Feb. 2 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond.
The action will enable Movie Gallery to restructure its debt while continuing to operate its business, says the company’s Web site at moviegallery.com.
The Sequim Hollywood Video at 755 W. Washington St. is not on the company’s list of stores to close.
“Movie Gallery’s restructuring will also include the immediate liquidation and closure of approximately 760 Movie Gallery, Hollywood Video and Game Crazy stores,” the company said on its Web site.
“We are closing these because they are not profitable and because funds from liquidating them can help us moving forward.”
Closures listed besides Port Townsend were Silverdale, Lynnwood, Stanwood, Everett and Mill Creek.
The filing does not include Movie Gallery’s Canadian operations, which will continue business as normal.
A woman at the Port Townsend Hollywood Video store Thursday who identified herself only as the manager said she could not comment and instead gave the phone number for the media line at Hollywood Entertainment Corporation, which includes Movie Gallery, Hollywood Video and Game Crazy stores.
A call to the number was not returned Thursday. A voice mail recording about the restructuring refers callers to www.moviegallery.com/restructure.
The number of employees at the Hollywood Video Port Townsend store could not be confirmed Thursday. It has been estimated six employees will lose their jobs.
Held ‘stop’ sign
David Goldman, a member of the “Stop Hollywood Video” group that formed shortly after Hollywood Video filed plans with the city of Port Townsend in 2005, said he was saddened at the news that the store’s employees were affected.
“I think it’s a shame that people are going to lose their jobs. That’s always very bad,” said Goldman, who in the summer of 2005 was often seen holding a “Stop Hollywood Video” sign out in front of the then-newly opened store.
The group’s efforts collected about 3,500 signatures on a petition opposing the Hollywood Video store, vowing that its petition-signing supporters would boycott the chain store when it opens.
Members of the group at the time contended that Hollywood Video lacked an understanding of the community.
Goldman, a retired lawyer, successfully campaigned for a formula-store ordinance that in effect bans such companies from opening outlets inside the downtown historic district.
The ordinance requires that franchises be allowed only on the commercial stretch of Sims between the entrance to the city and the ferry terminal.
The ordinance also requires that franchise store appearances conform to city codes that require smaller signs, such as that on the Port Townsend Hollywood Video store, and other aesthetically conforming features.
Chain store size is also restricted under the ordinance.
“They need to look different than they do in Sequim or in Silverdale, or Ferndale,” he said.
The ordinance does not affect supermarket or bank chains.
Goldman said he was not surprised when the clearance sale signs went up at Hollywood Video on Sims Way.
“I knew their business model had been in trouble for years and that they got a lot of competion from Netflix,” which rents videos by mail, Goldman said. “It was in the cards.”
Within a year after Hollywood Video opened, two locally-owned video stores closed, the first being just four doors down from Hollywood Video on Sims Way.
Hollywood Video’s departure will leave Vasu Video and Electronics, 1030 Lawrence St., the only independent video store in Port Townsend still standing.
Vasu Video is owned by Larry Hudson, who in June 2008 opened Dragonfire, a smaller satellite store that also sells video games and espresso at 939 Kearney St.
‘Last independent’
“We’re the last independent” in Port Townsend, Hudson proudly declared Thursday, saying that the 15-year-old Vasu Video store relied on “a lot of customer loyalty and a good location” near Aldrich’s Grocery Store.
The only other independent video store in Jefferson County is Peninsula Video, 842 Nesses Corner Road, in Port Hadlock.
Hudson said there was a reason he opened his second smaller video store at a time when the industry struggles.
“I put us here to strategically put us between Vasu and Hollywood Video,” Hudson said Thursday at his Dragonfire store.
“We won’t feel the impact until Hollywood Video closes its doors,” Hudson said.
He said he feels no impact from the small video sales at the Safeway store further west on Sims.
Vasu’s 14,000 titles include foreign and documentary movies that could not be found at Hollywood Video, Hudson said.
“We listen to our customers and if we don’t have it we special order it,” he said.
Hudson said he still expects his business will struggle against Netflix, much in the same way Hollywood Video has.
“That’s our biggest competitor,” Hudson said of Netflix.
He fears Hollywood Video might merge with Amazon.com to sell online video downloads only to home video systems.
Netflix already offers Amazon.com among their online video partners that Netflix mail video subscribers can download to a home TV with a Roku box, a mini-computer that operates through a viewer’s home wireless Internet system.
“We can’t even come close to what they offer,” Hudson said.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
