LIHU‘E — After Jan. 29, Red Box kiosks will be the only way for Kaua‘i movie lovers to grab a last-minute new release on the go.
The island’s only remaining video rental store, Blockbuster at Kukui Grove Center, is closing.
“Customers have come in crying,” store manager Kanoe Kaleiohi said Tuesday. “It’s hard with Borders gone and now the video stores. It’s practically the only entertainment here.”
Five employees will be displaced by the Kukui Grove Center closure, she said. Two stores on O‘ahu and one on Maui will also close.
Is she suprised? “Yes and no,” said Kaleiohi, who was the assistant manager of the Kapa‘a Blockbuster store that closed on short notice last summer.
“I guess they thought they would get an overflow of customers from Kapa‘a and just didn’t,” she said. “It’s just too far for people to drive.”
At a trade show earlier this month, parent company Dish Network Corp. CEO Joe Clayton told Reuters that all unprofitable stores would soon come under the knife — more than the 900 originally slated to close during the company’s bankruptcy in 2010.
Blockbuster’s new business model is shifting to one that doesn’t require any of the overhead for lease rates, utilities and store cashiers.
Under the Blockbuster brand, Dish is trying to capture the Netflix Inc. market by offering DVDs by mail and Internet streaming service via Blu-ray. To promote its services, the Kukui Blockbuster is offering two months of free movies for signing up in-store by Jan. 29.
The last day to rent videos is Jan. 29, and the store will close early at 4 p.m. All rentals are due back by Feb. 1.
“Sunday, (employees) are pulling an overnight (shift) to prepare for the sale,” Kaleiohi said. “The liquidation sale begins after Feb. 1.”
During the Kapa‘a liquidation, customers were seen leaving the store with armfuls of videos selling for $1 each.
The Lihu‘e store’s permanent closure is scheduled April 15. After that, Kaleiohi said she and her staff will probably spend two weeks cleaning up before turning in the keys and joining Kaua‘i’s roll of recently unemployed.
For more information, call Blockbuster at Kukui Grove at 822-7744.
• Vanessa Van Voorhis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681, ext. 251, or by emailing vvanvoorhis@thegardenisland.com.
