One of the last video stores in the Netherlands stopped
NOS News•
One of the last video stores in the Netherlands – and the only one in the Westland region – closed down. After 25 years, the video store is no longer suspicious. “It can’t continue as a kind of museum either,” says owner Peter Vermeer Broadcasting West.
He calls the end of his video store “the end of an era”. Vermeer: ”If I’m cleaning up all those films now, it naturally affects me. You just see twenty history going through your hands. It’s a pity, but the time is really ripe for it,” says the owner of Filmclub De Lier, the video store in De Lier in South Holland.
At the end of the 1990s, there were still about 1100 video stores in the Netherlands, but the number declined rapidly after that. Last year, less than ten video stores passed.
Free movies
In February, Vermeer wanted his video library despite the many streaming services continue at all costs. ‘I then started offering free weekly films, to start the walk to the store again after corona. That walk has even been there, but in the end it reaches too few customers. Then it becomes an expensive opportunity, and it cannot continue as a kind of museum.”
The DVDs are now being sold for the rental price. There still seems to be a market for that. “Film enthusiasts who want to complete their collection are now the first to join.”
Not all movies go out. “Of course I have a few favorites myself, I have taken them out. I will take them home.”
Best 250 movies remain
The business continues as a toy store. In addition, he holds the top 250 of the website IMDb, an online database of movie ratings. “The blood seeps where it can’t go,” he says. “If there are people who want to see films from this top 250 and cannot find it via a streaming service, they can still contact me. So secretly I will not stop completely.”