Family Video To Close All Remaining Stores

The coronavirus pandemic has been devastating for a number of businesses over the course of 2020, and unfortunately, the list of closing stores and restaurants continues to grow into 2021. The most recent business to shut its doors is the video chain Family Video, as the business announced today that it will be closing its remaining 250 plus locations. All of those locations have also started liquidation sales and will shut down after selling through all of their remaining movie, games, and fixtures. The company previously closed several locations in an effort to avoid a full shutdown, but unfortunately, the continuing pandemic resulted in too many losses to overcome (via 13 Action News).

Highland Ventures LTD CEO Keith Hoogland revealed the news in a statement, saying, writing “You may have heard that we’re closing select locations … it’s true. We’ve enjoyed serving so many communities over the years, but recent events have caused us to make some tough business decisions.”

“While we have faced digital competition from Netflix and others for years, nothing has been as devastating to our business as COVID-19,” the statement read.

“We are very thankful to have been able to provide entertainment for many family movie nights, and want to thank the people of Toledo and our incredible staff for the many years of support and service,” the statement continued.

Family Video was the largest movie and game rental chain left in the United States, and at one point featured over 500 stores in the U.S. and Canada. The company started out as Midstates Appliance & Supply Company in 1946, and after getting stuck with a large assortment of videos, Charlie Hoogland decided to start a video store. Family Video was then founded in 1978, and has become a favorite stop for those who still love to rent videos and video games.

Family Video represents one of the last video stores aside from the lone Blockbuster left and a few smaller establishments. Some of that is of course attributed to the rise of streaming in regards to movies and the move to digital for video games, and the latter has also had an effect on video game focused stores like GameStop, which has had to close a number of stores in the past year.