Blockbuster store set to close

La Cañada Flintridge residents hosting a movie night soon will have to look a little harder to find DVDs, as the city’s Blockbuster movie rental store is closing permanently on April 15.

Store manager Levi Paul, who has worked at the La Cañada location for more than eight years, said Monday that he had received news of the closure a couple months ago. Paul said that he wasn’t told why the site in the 2200 block of Foothill Boulevard will be closed, but that the cost of the commercial rental space is often a factor.

“Generally, in the past, it’s [been] an issue with the lease in some way, shape or form,” he said. “Either the numbers don’t work for them, or the landlords want to increase pricing, but it’s all really above my pay grade.”

The store is holding a liquidation sale, ceasing rentals and selling everything in the store, including shelving and other fixtures. Prices will drop in the weeks leading up to the final day of business.

As Blockbuster closes brick-and-mortar locations, the company is attempting to gain more customers for its video-rental-by-mail service.

“We’re marking prices down, everything’s got to go, from the store fixtures themselves to all the thousands of movies we have,” said Paul. “Because there isn’t really anything else close by, we’re giving away three free months of our mail service if you come into the store.”

Brie Lempry, the manager on duty last Friday, said that while store officials had not seen a big spike in business since the closure was announced, they were expecting more customers to arrive as prices dropped further.

The move is part of a larger corporate cost-cutting measure by Dish Network, which purchased Blockbuster out of bankruptcy. As reported by the Wall Street Journal in February, Dish announced it would be closing one-third of all remaining Blockbuster retail locations in the first half of this year. This makes La Cañada’s Blockbuster just one of 500 of the remaining 1,500 locations to close.

Dish Network representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

When Blockbuster moves out, it will leave La Cañada Video at Foothill and Gould as the only video rental store in the city.

Hamlet Shahbazian, owner of La Cañada Video, said that he wasn’t sure how Blockbuster’s closing would affect his business.

“It’s always good to have competition. But also we’re glad to have extra business,” he said. “But it’s too early to make a judgment.”

Shahbazian said that while it certainly isn’t a good time for movie rental stores, La Cañada Video still serves enough customers to keep it going.

“Well, it’s always been tough … we’re doing OK, for now,” he said.