Independents Feel Pressure

The home video industry’s 1998 comeback helped sharpen the divide between big national chains and smaller independents, who say that competing against industry giants is increasingly difficult.

Spokane-area independents had mixed results for last year, with one reporting a modest increase while another said rentals were essentially flat.

Tom Hamilton Jr., spokesman for Premier Video, a local chain, said rentals for last year were about 5 percent higher than 1997’s. However, Hamilton said, opened in December near one of his stores.

“Competition affects us pretty severely,” Hamilton said. “These are publicly held cor porations that can come into markets and afford to put independent video store owners out of business.”

While Premier has eight stores in Spokane, bigger competitors, including Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and Hastings, now have about 10 among them.

“The pie is only so big,” explains Hamilton.

Hamilton says one advantage held by big video companies is their close ties to film studios. Blockbuster, for example, has revenue-sharing deals with studios that allow it to put large volumes of videos on shelves, cheaply.

A spokeswoman for Video Unlimited, another independent chain that has been in Spokane for about 20 years, echoed Hamilton’s concerns about competitive problems confronting small operators.

“It’s just a real struggle making a living at it,” she said.

And while Premier says it had an increase in rentals in 1998, the Video Unlimited spokeswoman said she has not noticed a business boost in recent years, with 1988 being the last high-water mark.

Video Unlimited has four locations in Spokane, including one recent addition. Premier’s Hamilton says there are no plans for his company to add to its chain.