Movie Gallery Incorporated, the parent company of Movie Gallery, Hollywood Video and Game Crazy stores, will close all its U.S.-based locations, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
The company has two locations in the Twin Cities: Movie Gallery is located in the Twin City Town Center in Chehalis, and Hollywood Video is located on the corner of Harrison Avenue and Johnson Road in Centralia.
Melissa Florek, the manager on duty Tuesday at Movie Gallery in Chehalis, was answering a slew of questions from customers who are enrolled in the store’s long-term rental packages. Florek said the store is set to close anywhere between two and eight weeks from now and that the company didn’t offer alternative jobs for her or any other employees she knows.
“I just have to figure it out, I guess,” Florek said.
Florek also confirmed that the Hollywood Video in Centralia, owned by the same company, also is set to close.
Employees at the Hollywood Video deferred comment to the company’s Wilsonville, Ore.-based headquarters, where calls to media relations personnel were met with a voicemail prompt stating the company would answer a minimal amount of media inquiries, and to refer to the company website for more information.
The video rental industry has been turned on its head in recent years by the advent of Netflix, a service that offers the convenience of movies delivered by mail or streaming over the Internet; and Redbox, which offers kiosks through which customers can rent new releases for one dollar per day. Three Redbox kiosks exist in the Twin Cities, all located in Chehalis.
Information on Movie Gallery’s website at www.moviegallery.com/restructure, current as of March, states the company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February with the hope of some stores remaining open while the company closed underperforming stores. The Centralia and Chehalis locations were not affected at the time, according to the website.
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Chronicle photographer Dan Schreiber contributed to this report.
