Blockbuster Video Closing its Doors in Lakewood

The store on Detroit Avenue is closing its doors next month.

The manager of the store, Matt Heslop, confirmed what many in Lakewood suspected was coming.

The store’s last day for rentals is Dec. 26, and the last day that items will be sold is Jan. 22. Everything will go, including the desks and chairs in the office.

The closure will mark the first time the city has been without a video rental store in years.

The proposed is set to expand into the area now occupied by Blockbuster.  

The store’s seven employees will have the option to work in different stores if they choose, Heslop said, who has been at the Lakewood store for the past nine months.

“As the media evolves, Blockbuster is evolving along with it,” he said, noting that the company has taken more of its business online.

Along with the changes in trends, he added, is that the company is shifting the dynamic of its brick-and-mortar locations.

“The overall objective is to open store’s with smaller footprints,” said Heslop. “This store is 4,200 square feet, I think the objective is to open stores at around 2,400 square feet.” 

He said if Blockbuster opens in another location in Lakewood, it would likely be a smaller store with a partnership with the company’s parent corporation, Dish Network.

With plans in the works for a new, fully renovated Drug Mart Plaza, the developers of the project were told recently that Blockbuster Video wouldn’t be a part of the plans.

“I knew Blockbuster as a company was struggling,” said Dru Siley, the city’s director of planning and development “We figured it wouldn’t be long before that store (closed). I don’t think they’re going to have a brick-and-mortar presence much longer — anywhere.”