With a new video store opening in town, not long after Video Experts closed, people are now able to rent or buy videos in Sundre the old-fashioned way from a specialty store again.
The manager at Video Experts, which closed on Sept. 28, couldn't stand to see Sundre without a video store, so she opened Centre Street Video across the street on Oct. 25.
First-time business owner Cassie Milewicz said she wanted to open a video store immediately after she found out Video Experts was closing.
She has a passion for movies and believes there is a need in Sundre for a video store.
“We have limited choices for entertainment value. We're a ways away from if you're going to go to a movie,” said Milewicz.
“We have a really good customer clientele in Sundre. They're very loyal and if they can support a small business they will.”
She has lived west of town for 16 years and doesn't get high-speed Internet so she enjoys watching movies on DVD.
Video Experts was popular, she said, and she believes Centre Street Video will be a successful business. She says people who camp in town during the summer months were big customers at Video Experts.
New releases will be offered regularly, and she says she has a slightly different selection than Video Experts.
Centre Street Video is sharing a location with Sew Perfect, which her mother owns.
Elaine DeGray owned Video Experts and closed the store because she was retiring.
She started Video Experts stores in Cochrane, Olds and Sundre in 2010 in buildings that, up until then, had housed Movie Gallery stores. When the international video store chain went bankrupt, it sold off its North American holdings, including stores in Innisfail, Didsbury, Sundre, Olds and Cochrane.
The Olds video store closed several years ago. She closed her Video Experts store in Cochrane on Sept. 1 and said she was sad to see the Sundre store close after four years of being open.
