America’s once-beloved movie rental stores have severely declined across the nation over the last decade. Besides the rise of online streaming services, what other factors contributed to the decline of movie rental stores? This week’s Map of the Week is looking at data results from Joseph Tokosh and Xuwei Chen’s publication at Northern Illinois University on the spatial distribution of Family Video stores and waves of closures.
After popular movie rental chains like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video became bankrupt in 2010, Family Video is the last standing competitor in the movie retail chain with about 500 stores. Tokosh and Xuwei compiled data to create maps showing the wave of store closures, as well as store sizes and status of opened stores. Their research explains the conditions that led to store closures. For the video retail industry, the primary reasons were technological changes due to rising interest in movie streaming services like Hulu and Netflix. Their ease of use and diverse movie selection has outweighed the quality of most rental chains. However, not all areas have broadband access, which can hinder their ability to use streaming services. This places Family Video stores at an advantage, where they are dispersed in low dense, rural populations. In addition to technological changes, competitors closed permanently because of corporate bankruptcy and underperformance. Of the 660 current or former Family Video locations since their opening in 1978, only 123 stores closed permanently within the past few years. The research further suggests that the type of building, whether it is freestanding, in shopping malls, or retail centers, have an effect on the likelihood of store closures.
The main map looks at the spatial distribution of Family Video stores across nineteen states, from North Texas to upstate New York. Different from their competitors, Family Video focused on suburban and rural areas like the Great Lakes region for store locations. The growth of the stores around metropolitan areas seems to be a methodical component of retail geography. Retail geography is the subcategory of geography that examines the cost-benefit analysis of store locations. Looking at the proximity of consumers to stores, ideal locations are based on several geographical factors, including population density, ease of transport access, and socioeconomic status. Since studying the four waves of store closures beginning in 2017, Tokosh and Xuewei concluded that the spatial layout of each store size, mostly smaller floor spaces, and retail locations near restaurants and other store chains had an important impact on the success of Family Video stores.
For full research on the investigation of Family Video store closures, take a look at their publication: The Green and Orange Place That Still Rents Movies: Investigating the Closures of Family Video Movie Stores.
Sources: The Professional Geographer, Forbes, Wall Street Journal