By Ashleigh Fielding | posted on October 3, 2019
LESS than two months after Albany’s sole-surviving video rental store Albany Mega Movies shut up shop, more than 100 people have signed up to a new video rental store within its first three weeks of trading.
Galaxy Movies owner Nigel Heinz has operated his martial arts business at 2/154 Albany Highway for the past four years and recently had a second thought about how to use the space.
He previously worked at Blockbuster Albany/Albany Mega Movies for more than a decade and always wanted to open a video rental store of his own.
“I could just never afford it,” Mr Heinz told the Weekender.
Now, he has upward of 5000 DVDs available for hire in the same building as his martial arts studio; more than 4000 are from his own collection.
He opened the Galaxy Movies doors less than one month ago and has already seen plentiful foot traffic through the store.
“I started collecting DVDs in 1999,” Mr Heinz said.
“There’s still a lot of money in DVDs…not all people want to deal with a streaming service because those services are impersonal and unorganised. “And you can’t beat 4K quality.”
Mr Heinz believes more money stays in Australia via the DVD industry compared to the streaming service industry, and by supporting the DVD industry,he believes it keeps human interaction and customer service alive.
“People like coming in and talking to someone, asking what movies are good at the moment,” he said.
“Customer service is well and truly getting lost – people are like robots behind the counter these days – so here, we can talk with people and help them out.”
Galaxy Movies is currently trading seven days a week from 9am to 7.30pm. The best way to get to the store is via Monck Way, off Sanford Road – just past Smith’s Aluminium.