Civic Video to close in Bunbury after nearly 30 years

The last video store in Bunbury will close its doors for the final time next week.

After nearly 30 years in business David Gianotti said it had been an agonising decision to close Civic Video.

“I’ve got a lot of mixed emotions,” he said.

“There is a lot of sadness because over 30 years we’ve built this up from scratch to become what it was.

“Within the video industry it was the number one store in Australia for over 20 years at the peak of the industry when there was nearly 4000 stores across the country - that was a pretty big achievement.”

While other video stores in the city and across the country have been forced to close before now, Mr Gianotti said it was a willingness to adapt that allowed him to keep the doors open as long as he had.

“At the start we had the idea that we’d be the biggest and the best,” he said.

“We always wanted to source as many movies we could from anywhere.

“If people thought about a movie we wanted them to think about going to Civic.”

The store was also quick to adapt to technological changes from Beta and VHS tapes into DVD and Blu-ray discs as well as similar changes in video game systems.

In later years the store diversified more in order to sell popular American confectionery and icon collectibles.

The store will hold a closing down sale from tomorrow until its final trading day the following Friday.