
{"id":14931,"date":"2010-12-30T09:24:46","date_gmt":"2010-12-30T14:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=14931"},"modified":"2010-12-30T09:24:47","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T14:24:47","slug":"visart-video-closing-its-doors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/12\/30\/visart-video-closing-its-doors\/","title":{"rendered":"VisArt Video closing its doors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2010\/12\/30\/visart-video-closing-its-doors\/visart1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14932\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/VisArt1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"VisArt1\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-14932\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/VisArt1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/VisArt1-113x84.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/VisArt1-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/VisArt1-106x80.jpg 106w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>By Susan Dickson<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\nVisArt Video, a mainstay in downtown Carrboro, will soon close its doors after more than 20 years renting DVDs and videos to the public. <\/p>\n<p>Manager Cameron Price, who has worked in the store for 14 years, said VisArt will probably close sometime within the next week.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the exact date,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Price said, adding that it will depend on whether staff has to remove the racks from the store. VisArt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lease expires in February. <\/p>\n<p>VisArt has seen a steady decline in business over the last three or four years reflecting a shift in the way people rent movies, according to Price. The small chain of video rental stores has already closed its locations in Durham and Chapel Hill, leaving only the Charlotte store open. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It all kind of started with DVDs taking over, because it started to get really cheap,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all digital downloads and movies by mail and those red boxes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>While the store has a number of loyal customers, there weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough to keep VisArt in business. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all just really sad,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Price said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hundreds of people saying the exact same thing over and over again.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sincere; but at the same time, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwhere have you been for the last five years?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The store is selling its DVDs and other merchandise, much of which is already gone. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We still have a lot left, but a lot of what we have is stuff people have never heard of,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Price said, adding that there were some good movies left, but customers might have to dig to find them. <\/p>\n<p>Frank Heath, owner of Cat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cradle, next door to VisArt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 7,000-square-foot space, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153VisArt will be dearly missed, especially since it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only independent video store left in town,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d adding that the store has been a great neighbor for his music club. <\/p>\n<p>Mia Prior, a VisArt customer for 20 years, said she loved the store\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unusual selection. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Just browsing the store and looking at the employee picks was educational, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The other thing I loved was the knowledge of the people who worked behind the counter. They knew a lot about movies and could help you find very obscure films.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153VisArt has been a treasure to this town, and has given us access to high art and culture that we cannot get easily elsewhere. In fact, I fear that the closing of the store is closing the door to finding out about a lot of these great movies for many people.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Most of the store\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 12 employees have other part-time jobs, Price said, so they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be unemployed once VisArt closes. <\/p>\n<p>But though he won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be unemployed, Price said he is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153really going to miss working\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at VisArt. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There was a reason I worked here for almost 15 years. It was the best job I ever had,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I got to be surrounded by movies all the time.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VisArt Video, a mainstay in downtown Carrboro, will soon close its doors after more than 20 years renting DVDs and videos to the public. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14931"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14976,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14931\/revisions\/14976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}