Premiere Home Video on Euclid to close in late March

Premiere Home Video on Euclid Avenue, one of the last video stores in Lexington, is going out of business.

Manager Bob Jefferson said Friday that the store will close at the end of March.

"It's simply a business decision," Jeffferson said. "Technology has changed the business drastically."

When Premiere opened 15 years ago, online services such as Netflix streaming, Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus were not yet the game-changing powers they are today. Netflix alone had more than 33 million streaming subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2013. Redbox, the kiosk-based DVD rental retailer, wasn't founded until 2002.

In 1999, DVDs weren't the dominant technology. VHS tapes ruled. The king of video rentals was the Blockbuster chain, which at its peak in 2004 had more than 9,000 stores. As of late 2013, the chain was down to 50 franchisee stores.

Jefferson said Premiere will stop renting videos in a few days, but a firm date hasn't been decided.

The store's stock is for sale. Prices are $2.50 each for two or more older DVDs, $7.50 for "new releases" that are more than three weeks old, $4 each for older Blu-ray discs and $10 for newer ones, $8 for games, and $1 each for VHS tapes.

The video store's building had been cited as a possible temporary home for Kroger's Euclid Avenue pharmacy while the grocery is demolished and rebuilt. Those negotiations fell through, said Tim McGurk, Kroger's spokesman for the Mid-South.

Premiere Home Video has another store at 4750 Hartland Parkway.

This story was originally published March 7, 2014 at 11:56 AM with the headline "Premiere Home Video on Euclid to close in late March."