The Vision Video store in Homewood Hills announced it’s final clearance sale as it prepares to shut down for good in December.

This is the chain’s fourth closure, leaving just one of it’s movie rental stores in Athens open on the Eastside. Co-owner Charles Seward plans to sell the collection of 20,000 DVDs by Christmas.

Seward opened the chain with his brother in 1986 and had five stores in the greather Athens area at their peak.

“We started in the pizza business,” Seward said. “Then we added video as a sideline, and  it just grew and grew.”

The customer base has dwindled in the past decade as more people turn to Netflix and other online streaming options to watch movies.

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For older movies that are unavailable online, Vision Video stood as a time machine and treasure trove. Seward says the store was also a social experience, building relationships and learning the tastes of his customers.

“We certainly give a lot of credit to our staff,” he said. “We have employees who are really knowledgeable about movies and can help people pick out the best movie.”

 

Long time customer and movie collector Leon Melson says it’s also going to be a lot harder for him to find classics like Citizen Kane for a good price. Melson owns a collection on over 2,000 movies, and has rented and bought films from Vision Video for 20 years.

“At the stores I’ve been to it’s always sad,” Melson said. ” The customers are sad. I never seen customers happy when a [Vision Video] closes down.”

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Seward says he’s proud to be one of the only video stores left in a slowly dying industry.

He and his customers  hope that his last location survives to serve the Athens community.

Five Seventy News 11/2/2015 – Vision Video Closing from Ariel Pinsky on Vimeo.