Vancouver will lose an entertainment institution this summer when Videomatica closes its doors.

Co-founder Graham Peat says like others in the industry, the venerable video rental and sale store in Kitsilano has lost 10 per cent of business each year for the last three years.

“Primarily, it’s just there’s so much free entertainment out there to compete with now and it’s not possible to offer a large brick and mortar store, really, for that purpose,” he said.

Peat says the American-based Netflix, which has attracted 800,000 Canadian subscribers since it launched movie streaming in Canada in September 2010, is just one of the factors that has led to Videomatica’s demise.

“The imminent thought of Netflix coming to Canada several years ago is what got us to launch our DVDs by mail program, because they were mail at the time, too,” he said. “The problem is they’re big enough to go with downloads and retailers are not able to do that… We don’t have the choice. We’re middle men.”

But independent video stores are not the only operators who are vanishing.

CBC reported last week that Blockbuster’s Canadian operations are in receivership. DVD renters have encountered dark shops across town. Among others, a Rogers location in Marpole, Happy Bats on Main Street and Alpha Video on Commercial Drive have closed.

Peat said two Toronto distributors have told him the situation is worse in B.C. than it is “back east.”

“We thought maybe it was the real estate prices. It’s way more expensive to run a store here and pay the rent,” Peat said. “It’s not that people here are more online or anything else, I don’t think.”

Proponents of independent film see the phenomena as a “terrible narrowing of choice,” Peat said.

“Things go more mainstream every time this sort of thing happens and we don’t have access to this kind of content and, of course, a huge part of our mission was to make accessible not only local filmmakers, all Canadian filmmakers and anything that was good that people didn’t know about from all over the world,” Peat said. “That and the experience, people tell us, that they enjoyed interacting with others in a social environment, in the store. They say even with online chat, they just don’t feel the same about as they did about having a place to talk to other film buffs…”

Peat notes it’s not just West Fourth Avenue that’s losing storied independent businesses.

“The whole big box and chain syndrome is what’s happening and, frankly, when it comes to overvalued placed like Vancouver, the large corporations are the only ones that can afford those rents,” Peat said.

He and co-founder Brian Bosworth hope their collection that’s rich with classic, foreign, independent and documentary films will be available to the public in a “special collection situation.”

Peat said Videomatica staff were bombarded with emails, calls and visits this past weekend from patrons sorry to see the store go.

Videomatica’s hours have been reduced but it’s still running with half a dozen mainly full-time employees mostly working on the mail subscription service.

“We’ve had to let a lot of our part-timers go,” he said.

Three years ago, Videomatica employed three times the number of staff it does now, he added.

Peat, 59, says he needs a break from retail. He expects to continue his work in the arts and entertainment.

crossi@vancourier.com

Twitter: @Cheryl_Rossi