Once there were more than 500 Video Ezy outlets across Australia, according to Frank Floro.

But when the door closes at Figtree this weekend, to make way for Illawarra Vet Hospital, he thinks it may be one of the last in the state.

“I believe we are the only Video Ezy left in NSW. There was one other one in Adelaide but I don’t know whether it has closed or not. We are one of the very last,” Mr Floro said.

While kiosks remain, he feels the demise of video stores is due to a combination of factors, not just broadband killing the video brand.

Mr Floro said video stores were able to compete with online movies but not with illegal downloading that involves viewers getting something for nothing.

“We tried our hardest to stay on because it has been part of our lives for 35 years. We used to own Illawarra Home Video at Woonona. We ran that store for many years before we moved south near where we live. We have probably hired out millions of videos over the years,” he said.

But movie hire will not completely disappear for the Floro family who still plan to do some rentals next door at Pie Face.

“We have made a wall vacant for all the latest stuff,” Mr Floro said.

“We are going to keep it going because we have regular customers that don’t use the Internet and don’t download movies. When we first told them we were closing they said “what are we going to do for entertainment”.”

That was when his daughter Sandra Floro suggested providing new releases from Pie Face.

“We have made a lot of friends in this area over the years. When my daughters got married we even invited some of our customers. We appreciate their support for us over the years.”  

Mr Floro said they had been able to hang on so long because he owned the building and did not have to contend with rising rents every year.

“We opened Video Ezy here in the year 2000 but prior to that we were 10 years at Westfield Figtree up on the roof,” he said.

Mr Floro felt sad to close the last Video Ezy.

“But what can we do?”

“We just can’t save it any more. We have another tenant coming in. So we need to take this opportunity”.

This week they have been selling stock.

“A chap just came in and bought 1600 of them. We are going to close by the end of the week. Sunday will probably be our last day.”

The Floro family have been reminiscing as they prepare to close. Frank, brother Joe and daughter Sandra all remember cold wet days when there were queues of people lining up to grab some movies to watch at home. On those days they couldn’t put on enough staff.

“We would have all the counters operating and every one of them was 10 or 15 deep with people waiting to get served. We would have four or five people on at one time. They were the good old days,” Mr Floro said.

He recalled the Beta verses VHS era and the arrivals of DVD and Blu-ray. 

“I thought maybe 4k may be going to give us a little boost but we just haven’t got enough demand,” he said.

The Floro family ran two stores at Warrawong and Figtree where they employed dozens of people over the years.

“It was a big industry. I don’t think people realise how many people it employed Australia wide,” Mr Floro said.