Business & Tech
Orland Video to Close 143rd Street Store on Saturday
Store owner blames construction, taxes and crumbling video store industry. DVD and video game sale are scheduled next week.
Orland Video at the corner of 143rd and LaGrange Road will close its doors Saturday, to be followed next week by a final DVD and video game sale.
Local road work was only the final nail in this video store’s coffin, which has been forced shut by high taxes and competing technology, owner Ted Trost said.
"Not knowing whether it'll last a couple years,” he said of the construction, “we can't stay here.”
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Men like Trost got into the video business because they saw an opportunity in the marketplace for affordable home entertainment. Today the technology is far enough advanced to make video stores obsolete. Just think Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. To Trost’s credit, he’s one of the last men standing.
But as poor luck would have it, Orland Video wasn’t targeted for condemnation in the . Trost, therefore, isn’t entitled to federal, state or local relocation programs, which mostly pay for moving expenses.
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He swears his taxes have gone from $13,000, in 1991, to $40,000. Worse still, he spent several thousand dollars on new computers just before road work began, underestimating the project's impact.
“Our computers were getting so bad (that) I replaced them,” he said. “And then the next couple weeks the business turned so bad with the construction here that the decision was made not to extend this pain.”
The building is in the hands of the Orland Park Building Corporation, which owns all of the Orland Plaza. There’s been talk of leasing the video store to the Illinois Department of Transportation contractors when they begin work on the nearby Metra bridge, but plaza co-owner Joseph Mikan said it was too early to talk definitely.
“If someone comes to us and is interested in renting it,” he said, “we’re certainly going to talk to them.”
Trost said he wanted to “thank everyone for all the good memories we've had.” If you’d like to thank him in kind, you can do so at the Orland Video store at 8752 W. 159th St., which will remain open indefinitely.
“He was folding up and closing the business (regardless) of the road work, the condemnation and all that,” Mikan noted. “It was just an industry that is being served in another manner now.”
Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin said it was unfortunate and echoed Mikan when he dubbed today's home entertainment industry "a different ball game." Trost "was ahead of the game when he opened the first one," the mayor added.
The closing sale runs June 1-3, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Prices range from $1 to $5.95 depending on the day and type of disc.