Premier Video to Close

Premier Video, located at 47 State Road, will soon close its doors forever.

“We’re not making enough money to stay,” said store Manager Jim Gilheany.

A township fixture for more than 16 years, the video store offered customers a chance to decompress from their busy lives while browsing for VHS and DVD television and movie releases, including a wide selection of rare titles and foreign films.

But over time, Gilheany said, people have become busier and the popularity of Redbox kiosks and streaming online video have led to a dwindling business.

“We held on for a pretty long time,” Gilheany said, noting that the store has had a strong and loyal customer base. But over the last couple of years, it’s become clear the store wouldn’t survive.

The decision to close came about a month ago, he said.

When the store closes, its two full time-time and seven part-time employees will be out of work.

Over the years, Gilheany said he’s enjoyed finding unusual items for customers, including State of Play, an Australian miniseries and Foyle’s War, a British detective drama.

Gilheany will continue to transfer people’s home movies to DVD, a service the store has long provided and to which customers have grown accustomed. The only change is that customers will take that business to One-of-a-Kind Consignment Gallery at the Princeton Shopping Center and Gilheany will handle the work from there.

Premier Video is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m and although no final decision has been made on the store’s final day, it will be open through at least next week.

Everything inside the store is now for sale – including videos, wall racks, even fixtures.

“It’s disappointing,” Gilheany said. “It (a local independent video store) is a really nice thing to have, but there are really good video stores in major cities that have been closing for years.”