Family Video Rental on Fayetteville Road in Rockingham is the last in-store video rental standing. The Redbox and Netflix may have caught the eye of some, but the hometown store isn’t going anywhere.

“We haven’t really seen that much of a negative impact on business,” Store Manager John Rowland said. Rowland thinks that it’s just the trends are just novelty.

In 1946, Clarence Hoogland started Midstates Appliance & Supply Company and in 1953, Clarence’s son Charlie Hoogland took over the company. In the 1970’s, Midstates acquired a large quantity of videos. Hoogland’s team got the idea to rent the videos and in 1978 Family Video was founded.

“We have had our ups and downs, but business is pretty consistent,” District Manager Brian Steiger said.

Steiger went on to say that some of the change has possibly happened due to the economy. “If, you lost your job then you aren’t going to think about renting a movie,” Steiger said.

However, some traditions live on. FVR continuously runs a special in which school age children have the opportunity to receive a rental voucher for each “A” that they receive in a core class. The voucher can be used for movies or game rentals.

Steve Swasey, vice president of corporate communications for Netflix, say they changed the way that Americans watch movies.

“We have a better and bigger collection, its convenient and an unbeatable value,” he said.

Swasey went on to say the beauty of Netflix is that they continue to innovate. Their instant movie watching is available on many game consoles, including the Wii, Xbox360 and Playstation3, as well as a Mac, PC or iPad. There is no startup fee and people receive a free two week trial.

Christopher Goodrich, public relations for Redbox, says the video rental industry is driven by customer preference.

“We now have kiosks at library locations and even on some Naval stations is the United States. And we are expanding rapidly each year,” he said.

FVR customers now have the option of renting new releases for $1 a piece and get to keep the movies for a full five days.

“Its our great service, competitive prices and our interaction with the customer that keeps our business,” Rowland said.

Hollie Nivens can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 19 or by e-mailing at hnivens@yourdailyjournal.com