Molapo video shop stands the test of time?

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Thursday April 22, 2010 00:00

The place is quiet.  The saleswoman, Tlamelo, who has been with the business since it opened last year, says she is accustomed to the quietness. It is the type of quietness that has resulted in two video shops at the same mall closing in the last five years. In fact, this video shop benefited last year from the collapse of another video hire service, which had to sell the business amid stiff competition from fake Chinese DVDs at the mall. There is something that makes this video outlet interesting. Like a hero, the last action hero, it is the only video shop still standing in Molapo Crossing.

Though Tlamelo may not be a rocket scientist, she can smell it is a matter of time before her video outlet finally closes too. Her video outlet is facing an Asian owned clothing shop, which stocks hundreds, and hundreds of Hollywood's finest releases much faster than her shop.  In fact, Tlamelo says often before a movie can even play in the cinemas, her Asian rival already has it in stock, at only P20 for a DVD which can sometimes have as many as four movies, eight movies, 28 movies, or more!

Tlamelo's DVD hire currently advertises its latest releases, which include 2012, New Moon, Invictus, while her rival has had those movies as early as last year! Tlamelo says the situation used to be better last year when government seemed to be winning the war against piracy, especially fake DVDs and music sold by most Chinese shops in Botswana.

'There was a time when there was a lull in Chinese DVDs, and that is when our business started doing well because people would come here for the movies; but now the Chinese have started re-stocking the DVDs again, and customers have noticed that; so they just come here, look around, and walk across to buy cheap movies there,' says Tlamelo.

Until late last year Nosey Road videos at Game City had been posturing as the city's video outlet of choice, with brand new movies flowing in almost after every other week. However, the MD of the Nosey Road video Franchise, Ivo Sbrana says they had to sell because the rent was just too high for such kind of business. In fact they also closed down two other outlets, which used to be at Gaborone West and Phakalane. There used to be another great video hire at Kgale Hill Mall, which also closed about two years ago, while recently the Village Video shop announced it is closing down too.

At the BBS Mall, three video outlets, which had been providing top-notch video hire services, have also folded, and so has another video hire shop at the Bonnington Mall in Mogoditshane.

The Main mall was the first to end video hire services over five years ago as the Chinese clothing shops continued to flood the market with cheap Hollywood movies.