SEQUIM — Hollywood Video, one of a few video-rental outlets in Sequim, is reportedly shutting its doors soon, though its local staff isn’t talking.
The video shop at 755 W. Washington St. is part of the Movie Gallery chain of Wilsonville, Ore., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Feb. 2; soon after that the Hollywood Video in Port Townsend sold off its inventory and closed for good.
“We haven’t been told yet when we’re closing,” a Sequim Hollywood Video employee said Wednesday morning.
She said six people are employed at the shop but declined to give her name, adding, “I didn’t wear my name tag today on purpose.”
The store’s manager wasn’t available for comment Wednesday.
Earlier this week, national media outlets reported that hundreds of Hollywood Video stores across the country will go out of business in the coming weeks.
The company’s “media hot line,” however, has a recorded message stating that “for the most part [we] are not responding to media inquiries.”
A call placed to the customer service line, 8-SPEAK-TO-US (877-325-8687), eventually led to a corporate staffer who wouldn’t give his name but said the Sequim shop will “probably” close in the first part of June.
Another Sequim store to shut its doors this spring was the Pizza Factory at 1400 W. Washington St.
Pizza Factory
The franchise owner was Aaron Ariza, who “put his heart and soul into the community,” Nikki Van Velson, operations director at the Pizza Factory’s corporate office in Oakhurst, Calif., said Wednesday. Ariza could not be reached for comment.
The Pizza Factory at 1102 Water St. in Port Townsend, however, is a separately owned franchise that will stay open.
At the same time, two new convenience-food outlets are arriving in Sequim: one that’s in business and another in its first stages of construction.
Two new places
Hardy’s Market 2, just west of town at the corner of Taylor Cutoff Road and U.S. Highway 101, opened its doors Friday.
The store, like the first Hardy’s Market at Old Olympic Highway and Sequim-Dungeness Way, is owned by Randy DuPont.
Both markets stay open until 9 p.m. seven days a week, and the Old Olympic store starts the day at 7 a.m. while the new Highway 101 location opens at 6 a.m.
And nearly three years after its original building permit application, Orchard Foods of Silverdale has broken ground on a free-standing Taco Bell at the corner of Lee Chatfield Way and West Washington St.
Developer Peter Braun of Orchard Foods didn’t return calls inquiring about when the Mexican fast-food outlet will be finished.
But Sequim Planning Department spokeswoman Laurie Anne Munn said a permit has been approved for a 2,006-square-foot, $226,439 building.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
