Muskingum County’s sole remaining video rental store has closed its doors for good, as the industry, like many others, suffers the economic effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Family Video, located along Maple Avenue, took up only a portion of its 7,500 square foot building it once occupied.

Having received inventory from the shuttered Mayville Avenue location back in 2018, the remaining north store has been gutted and its merchandise loaded into a shipping container for transport to one of the company’s remaining stores.

The once lucrative industry is yet another victim of increased broadband access and affordable video streaming services in a time when many families are forced to rein in their household expenses.

Publications from across the country show that Zanesville’s Family Video store is just one of dozens, possibly hundreds of stores the company is closing just this year alone.

When it closed its Maysville Avenue location, the company had placed a branded kiosk, almost identical in operation to Redbox, a self-serving DVD dispensing machine, outside the store.

That placement allowed the company to continue receiving a modest revenue while it also freed-up valuable real estate and eliminated the cost of employees.

The machine has since been removed and the company appears to be discontinuing that approach as they realign themselves into a real estate holding company.

The company, unlike many of its competitors, has owned its locations giving it a marginally better hedge against rising leases of commercial space.

That ownership has allowed the business an exit to the shrinking video rental store model where they are able to lease out sections or entire buildings to other commercial businesses.

Ultimately, however, following its state-mandated closer earlier this year, along with many other businesses, consumers sought other online alternatives that were still accessible during the shutdown.

An economic situation in which ended the last remaining enclave for consumers who wished to browse up and down numerous aisles of movies and television shows for just the perfect nightly movie fix.

Family Video did not reply to a request for comment on this story.