Family Video going out of business; customers flock to liquidation sale at Dixon store

DIXON – Like a cowboy in some old western, it’s time for Dixon Family Video to ride off into the sunset.

The movie and game rental chain is going out of business.

A letter dated Jan. 5 was sent to employees and customers explaining that all 800 businesses across the United States, including 30 in Illinois, would be shut down.

Today marked the beginning of its liquidation sale of basically everything in the store at 505 S. Galena Ave., which has been there for 15 years and had four employees, including manager Cari Hanson.

This was wasn’t totally unexpected, Hanson said.

“It’s a shock, but we kind of knew it was coming. COVID kind of killed us. We had to be shut down for 75 days. They were hoping we would recover from it, and we didn’t. Membership went down. Rentals went down. We didn’t get new movies because they’re not putting new movies out, and that hurt our rentals and sales.”

For the immediate future, Dixon Family Video will be open from noon to 8 p.m., 7 days a week. Prices have been slashed, and this afternoon, a long line of customers with movies, games, soda and candy waited their turn to be helped.

One early customer that day bought $300 worth of goods.

“Our official closing date is the 28th of February, but if we sell out before then, we’ll be closed before then,” Hanson said. “Everything has to go. Liquidation starts today. This is the first tier of the liquidation prices. Eventually they’ll change, but for a while they’ll stay. Games, movies, shelving – you name it, it’s going to be for sale.”

That includes a gumball machine, which they’re asking $250 for; various televisions mounted in the store for $100 apiece; and even the popular, 42-inch-tall M&M candy characters.

“Thank you to all of our customers for all of the years of devoted service,” Hanson said. “We really appreciate it.”