Cedar Street Video to close after 10 years at downtown location
Anyone who enjoys browsing Cedar Street Video in downtown Santa Cruz has about two weeks left to do so. Owner Sammi Abed announced Monday that he’ll be closing the store and selling off its DVD inventory between now and mid-July, ending a 10-year run of rentals at the location.
“Business dropped off with the World Cup, and I couldn’t see myself committing to a two-year lease when I don’t know the future,” Abed says. “The customers are really upset, but we’re just telling everyone to go to East Cliff.”
Abed, a paramedic who also just graduated with an American Studies degree from UCSC, still owns two other rental stores—East Cliff Video, which has been open 31 years, and Boulder Creek’s Video 9, which has been open for 28.
East Cliff Video has about an extra 1,000 feet of retail space over Cedar Street Video, which is on the corner of Cedar and Cathcart streets.
Cedar Street Video’s movie sale will continue every day from noon to 7 p.m., now through July 15—except July 4— with prices getting lower as the closing date nears. “Everyone that works there is really bummed,” Abed says. “We’re going to move folks to the other store. We didn’t want to [close]. We just couldn’t make sense of it any longer.”
