The owner of one of Calgary’s last remaining video stores is looking to relocate the shop her late husband opened 34 years ago for the second time in an eight month span.

Casablanca Video, a Marda Loop staple for more than three decades before uprooting in 2014 to its present location along Macleod Trail, has struggled to maintain an audience in an era of streaming videos and downloaded films.

"I’ve grown up with the store,” said Alan Pugh. “I grew up in Marda Loop.”

Pugh, a Casablanca Video customer for more than 25 years, says he’ll have to adapt during the store’s closure.

“Like the passing of snail mail, we move on. I’m sure we’ll start downloading and say ‘Oh, I didn’t know we could get this there’ or ‘Oh, this is so handy now’. We’ll adjust as you always do.”

Prior to his time as a City of Calgary alderman and mayoral candidate, Jon Lord founded the specialty store in the early 1980s. The shop held a loyal following by focusing on hard-to-find titles instead of the usual Hollywood fare.

Employee Mark Sampilova says he’ll be sad to see the current store close but maintains Calgarians have not seen the last of Casablanca Video.

“We’re not closing down, we’re just moving,” explains Sampilova.

Sampilova says the staff and customers have built a strong relationship and the store continues to offer titles not readily available.

“Our catalogue is what keeps us going,” explains Sampilova. “We also tend to give a personal touch too. We love talking to our customers. We love communicating with people. We love asking ‘What did you think about this film?’ or ‘What you thought about that film?’.”

“We keep a huge collection of older films, classical criterion films, that have made huge impacts in history especially going back to the 1920’s films.”

The video store has fallen on hard times. Casablanca Video is behind on the rent in the Newport Shopping Centre and the shop will close on Monday. A search is underway for a new location.

All of the titles at the current Casablanca Video location are being placed in storage while ownership attempts to secure a new home.