WESTPORT — The days when Westporters could visit Central Village for an impromptu movie rental are nearly over.

Village Video, an institution that’s been around in one form or another in the Village for many decades, will close on Oct. 31. It’s the only movie-rental store in town. Unless you’re looking for adult movies — in which case there’s also Video Excapade & Magazine Center on State Road.

The next closest video stores are in North Dartmouth and Fall River.

Sue Ubiera, who has co-owned Village Video with her husband Rayes since July of 2007,

said her business dried right up this past September. Averaging one rental a day — that’s $4 — in September was not enough to pay the bills, she said.

“September was like a ghost town,” said Ms. Ubiera. “I just couldn’t go through the whole winter on $4 a day.”

She and Rayes recently made the difficult decision to close, but they had been contemplating it over the past year. She said business was slow right from the beginning when they opened in 2007. The first year they did all right. But once the recession hit last fall, things got really tough. They were still able to pay the bills, however, even during the recession, because when summer rolled around they got a lot more customers in the store.

But between the recession and the availability of movies from other sources, Ms. Ubiera said she has seen traffic in Village Video, at 774 Main Road, peter out.

“I think it’s a dying breed,” Ms. Ubiera said of movie-rental stores. “When you add in the economy and the newer technology — DirecTV, On Demand and Netflix — this has become outdated almost. There’s just too much technology out there that supersedes going to a video store and picking out a video. Not when you can pick up a remote and choose a movie from home, when it’s 30 degrees and snowing outside. Why are you going to come out, other than (for) my charming personality?”

Ms. Ubiera said she has a loyal customer base who would still come in for movies during even the hardest times. But the economic impact of the recession has customers thinking twice about spending on movies.

“It’s an extra that can easily be cut from your budget. It becomes a treat” to rent a movie, she said.

The nature of the business also made it difficult to make ends meet.

“We were not going to be able to support the expenses of the business because I have to buy new stock,” she said. “If you don’t have the new movies, no one’s going to come in.”

Passing the torch

Growing up in Westport, Ms. Ubiera remembers when the video store was in the same plaza, but in the space where a massage therapist formerly did business.

“I think it was called The Big Picture. This was before Blockbuster was around,” she said. “It was all VHS back then, and he had a good selection.”

For a time, the video business was owned by Al Lees who rented movies in what is now the café in Lees Market.

Back in 2007, Ms. Ubiera was picking up some chicken cutlet subs from Village Pizza when owner Tony Ferreira told her that his video store in the same plaza was for sale. Mr. Ferreira’s children, Nicholas Ferreira and Kristen Skarr, had run Village Video for five years and were ready to move on with their careers as registered nurses.

Ms. Ubiera said she seized on the opportunity to have her own business and bring in a second income. With two teenage children, Sylvee and Liam, the family could take turns working. (But as business tapered off this past year, her children stopped putting in hours because she couldn’t pay them — “They love me, but they only love me so much.”)

Also, Ms. Ubiera loves to chat with people, peering over wire-rimmed glasses that rest on the tip of her nose.

“I liked the idea of mingling with adults after working with children all day long,” said Ms. Ubiera, who has taught English Language Arts and Social Studies to fifth-graders at Westport Middle School for seven years. She lives right next door and knew she could walk over to open her store. “I just thought it would be perfect.”

Changing the business

About one-third of the movies were still VHS tapes when Ms. Ubiera bought the business. She sold a big chunk of those at once, and increased the DVD selection to more than 1,300 titles. VHS was still popular at the time with summer residents who hadn’t bought a DVD player for their second homes. Now Ms. Ubiera rents one or two VHS tapes every few weeks, and only during the summer.

She was able to buy many new releases each week, and grew genres of movies that had not been stocked by prior owners, like independent films, documentaries and foreign movies. But when customers asked her if she would get movies on Blu-ray, she would have to explain that there was not enough interest in Blu-ray to make it worthwhile.

While she has owned the store, Ms. Ubiera has added 430 new customers to the clientele she inherited from the prior owners, bringing it up to about 2,000 accounts.

Store could work

Since it is a second job, she opens her store after she finishes the school day. Ms. Ubiera thinks the shortened hours have compounded the problems.

“The business has supported itself,” she said, adding that she will not close with any debt. “If someone could come in and work nine to nine, maybe they could do better.”

All of her DVDs and VHS tapes are for sale at $5 and $1 each, respectively. “Or you can make me an offer and take it all,” she said. Everything is for sale, including the signs, shelves, movie posters and cash register. Even the business is for sale to someone who wants to continue the movie-rental enterprise.

“I think it’s in a very good location,” she said. “It’s at the far end of the commercial strip, but central to Charlotte White Road and Adamsville, and it’s not too far from Route 88.”

Tony Ferreira, whose children operated Village Video from 2002-07, said the store did well. But he had bought the business as a “community service” for the town.

“That store has been in town for so long and it went hand-in-hand with the pizza shop — pizza and a movie,” he said. “I always thought it would never die because people like to get movies spontaneously on a Friday night.”

A summer resident, who was in Village Video last Thursday, said the closing dismays her. “We depend on it in the summer time. We don’t have Netflix; we don’t even get mail,” she said. All summer residents will miss the store, she said, because “there’s nothing to do at night” and they often rent movies for their children.

With 15 movies in hand, the summer resident picked out a range of action, drama for and children’s films that she bought to stock the house she was closing up for the winter.

Moving on

Ms. Ubiera will miss the social side of her business — meeting and talking to people in the community. “I share my life and they share their life — they know about my family.”

She said it’s been hard saying good-bye, so she says, “Thank you to everyone who supported the business because you kept it going.”

Having some free time to spend with her family is pretty enticing — she usually gets home after 8 p.m. — but she said she’ll still long to meet new people.

“I was in BJ’s the other day and thought about grabbing an application,” she said. “I was also joking that I would go sit at the café at Lees and people can come and talk to me. I feel I’m very good at customer service and I feel I get something out of it as well (by) interacting with people.”

Going, going, gone

Village Video, on 774 Main Road, is selling off all of its stock, from movies to movie posters, shelves and the business itself. As of last Thursday, there were still 800 DVDs available and at least 200 children’s movies on VHS tapes. DVDs are selling for $5 each, and VHS for $1. Village Video will be open from 3:30-8 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays to Sundays until Oct. 31.