The place is quiet. The saleswoman, Tlamelo, who has been with the business since it opened last year, says she is accustomed to the quietness. It is the type of quietness that has resulted in two video shops at the same mall closing in the last five years. In fact, this video shop benefited last year from the collapse of another video hire service, which had to sell the business amid stiff competition from fake Chinese DVDs at the mall. There is something that makes this video outlet interesting. Like a hero, the last action hero, it is the only video shop still standing in Molapo Crossing.
Though Tlamelo may not be a rocket scientist, she can smell it is a matter of time before her video outlet finally closes too. Her video outlet is facing an Asian owned clothing shop, which stocks hundreds, and hundreds of Hollywood's finest releases much faster than her shop. In fact, Tlamelo says often before a movie can even play in the cinemas, her Asian rival already has it in stock, at only P20 for a DVD which can sometimes have as many as four movies, eight movies, 28 movies, or more!
