Video To Go has checked out of the Union.
The movie rental store, which opened in September, closed during spring break, said Tom Leach, Video To Go owner.
The store's roughly 2,000 movies were taken to the Video To Go location at the Frandor Shopping Center in Lansing, Leach said.
Leach said the store struggled to maintain a steady stream of business, partly due to the presence of another Video To Go location a few miles away.
"We were kind of competing with ourselves," Leach said. "Most people decided if they wanted to come rent, they would just come here (to the Frandor location)."
Other businesses in the Union also have had a hard time getting customers.
Last month, the Wendy's and Little Caesars Pizza in the Union announced that they will close at the end of the semester, citing low foot traffic, among other reasons.
Jim Sheppard, Union manager, said Video To Go's closing wasn't a matter of location, but like many small businesses, it simply struggled to find its niche.
"Sometimes things fit, and sometimes they don't," Sheppard said. "This just never caught on."
Sheppard said Video To Go was brought into the Union on an experimental one-year contract. Now that the business has left, the university is looking into options to replace it but hasn't made any decision yet, he said.
"Markets on a university campus are changing all the time," Sheppard said. "To keep your finger on the pulse and find what works and what doesn't work is a constant evaluation."
Video To Go's Leach said the Residence Halls Association's movie rental offices, which provide free rentals to residence hall students, may have also contributed to the store's slow business.
"Apparently, what business there was to be had, there just wasn't enough of it for us," Leach said.
Adam Raezler, director of RHA's movie offices, said there wasn't any competition between RHA's stores and the Video To Go location and thought instead that the Union was just the wrong location for the retailer.
"The Union was a poor location for a retail location like that - so many students just don't walk through the Union like you'd like or want," Raezler said. "I was surprised that it closed, but at the same time, I kind of expected it to have problems."
Lorenzo Spencer, a food industry management senior, said he knew of the Video To Go location, but rents all his movies from the RHA stores because of the price.
"If I can get most of my rentals free from the hall, I'll just do that," Spencer said. "I would always just walk past (Video To Go) and keep going."
