Past employee takes over Videoville

When Gina Slowik was a student at Coupeville High School, she worked at Videoville.

Who would have thought years later she would become the owner of the small movie store located across the street from Coupeville Elementary School?

She and her husband, Tony, purchased the video store from Miriam Meyer last September, but they are holding a grand opening this weekend.

“It’s interesting that it’s come full circle like this,” Slowik said.

The Slowiks approached the former owner last year after Miriam’s Espresso separated from Videoville.

“They looked like they were focusing on the espresso and we wanted to see it survive,” Slowik said. The espresso business moved across the street to a new building.

Since the new owners took over, the inside of Videoville has seen a facelift. What was once white walls is now red with stars, film and tickets painted on the walls. During a recent visit to Videoville, Mary Poppins was playing while an interior decorator finished up painting the walls.

While most video stores have converted to DVDs, Videoville still has quite a collection of VHS tapes available for rent. Needless to say, they also have a sizable offering of DVDs featuring the newest releases.

More than a video store, Videoville can offer the perfect complement to an evening movie — pizza. Slowik recently started selling Papa Murphy’s pizza, lasagna and one-pound cookie dough tubs.

The take-and-bake pizzas are delivered every morning and the video store currently offers five different family-size pizzas.

As for keeping up with ever-evolving technology, she is monitoring developments and plans to make upgrades depending on her customers’ needs.

Videoville is her first shot at owning a business. Prior to that, she was the office manager at Slowik Motors in Oak Harbor, and before that she worked as a client representative for a collection agent.

Small businesses are somewhat of a tradition for the Slowik family. Gina’s father-in-law, Jim, owns Slowik Motors; her mom, Carla Dozier, owns Carla’s Shear Inspiration; and her mother-in-law, Candy, owns Candyland Daycare. Her husband is an Oak Harbor police officer.

Videoville’s redecorating should be complete by this weekend, which is in time for their grand opening that started yesterday and goes through Sunday. The event features door prizes and discounts on movie rentals.

Videoville is located at 105 S. Main St. in Coupeville. It’s open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Friday and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.