It was on Sunday afternoon, while watching my favourite series Alexander “Making of a God” that I started reminiscing on how far we have come with regards to accessing movies.

There was a time we would have a huge number of video tapes and before putting in in the video player you had to “wash it”, then came the era of compact disks CDs where you could get 10 movies in a single compact disk.

From here we went to movie libraries where you would go borrow a movie and after a few days you were expected to return the compact disk.

A stack of compact disks that were used as storage devices for movies.

Photo credit: BRET SANYA/MTAA WANGU

Those who grew up in Kenlands in the early 2000s can relate to this, having had the first ever movie libraries in town.

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Soon after, we entered into the digital era. With movie shops cropping up in many of the estates the standard practice was to carry your storage device to a movie shop and get you favourite movie copied on it.

It now seems the era of streaming movies at the comfort of one’s home is now with us. What does this mean for people who run movie shops?

Speaking to David Karani, a movie shop owner he says that the various streaming services offer steep competition to his business.

“We have nowadays turned to selling software and games apart from the television series and movies. Applications such as Adobe master suites, operating systems, PC games and many more are some of the things we now venture in. I came to realize that most people do not know where to access these important soft wares and more importantly how to install them,” he says.

Some of the soft wares sold by movie shop owners in Nakuru city.

Photo credit: BRET SANYA/MTAA WANGU

Also Read: The end of an era: Why cinemas died in Nakuru

He says that he saw this gap in the market and now sells and installs soft wares for prices ranging between Sh300 to Sh 1500 depending on the size of the software.

Another movie shop owner Gichoki Salam who has been in this business for five years says that he remembers times especially approaching the weekend, when people would swarm at his shop to buy movies and television series.

However, he admits that now things are different.

“Apart from selling movies, we also had to expand and sell phone accessories. These include phone chargers, cables and ear phones,” Salam says.

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When Mtaa Wangu ran a poll on X asking Nakuru residents how they access their favourite movies, 68 percent of them said they use movie streaming sites.

Only 12 percent still buy from movie shops while 11 percent said they watch in the cinema. The remaining 9 percent said they borrow a flash disk from a friend.

With the dynamic nature of the tech world, it is likely that soon, accessing movies via various streaming sites, will be counted as outdated.

bretsanya@gmail.com

Movie shop owners in Nakuru turn to sale of soft wares, as movie streaming sites gain popularity

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Bret Sanya