Why I'm Never Going into a Video Rental Store Again... well... maybe

[darien87]

Never heard of it till now... I just checked it out online and I'm gonna try it out with their free rental deal, there is a location very close to my work, and I can drop it off at another location on the way home. This looks to be promising, thanks!

Looks like Redbox won't work for me. The nearest one is like 10 miles away. Not very convenient.

 

[GlocksRock]

That's too bad. I just went across the street to a grocery store and checked a movie out using the free rental offer on the website. I gotta say, I'm impressed, I like this service. In some ways, this could actually be more convenient than blockbuster for me, just no instore game rental coupon though, but I rarely rent games anyway.

 

[Micker]

redbox

I was a subcontractor for a company called DVD Play. They came up with the dvd kiosks that redbox uses. Redbox was a customer of theirs and then, after dvd play did all the ground work, redbox(McDonalds owned) took dvd plays designs and ideas and left them in the cold. Pretty crappy move, but what do you expect from a monster corp. like McDonalds.

The dvd kiosks that redbox have are pretty cool. Rentals for $1 and new titles. They basically are there to draw people into the store and to promote buisness at that location.

The problem with netflix is that you have to wait to get your movie. If I feel like watching a movie tonight, I can't just go get it, it takes a couple days to get to me. I could already have some at home, but most people don't always plan on watching a movie. Now some people burn the movies onto blank dvds and this allows them to watch the movie anytime. Not many people do this though, only about 80%, the rest don't know how .

 

[Tom Andry]

B&M rental stores are going the way of the dodos. There is going to be less and less a need for them. As bandwidth increases, download speeds increase, we're going to see less and less need for DVD's much less the stores that house them. Blockbuster's "drop on off" thing is only a ploy to get you into to the store to rent more/buy candy. They've got this infrastructure that they are trying to maintain. It is only a matter of time before those stores start closing as people either use online "to your door" services (Blockbuster, Netflix, or whatever).

I've friends that use Redbox (or others, I'm not sure how many there are) but they live in big towns. Here in Jacksonville (pop 750,000) I've seen exactly 0 kiosks (outside of the airport). While it works for a small population, it is hard to argue that the expense of putting kiosks into every small town in America (much less the world) is a viable business model. Sure it works in Denver, LA, SF, NY, etc. But what about Waldo, Florida? Pascagoula, Mississippi? I don't think so. By mail is going to be the last real outlet for the DVD which will fade into obscurity with streaming.

Video on demand is just the first foray into this. We'll see more. You like a movie you've streamed and want the PS3 game (probably PS4 by that time)? Stick a blank blu-ray disc into your cable box and they'll burn you a copy and charge it to your bill. Like a movie and want to buy it? They can burn a copy of that (complete with DRM intact) on the same box. This technology isn't science fiction, we saw an example of it at CEDIA (I think) last year (or it may have been CES 2006). It just hasn't been implemented. Those B&M stores are an albatross around the neck of Blockbuster. They'll kill that company or the company will discard them. Only a matter of time.

 

[davidtwotrees]

The future looks great! But in the here and now, BB wins hands down. I live in the suburbs of Chicago. My BB is about half a mile from my house. I order movies on line, and if I run out, or want to get another I can go right to the antiquated BandM store.
As for damaged or scratched discs, in the fifty or so I have rented, not one has been damaged.
As for the persons who can't tell in advance what movie they will be in the mood for, well, then ordering movies isn't for you. I have three movies sitting on my 3910 waiting to be watched tonight. I spent some 15 minutes considering them in the comfort of my Steelcase computer chair a week ago. Now I have that extra hour that it would have taken me to go to the store, and endlessly look through the movies, trying to figure out which one to pick, I can spend it watching a movie, and not at the store.

People keep mentioning late fees at BB? They haven't had late fees for over a year now. If you don't bring it in in like a month's time, they will sell it to you.
I did Netflix and it was a great service. But Currently, it just can't compete with the blockbuster BandM.

 

[Seth=L]

Fort Wayne, Indiana has a population of about 200,000, has 10 Redbox kiosks. One year ago we only had one kiosk (experimental). It tested well so they put one in every Scott's Grocery (local grocery, but very organized). Kroger put their own version of a DVD kiosk in one store, it has yet to be a great success. Redbox picked up very quickly, their service is more flexible and the kiosk is just more appealing.