Posted on 01/02/2010 1:27:23 PM PST by SamAdams76
OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill., Jan. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Redbox, the fully-automated DVD rental provider located at the nation's leading grocery, mass, drug and convenience stores, rented more than two million DVDs on New Year's Eve surpassing the Company's previous one day rental record by more than one-hundred-seventy-thousand rentals. "District 9," "G-Force," "Paranormal Activity" and "Julie & Julia" were among the night's top rentals. With more than 19,000 locations nationwide, consumers have embraced the convenience, fun and value of redbox.
"With many Americans celebrating New Year's Eve at home and many more resolving to save money in 2010, redbox proved a great way to do both," said Gary Cohen, senior vice president, marketing and customer experience. "Renting a record-breaking two million DVDs in a single night, redbox looks forward to continuing to provide consumers with incredible value and convenience in the New Year."
In 2009, redbox surpassed 350 million rentals nationwide. Redbox makes DVD renting easy, affordable and fun. Located at select McDonald's restaurants, leading grocery and convenience stores, and Walmart and Walgreens locations in select markets, each fully automated redbox kiosk holds 630 DVDs, representing up to 200 of the newest releases. Consumers simply use a touch screen to select their favorite movies, swipe a valid credit or debit card and go. Customers can keep the DVD for as long as they'd like for one low nightly rate, and return it to any one of redbox's more than 19,000 locations nationwide.
For added convenience, customers can reserve a DVD online at www.redbox.com or via an iPhone and pick it up at the redbox location of their choice.
On a whim, I decided to check out this Redbox service. I've heard a lot about them over the past year or so and have increasingly seen their vending machines pop up at shopping locations in my area.
Well they put one not too far from the Dunkin Donuts I go to each morning so a few days ago I decided to give it a try. Without even having an account, it took me all of about 45 seconds to get a current movie and so long as I had it back by 9PM the next night, I would only be charged $1.06. When I went to work the next day, I saw a Redbox near where I work so I returned the DVD to that one and took out another which I was able to return the next day at the Redbox near my house.
Wicked convenient as I didn't have to go out of my way to either get or return the DVDs. I can rent a movie in Boston and return it in a different city with no extra charge. And if I'm not sure where the nearest Redbox is, all I have to do is go to their website and type the zip code I'm in and I have direction on the nearest one.
Also, I opened an account online and so can now select the movie I want to see and reserve it so that when I go to the machine, all I have to do is swipe my card and it will pop out.
Anyway, sorry for the obvious advertisement (and no, I don't work for them) but it's not often I am truly impressed with a new service so when I saw the article that they rented 2 million movies in one night, I figured I ought to post it and mention my recent experience with Redbox. Can't beat paying $1 to see a recently released movie.
The only drawback with Redbox is that they only have a few hundred movies to choose from because the vending machines only hold so much. But I imagine as they get more successful, they will come out with machines that will burn DVDs on demand and be able offer just about every movie out there.
Great example of free enterprise, entrepreneurial excellence.
In other words, there’s a good reason we don’t rent movies from the DMV ;-)
Why didn’t I invent this, LOL.
With an adapter from Apple I am able to download a movie from iTunes( $.99 and up rental cost) to my iPod touch. The adapter hooks up to the iPod and to my TV’s component input. Movies plays, no adjustment or setting changes necessary. Very slick.
I don’t run the risk of a mishandled and scratched DVD from Redbox.
Like you, I don’t watch that many movies. It was just this December that I decided to get a membership at our local video store. I can rent movies for a buck and return them a number of days later (like 4). I’d checked out Netflix but decided not to because I don’t want to incur a monthly fee when I don’t watch all that much. And as you claim, Red Box has a rather small collection. And from what I’ve seen, it’s geared more toward today’s fare; not something I’m in to at all. But the concept is dead on as far as convenience and service.
They’re in almost every major grocery store in L.A. and there are line ups. Kudos to the guy who thought about it.
I'm going to try to find out how this works, such as how does the machine take a returned DVD and get it in the right bin to be ready for the next renter?
I guess the next step (to get around the limited selection) would be to burn DVDs on demand, fully utilizing the "long tail" to maximize revenue. So basically the machine will contain a number of blank DVDs with a massive pipeline to the Internet. A customer at home orders an obscure movie from say 1947, and the machine downloads the movie from the company's servers, burns the DVD and has it ready by the time the customer gets to the machine. Now that would be impressive!
Of course, we will eventually be streaming this content directly into our own homes someday, but I still think it is years away before many of us have the bandwidth for that. In the meantime, a window of opportunity exists for Redbox (or whoever else figures out how to do this) to pretty much take over the movie rental business.
Redbox should generate a pin number or access code to use to pick it your movie. I don't like swiping my credit card again because there are people waiting in line or in their cars behind me.
Also, the machines don't seem to work well in the cold. I had to drive to another Redbox (inside of a Wal-Mart) because nothing happened when I hit the "Return" section of the touch screen. I could tell the machine was frozen solid. It would make better sense to put the machines inside of Walgreen's since most of them are open 24/7.
Otherwise, it's a fantastic service and it's one of those no-brainer inventions that you kick yourself for not thinking of before. I signed up 2 weeks ago and stopped going to Family Video and stopped using Time Warner's movies on demand.
Back in the 80s I thought everything had been invented which could be invented.
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Blockbuster seems to be getting on board now with their own kiosks popping up. Ultimately, however, the future will be fee-based digital downloads.
“Why didn’t I invent this, LOL”.
...I’m still po’d I didn’t invent the “Pet Rock”!
My wife and I rented a few, but our finicky tastes soon exhausted the limited selection available.
And the website lies about what can actually be had at a given location.
Thanks for the info. I’ll have to check around to see if one is near me.
Out of curiosity, how much is the charge if you don’t return it the next day?
Same thing could be done for books. High speed printers and binders, rather than huge buildings that warehouse books.
Don’t forget the Mood Ring - I also missed out on that one.
Can you imagine how much business they could do if they put them in Airports? Might have to charge an extra $.25 per day to cover added expenses, but they’d do a lot of business.
The L.A. Public Lib does the online versions now, instead of housing the books but limited, for now.
I like both redbox and netflix. My only real complaints about either is that the dvd are filthy when we receive about 95% of the time....which I can’t understand why people touch these dvd’s and leave greasy fingerprints and sometimes food all over the dvd.....anyone else experience this or is just me?
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