8 ms·

There is certainly the case to be made that physical DVD/Blu-Ray rental is still a viable business due to the stagnation of internet improvement in the US. Wit

There is certainly the case to be made that physical DVD/Blu-Ray rental is still a viable business due to the stagnation of internet improvement in the US. With that said, I'd think that Redbox basically does Netflix-by-mail more efficiently, no? It seems like the speed of the mail service guarantees that it will take at least a few days between you sending your finished movies back before new ones arrive, as opposed to driving to your nearest grocery store or gas station to pick something else.

ddingus 8y ago
If you like / want what is in the Redbox, sure. Not much there at any given time though.
Klonoar 8y ago
History has shown that this isn't the case... otherwise people would've kept Blockbuster in business in the face of Netflix DVD rentals. People value the convenience, it's only recently that people wax nostalgic over the whole "going to the video store to rent on a Friday night". They generally forget the long lines, employees who were rude and didn't care because it was a minimum wage job, often messy as hell store where the availability was mixed... the list goes on.
- NeedMoreTea 8y ago
  Blockbuster wasn't good at video rental. They were the big, inefficient bully, and the last choice of anyone with any sense. The selection was tiny compared to the independents they mostly priced out of existence, then became the most expensive place to rent once that was done. They had major films sooner for about as much as going to the cinema. That's it. Their only selling point. They got shot of old stuff far too soon so you could never actually find old stuff in Blockbuster unless it was 2001 or Wizard of Oz. The corner shop near us that rented, and next door but 2 to Blockbuster, kept going years after Blockbuster closed. Having experienced Blockbuster in 3 or 4 places I've lived, I gave a little cheer when they went.
  - ohithereyou 8y ago
    There's still a thriving video chain in the area where I live: Family Video. Family Video focused on owning their real estate instead of renting. I can get a BluRay from Family Video and a pizza from Marcos delivered to my door in under an hour with a $10 or more purchase from Marcos. It ends up being a cheap date night with my fiancee.
    - RandallBrown 8y ago
      Does the Marcos deliver the video too? I know some Family Videos have Marcos attached to them. I rented a lot of movies from Family Video in high school. There was a location about halfway between my house and my girlfriends. It closed at Midnight, and my curfew was midnight, so I stopped by right before closing almost every night one summer. They had a deal where you got an old release for free with every new release and it was like 3 dollars. That was a fun summer.
      - ohithereyou 8y ago
        Yes, Marcos delivers the video with the pizza. It's a five day rental, though I've returned it after seven days with no late fees.
  - Klonoar 8y ago
    I worked there as a kid, and trust me, I agree for the most part. My comment just worked better with Blockbuster since Blockbuster is/was the poster child of that era of video rental. :)
- Spooky23 8y ago
  DVDs drive library engagement. Netflix is a Trojan horse. The whole business model is moving to in-house stuff, and each of the big content owners will stand up their own platforms.
  - kickopotomus 8y ago
    ...and then we have basically come full circle to cable v2.0. I am curious about how streaming will develop over the next few years as more services come online. I doubt the average person is going to want to maintain that many (expensive) subscription services. I already dislike the juggle between Netflix, Prime, and Hulu.
    - alanfalcon 8y ago
      This is what the new Apple TV channels thing is trying to solve for while also contributing to the problem :-)
  - tracker1 8y ago
    I'm at capacity with content platforms... I've dropped CBS, and once DC Universe expires, I'm out there too. It's worse that they're both the same damned company. Hulu and Amazon are all I'm keeping for now. May return to Netflix if anything really interesting to me hits. Or have it a couple months, binge watch and cancel again.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  People value the convenience, it's only recently that people wax nostalgic over the whole "going to the video store to rent on a Friday night". First, we got the convenience. Only when most everything went online and the alternatives had faded to irrelevance did the availability start to go away. Now we consumers have less than we did before.
- pmoriarty 8y ago
  I used to rent a ton of movies, and never once ran in to a rude employee. Long lines were annoying, but the worst was having to drive to and from the store. The independent video stores in my area were much further away than the nearest Blockbuster, so Blockbuster was more convenient but their crappy video selection made going to the independents instead worth it for me, and Blockbuster was the store of last resort. Once I started using Netflix's DVD service, I never set foot a brick and mortar video rental store again. Why would I drive somewhere when I had an excellent DVD selection at my fingertips that would mail the DVD to me?
  - Klonoar 8y ago
    >I used to rent a ton of movies, and never once ran in to a rude employee. My guy, the rest of your comment is great. You've gotta realize how wildly useless this line is, though. Bad service exists and video store employees were known for being in this stereotype, as were theater employees. You just got lucky.
    - benatkin 8y ago
      Are you sure it isn’t the other way around? Wasn’t video store clerk a sought after job among young people with little work experience, because it was related to something that’s fun? Wouldn’t the staff usually be at least somewhat helpful because they’re passionate about movies?
      - Klonoar 8y ago
        This misconception that people who worked at those stores were all movie buffs is very much nostalgia poking through. Context: I was one of those employees, and I worked in multiple regions of the USA and have conferred with friends who worked at Blockbuster UK as well.
        spronkey 8y ago
        Anecdotally, every video chain store I have ever visited, from Blockbuster to Video Ezy, Civic Video, Channel X, United Video (here in New Zealand) has had at least one movie buff employee. I've also never experienced a long line at a video store, despite it being a regular Friday night thing for me to do for many years... Gotta say, the thing I miss most is the ease of browsing through a curated back catalogue. Netflix and co are terribly awful by comparison. Several hundred square metres vs a 55" television screen...
jonnycomputer 8y ago
What does Redbox have that Netflix/AmazonPrime/Hulu doesn't? Redbox's selection is limited per their model.
- Spooky23 8y ago
  New movies cheaper than iTunes.
- Shivetya 8y ago
  immediacy for some it is purely impulse renting. do not confuse the immediacy of the experience with the ability to find something to stream, it is a whole different experience
CobrastanJorji 8y ago
Netflix's DVD catalog is very, very deep. There are likely 6 digits of titles. A Redbox machine probably has under 1000 DVDs in it, so your selection is about 100x-1000x better with Netflix.
- JKCalhoun 8y ago
  I don't doubt you, but it's frustrating to have a "Saved For Later" queue of 50 or so titles that will likely never appear on Netflix. Walking Tall? Giant? Gaslight? Beach Blanket Bingo anyone? Return of the Dragon? Ran?
  - CobrastanJorji 8y ago
    I am very confused trying to check on these movies. They show up in search results. I click on them. They redirect me to dvd.netflix.com and suggest that I get a subscription. I don't want to sign up. I want to know if your service offers them or not. Nonetheless, maybe they'll help you? https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Walking-Tall/60034554 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Walking-Tall/60034554 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Gaslight/70074384 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Gaslight/70074384 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Beach-Blanket-Bingo-How-to-Stuff-a-Wild-Bikini/70103186 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Beach-Blanket-Bingo-How-to-Stu... https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Return-of-the-Dragon/60020726 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Return-of-the-Dragon/60020726 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Ran/60027429 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Ran/60027429
    - JKCalhoun 8y ago
      Thank you. The first two links are to different versions of the films I had in my queue (c'mon, no one needs a remake of "Walking Tall"). The last three indeed go to the titles that are in my "Saved" queue (which means they are not available to rent but are in their database nonetheless). I went ahead and added the different version of Gaslight to my queue though. Thanks, stranger.
  - extra88 8y ago
    Do you not pay the extra money for Blu-ray? Giant and Ran are both listed but it says Blu-ray only.
badgerivy 8y ago
Redbox is good if you want one of the top 100 or so new releases that fit in the box, but a big point of the OP is that Netflix has 100K+ titles, obviously Redbox can't match that.
- nordsieck 8y ago
  > a big point of the OP is that Netflix has 100K+ titles, obviously Redbox can't match that. It would be tough to get studio buy-in, but it would be amazing to have a version or Redbox that burned DVDs in place. From a logistics perspective it would be ideal if they could use disks that degraded after 5 plays, but they could also just accept disks back, read them, and destroy them.
dmckeon 8y ago
If your situation is seriously rural, it might be a few days between trips into town (or to your P.O. box), so while you could get different media at Redbox on every trip, you would have to plan to overlap returns and requests on Netflix (perhaps with multiple accounts?) to get new content on every trip. I am extrapolating from seeing a number of battered rancher pickup trucks whose occupants are clustered around Redbox kiosks in small towns in the western US.
sliken 8y ago
Redbox selection is a vanishly small fraction of what's available from netflix DVDs/Bluray.
jedberg 8y ago
Netflix has done some work with their algos such that if you always watch your movie on the weekend and send it back Monday, they'll just start shipping your next movie out on Monday morning on the assumption that they old one will be back Tuesday. They also have a deal with the post office that in some areas the post office will notify Netflix when they pick up your disk so that Netflix can send a new out before they get your old one back.
pmoriarty 8y ago
What's the selection of Redbox DVD's at grocery stores like? I have a hard time believing it's anywhere close to Netflix's extensive DVD selection. Also, Netflix has various plans: you could rent one DVD at a time, two DVDs at a time, three DVDs at a time (and maybe more). If you have three DVDs out at a time, and watch one DVD per day and mail it DVDs back as you watch them, you won't have to wait long before your next DVD arrives in the mail, possibly while you're still watching the rest. In my own experience, watching a DVD per day is pretty ambitious. Odds are you'll be watching way less than that, and there'll be multiple days between watching DVDs, in which case waiting for your next DVD to arrive in the mail won't realy make any difference.
- JKCalhoun 8y ago
  Yeah, no, Redbox selection is slim. Unless you're into direct-to-inflight slasher films. In that case Redbox is dabomb. ;-)
ghaff 8y ago
The latency for Netflix is longer but it means there's a DVD right there with zero effort that you can watch more or less whenever you get around to it. Even if the nearest Redbox is just 5 or 10 minutes away, that's one or two possibly unique trips you have to make. That's actually a fairly big barrier for me unless there's a new release I really want to see tonight.
ubermonkey 8y ago
>With that said, I'd think that Redbox basically does Netflix-by-mail more efficiently, no? No, actually, because the killer aspect of DVD-by-mail is the depth of selection. Redbox machines are even MORE limited.

ddingus 8y ago

If you like / want what is in the Redbox, sure. Not much there at any given time though.

Klonoar 8y ago

History has shown that this isn't the case... otherwise people would've kept Blockbuster in business in the face of Netflix DVD rentals. People value the convenience, it's only recently that people wax nostalgic over the whole "going to the video store to rent on a Friday night". They generally forget the long lines, employees who were rude and didn't care because it was a minimum wage job, often messy as hell store where the availability was mixed... the list goes on.

NeedMoreTea 8y ago
Blockbuster wasn't good at video rental. They were the big, inefficient bully, and the last choice of anyone with any sense. The selection was tiny compared to the independents they mostly priced out of existence, then became the most expensive place to rent once that was done. They had major films sooner for about as much as going to the cinema. That's it. Their only selling point. They got shot of old stuff far too soon so you could never actually find old stuff in Blockbuster unless it was 2001 or Wizard of Oz. The corner shop near us that rented, and next door but 2 to Blockbuster, kept going years after Blockbuster closed. Having experienced Blockbuster in 3 or 4 places I've lived, I gave a little cheer when they went.
- ohithereyou 8y ago
  There's still a thriving video chain in the area where I live: Family Video. Family Video focused on owning their real estate instead of renting. I can get a BluRay from Family Video and a pizza from Marcos delivered to my door in under an hour with a $10 or more purchase from Marcos. It ends up being a cheap date night with my fiancee.
  - RandallBrown 8y ago
    Does the Marcos deliver the video too? I know some Family Videos have Marcos attached to them. I rented a lot of movies from Family Video in high school. There was a location about halfway between my house and my girlfriends. It closed at Midnight, and my curfew was midnight, so I stopped by right before closing almost every night one summer. They had a deal where you got an old release for free with every new release and it was like 3 dollars. That was a fun summer.
    - ohithereyou 8y ago
      Yes, Marcos delivers the video with the pizza. It's a five day rental, though I've returned it after seven days with no late fees.
- Klonoar 8y ago
  I worked there as a kid, and trust me, I agree for the most part. My comment just worked better with Blockbuster since Blockbuster is/was the poster child of that era of video rental. :)
Spooky23 8y ago
DVDs drive library engagement. Netflix is a Trojan horse. The whole business model is moving to in-house stuff, and each of the big content owners will stand up their own platforms.
- kickopotomus 8y ago
  ...and then we have basically come full circle to cable v2.0. I am curious about how streaming will develop over the next few years as more services come online. I doubt the average person is going to want to maintain that many (expensive) subscription services. I already dislike the juggle between Netflix, Prime, and Hulu.
  - alanfalcon 8y ago
    This is what the new Apple TV channels thing is trying to solve for while also contributing to the problem :-)
- tracker1 8y ago
  I'm at capacity with content platforms... I've dropped CBS, and once DC Universe expires, I'm out there too. It's worse that they're both the same damned company. Hulu and Amazon are all I'm keeping for now. May return to Netflix if anything really interesting to me hits. Or have it a couple months, binge watch and cancel again.
stcredzero 8y ago
People value the convenience, it's only recently that people wax nostalgic over the whole "going to the video store to rent on a Friday night". First, we got the convenience. Only when most everything went online and the alternatives had faded to irrelevance did the availability start to go away. Now we consumers have less than we did before.
pmoriarty 8y ago
I used to rent a ton of movies, and never once ran in to a rude employee. Long lines were annoying, but the worst was having to drive to and from the store. The independent video stores in my area were much further away than the nearest Blockbuster, so Blockbuster was more convenient but their crappy video selection made going to the independents instead worth it for me, and Blockbuster was the store of last resort. Once I started using Netflix's DVD service, I never set foot a brick and mortar video rental store again. Why would I drive somewhere when I had an excellent DVD selection at my fingertips that would mail the DVD to me?
- Klonoar 8y ago
  >I used to rent a ton of movies, and never once ran in to a rude employee. My guy, the rest of your comment is great. You've gotta realize how wildly useless this line is, though. Bad service exists and video store employees were known for being in this stereotype, as were theater employees. You just got lucky.
  - benatkin 8y ago
    Are you sure it isn’t the other way around? Wasn’t video store clerk a sought after job among young people with little work experience, because it was related to something that’s fun? Wouldn’t the staff usually be at least somewhat helpful because they’re passionate about movies?
    - Klonoar 8y ago
      This misconception that people who worked at those stores were all movie buffs is very much nostalgia poking through. Context: I was one of those employees, and I worked in multiple regions of the USA and have conferred with friends who worked at Blockbuster UK as well.
      - spronkey 8y ago
        Anecdotally, every video chain store I have ever visited, from Blockbuster to Video Ezy, Civic Video, Channel X, United Video (here in New Zealand) has had at least one movie buff employee. I've also never experienced a long line at a video store, despite it being a regular Friday night thing for me to do for many years... Gotta say, the thing I miss most is the ease of browsing through a curated back catalogue. Netflix and co are terribly awful by comparison. Several hundred square metres vs a 55" television screen...

jonnycomputer 8y ago

What does Redbox have that Netflix/AmazonPrime/Hulu doesn't? Redbox's selection is limited per their model.

Spooky23 8y ago
New movies cheaper than iTunes.
Shivetya 8y ago
immediacy for some it is purely impulse renting. do not confuse the immediacy of the experience with the ability to find something to stream, it is a whole different experience

CobrastanJorji 8y ago

Netflix's DVD catalog is very, very deep. There are likely 6 digits of titles. A Redbox machine probably has under 1000 DVDs in it, so your selection is about 100x-1000x better with Netflix.

JKCalhoun 8y ago
I don't doubt you, but it's frustrating to have a "Saved For Later" queue of 50 or so titles that will likely never appear on Netflix. Walking Tall? Giant? Gaslight? Beach Blanket Bingo anyone? Return of the Dragon? Ran?
- CobrastanJorji 8y ago
  I am very confused trying to check on these movies. They show up in search results. I click on them. They redirect me to dvd.netflix.com and suggest that I get a subscription. I don't want to sign up. I want to know if your service offers them or not. Nonetheless, maybe they'll help you? https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Walking-Tall/60034554 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Walking-Tall/60034554 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Gaslight/70074384 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Gaslight/70074384 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Beach-Blanket-Bingo-How-to-Stuff-a-Wild-Bikini/70103186 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Beach-Blanket-Bingo-How-to-Stu... https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Return-of-the-Dragon/60020726 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Return-of-the-Dragon/60020726 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Ran/60027429 https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Ran/60027429
  - JKCalhoun 8y ago
    Thank you. The first two links are to different versions of the films I had in my queue (c'mon, no one needs a remake of "Walking Tall"). The last three indeed go to the titles that are in my "Saved" queue (which means they are not available to rent but are in their database nonetheless). I went ahead and added the different version of Gaslight to my queue though. Thanks, stranger.
- extra88 8y ago
  Do you not pay the extra money for Blu-ray? Giant and Ran are both listed but it says Blu-ray only.

badgerivy 8y ago

Redbox is good if you want one of the top 100 or so new releases that fit in the box, but a big point of the OP is that Netflix has 100K+ titles, obviously Redbox can't match that.

nordsieck 8y ago
> a big point of the OP is that Netflix has 100K+ titles, obviously Redbox can't match that. It would be tough to get studio buy-in, but it would be amazing to have a version or Redbox that burned DVDs in place. From a logistics perspective it would be ideal if they could use disks that degraded after 5 plays, but they could also just accept disks back, read them, and destroy them.

dmckeon 8y ago

If your situation is seriously rural, it might be a few days between trips into town (or to your P.O. box), so while you could get different media at Redbox on every trip, you would have to plan to overlap returns and requests on Netflix (perhaps with multiple accounts?) to get new content on every trip. I am extrapolating from seeing a number of battered rancher pickup trucks whose occupants are clustered around Redbox kiosks in small towns in the western US.

sliken 8y ago

Redbox selection is a vanishly small fraction of what's available from netflix DVDs/Bluray.

jedberg 8y ago

Netflix has done some work with their algos such that if you always watch your movie on the weekend and send it back Monday, they'll just start shipping your next movie out on Monday morning on the assumption that they old one will be back Tuesday. They also have a deal with the post office that in some areas the post office will notify Netflix when they pick up your disk so that Netflix can send a new out before they get your old one back.

pmoriarty 8y ago

What's the selection of Redbox DVD's at grocery stores like? I have a hard time believing it's anywhere close to Netflix's extensive DVD selection. Also, Netflix has various plans: you could rent one DVD at a time, two DVDs at a time, three DVDs at a time (and maybe more). If you have three DVDs out at a time, and watch one DVD per day and mail it DVDs back as you watch them, you won't have to wait long before your next DVD arrives in the mail, possibly while you're still watching the rest. In my own experience, watching a DVD per day is pretty ambitious. Odds are you'll be watching way less than that, and there'll be multiple days between watching DVDs, in which case waiting for your next DVD to arrive in the mail won't realy make any difference.

JKCalhoun 8y ago
Yeah, no, Redbox selection is slim. Unless you're into direct-to-inflight slasher films. In that case Redbox is dabomb. ;-)

ghaff 8y ago

The latency for Netflix is longer but it means there's a DVD right there with zero effort that you can watch more or less whenever you get around to it. Even if the nearest Redbox is just 5 or 10 minutes away, that's one or two possibly unique trips you have to make. That's actually a fairly big barrier for me unless there's a new release I really want to see tonight.

ubermonkey 8y ago

>With that said, I'd think that Redbox basically does Netflix-by-mail more efficiently, no? No, actually, because the killer aspect of DVD-by-mail is the depth of selection. Redbox machines are even MORE limited.