4 ms·

It really, is* an improvement the same way that netflix, when rented dvds, didn't allow you to take any other dvd until you returned the one you already had. T

It really, is* an improvement the same way that netflix, when rented dvds, didn't allow you to take any other dvd until you returned the one you already had. That strategy was enough to bankrupt blockbuster. So it can work for NY public libraries. Maybe if blockbuster had been willing to forgo the late fees income stream they would still exist today.

SilasX 5y ago
Wait, what? Blockbuster did end late fees, and it was widely regarded as a disaster, because then people took their sweet time returning rentals (above and beyond the lost revenue): https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39332696 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39332696 >Blockbuster tried dropping its late fees a few years ago, but that didn't work out well because it kept the most popular DVDs out of its stores for long stretches.
- RussianCow 5y ago
  I don't know this for a fact, but I'd wager a guess that interest in rental movies is mostly concentrated around a handful of titles at any given moment, whereas interest in library books is more evenly dispersed. This means that two people are much less likely to want to rent the same book at the same time, as opposed to the same movie.
  - duskwuff 5y ago
    Libraries do sometimes get a lot of interest in hotly anticipated new titles sometimes. You're generally right that there is a lot more "long-tail" activity than in a video rental store, though -- and it's much easier for a library to maintain a collection of rarely used books.
- alisonkisk 5y ago
  That article clearly mentions the late fee drop as a side note compared to the disruption of Netflix, and also uses the useless metric of "revenue per disc" which is OK "all else equal", but is nonsense in the context of a switch to longer rental periods / hoarded discs. And apparently BB didn't bother to buy backup discs for hoarded discs. Finally, it's just different, because a book checkout is a 3 week lend but a movie is 1-3 days.
treeman79 5y ago
Remember as a teen renting and returning two movies from Hollywood Videos. Me and a friend walked to Dropbox late at night so we were positive they were returned. Got a 245 dollar demand letter a few letter a couple months later. For 2 unreturned movies. Got a lawyer dads friend help me write a letter and the matter was dropped. Went from multiple rentals a week to never renting another video again.
- alisonkisk 5y ago
  Libraries will do the same thing if they think you lost a book.
_hilro 5y ago
> It really, is* an improvement the same way that netflix, when rented dvds, didn't allow you to take any other dvd until you returned the one you already had. Everything doesn;t have to have a simplistic analogy especially when the analogy isn't applicable. It's not really. There is direct financial buy-in from the user. Netflix subscription wasn't 0 cost to user service.

SilasX 5y ago

Wait, what? Blockbuster did end late fees, and it was widely regarded as a disaster, because then people took their sweet time returning rentals (above and beyond the lost revenue): https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39332696 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39332696 >Blockbuster tried dropping its late fees a few years ago, but that didn't work out well because it kept the most popular DVDs out of its stores for long stretches.

RussianCow 5y ago
I don't know this for a fact, but I'd wager a guess that interest in rental movies is mostly concentrated around a handful of titles at any given moment, whereas interest in library books is more evenly dispersed. This means that two people are much less likely to want to rent the same book at the same time, as opposed to the same movie.
- duskwuff 5y ago
  Libraries do sometimes get a lot of interest in hotly anticipated new titles sometimes. You're generally right that there is a lot more "long-tail" activity than in a video rental store, though -- and it's much easier for a library to maintain a collection of rarely used books.
alisonkisk 5y ago
That article clearly mentions the late fee drop as a side note compared to the disruption of Netflix, and also uses the useless metric of "revenue per disc" which is OK "all else equal", but is nonsense in the context of a switch to longer rental periods / hoarded discs. And apparently BB didn't bother to buy backup discs for hoarded discs. Finally, it's just different, because a book checkout is a 3 week lend but a movie is 1-3 days.

treeman79 5y ago

Remember as a teen renting and returning two movies from Hollywood Videos. Me and a friend walked to Dropbox late at night so we were positive they were returned. Got a 245 dollar demand letter a few letter a couple months later. For 2 unreturned movies. Got a lawyer dads friend help me write a letter and the matter was dropped. Went from multiple rentals a week to never renting another video again.

alisonkisk 5y ago
Libraries will do the same thing if they think you lost a book.

_hilro 5y ago

> It really, is* an improvement the same way that netflix, when rented dvds, didn't allow you to take any other dvd until you returned the one you already had. Everything doesn;t have to have a simplistic analogy especially when the analogy isn't applicable. It's not really. There is direct financial buy-in from the user. Netflix subscription wasn't 0 cost to user service.