4 ms·

I'm kind of surprised Redbox is still a thing. It feels like a very late 2000s idea.

by asveikau 2y ago

brookst 2y ago
Boomers still love it. It’s a high tech optimization of the Blockbuster Videos they loved.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
  I’m a millennial and I still enjoy it for the nostalgia trip from time to time. I have a $20 DVD player I got from Walmart a few years ago whose sole purpose is Redbox nostalgia playback. I will say it’s pretty rare I get that itch these days, since basically any movie is instantly available. Hits harder when you’re in the middle of nowhere with terrible internet though. Even then though half the time someone has offline stuff on some device
- joezydeco 2y ago
  The key feature IMO was the ability to return at any terminal. When every Walmart had one it became a great resource on cross country road trips with younger kids.
  - smelendez 2y ago
    Cracker Barrel used to rent audio books on tape and CD for exactly this reason.
hash872 2y ago
It's popular in rural areas where people don't have fast enough Internet to stream movies. And/or, they can't afford Internet speeds that fast. Not a demographic you're going to see represented on HN much, but a lot of the US (by geography, not population) doesn't have fast-enough Internet for Netflix without it being choppy. Tried to show my Dad a funny Youtube video when I visited him on his farm and it was so choppy it was basically unwatchable
- CPLX 2y ago
  Probably a little more accurate to say that they can’t afford internet at all, due to poor credit or a long prior stream of unpaid bills with the internet provider.
  - remlov 2y ago
    That's a nonsensical reach. The United States, especially in rural areas have internet access that is considered laughable and has nothing to do with their financial situation.
    - CPLX 2y ago
      I have observed this effect directly in real life. If life circumstances get away from you and you get to the point where the one provider wired to your area, like spectrum say, gets turned off for non payment after months of ignored bills, you may well find yourself without any plausible path to have the resources to turn it back on. All it takes is a life based on something like shift or manual work and a medical or family crisis. People really have no idea what life is actually like in most of this country it seems.
      - caustic-view 2y ago
        [flagged]
  - datavirtue 2y ago
    Way off base.
  - genewitch 2y ago
    And now i get to diatribe, even though i laughed at your other comment. I have at&t fixed wireless. Until tomorrow - at&t is discontinuing it; as they discontinued copper ADSL, as they discontinued pre-paid ipad SIM cards, they now discontinue wireless uverse. The replacement product "isn't available in my area" and probably won't ever be, there's just not enough towers to support the speed metric they want. I have starlink, but i live in the middle of a national forest and there's no place to put the dish where it doesn't have service interruptions. It's great for downloading things, but awful at nearly everything else, such as realtime communication, quickly looking things up via a series of browser tabs, and online gaming. My only other option is hughesnet; and i don't consider 1500ms ping times and severe 2000s era bandwidth caps and speeds to really be an option. T-mo doesn't have penetration for "wireless home internet", nor verizon, i have tried both. There's 3+ fiber runs along the highway near my house (highway in name only!). One is a backhaul for centurylink - no consumer access. Another is Suddenlink - they got a tax benefit for running fiber to public schools, and are not tapping the lines for any consumers. at&t has the third line, but they want $15,000 for a loop, and at the time i was researching it, at&t wanted ~$1,200/mo for 1gbit and $8900 for 10gbit. Fortunately Optimum is currently running a fourth fiber line down the same highway, and my understanding is they charge $155 for 1gbit service. Currently, for the garbage internet service i have here, i am paying over $300/month. thankfully that gets reduced tomorrow, as i won't be able to get service from at&t even if i wanted to. As someone who could 40% utilize a gbit connection 24/7 at-will, this is extremely frustrating. The tradeoff is i live in a rainforest and 90% of the time there's no indication that other humans exist around here. ymmv, my FICO is available upon triplicate request.

I'm kind of surprised Redbox is still a thing. It feels like a very late 2000s idea.

brookst 2y ago

Boomers still love it. It’s a high tech optimization of the Blockbuster Videos they loved.

SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
I’m a millennial and I still enjoy it for the nostalgia trip from time to time. I have a $20 DVD player I got from Walmart a few years ago whose sole purpose is Redbox nostalgia playback. I will say it’s pretty rare I get that itch these days, since basically any movie is instantly available. Hits harder when you’re in the middle of nowhere with terrible internet though. Even then though half the time someone has offline stuff on some device
joezydeco 2y ago
The key feature IMO was the ability to return at any terminal. When every Walmart had one it became a great resource on cross country road trips with younger kids.
- smelendez 2y ago
  Cracker Barrel used to rent audio books on tape and CD for exactly this reason.

hash872 2y ago

It's popular in rural areas where people don't have fast enough Internet to stream movies. And/or, they can't afford Internet speeds that fast. Not a demographic you're going to see represented on HN much, but a lot of the US (by geography, not population) doesn't have fast-enough Internet for Netflix without it being choppy. Tried to show my Dad a funny Youtube video when I visited him on his farm and it was so choppy it was basically unwatchable

CPLX 2y ago
Probably a little more accurate to say that they can’t afford internet at all, due to poor credit or a long prior stream of unpaid bills with the internet provider.
- remlov 2y ago
  That's a nonsensical reach. The United States, especially in rural areas have internet access that is considered laughable and has nothing to do with their financial situation.
  - CPLX 2y ago
    I have observed this effect directly in real life. If life circumstances get away from you and you get to the point where the one provider wired to your area, like spectrum say, gets turned off for non payment after months of ignored bills, you may well find yourself without any plausible path to have the resources to turn it back on. All it takes is a life based on something like shift or manual work and a medical or family crisis. People really have no idea what life is actually like in most of this country it seems.
    - caustic-view 2y ago
      [flagged]
- datavirtue 2y ago
  Way off base.
- genewitch 2y ago
  And now i get to diatribe, even though i laughed at your other comment. I have at&t fixed wireless. Until tomorrow - at&t is discontinuing it; as they discontinued copper ADSL, as they discontinued pre-paid ipad SIM cards, they now discontinue wireless uverse. The replacement product "isn't available in my area" and probably won't ever be, there's just not enough towers to support the speed metric they want. I have starlink, but i live in the middle of a national forest and there's no place to put the dish where it doesn't have service interruptions. It's great for downloading things, but awful at nearly everything else, such as realtime communication, quickly looking things up via a series of browser tabs, and online gaming. My only other option is hughesnet; and i don't consider 1500ms ping times and severe 2000s era bandwidth caps and speeds to really be an option. T-mo doesn't have penetration for "wireless home internet", nor verizon, i have tried both. There's 3+ fiber runs along the highway near my house (highway in name only!). One is a backhaul for centurylink - no consumer access. Another is Suddenlink - they got a tax benefit for running fiber to public schools, and are not tapping the lines for any consumers. at&t has the third line, but they want $15,000 for a loop, and at the time i was researching it, at&t wanted ~$1,200/mo for 1gbit and $8900 for 10gbit. Fortunately Optimum is currently running a fourth fiber line down the same highway, and my understanding is they charge $155 for 1gbit service. Currently, for the garbage internet service i have here, i am paying over $300/month. thankfully that gets reduced tomorrow, as i won't be able to get service from at&t even if i wanted to. As someone who could 40% utilize a gbit connection 24/7 at-will, this is extremely frustrating. The tradeoff is i live in a rainforest and 90% of the time there's no indication that other humans exist around here. ymmv, my FICO is available upon triplicate request.