Redbox DVDs

[AKPilot]

Okay, am traveling now and went to return my DVD after the flight. Not sure what it is about Seattle, but there's very very few Redboxes around. Not only that, but I spent a few minutes explaining to people up here what Redbox is. :y: I was showing them how they're in a lot of McDonalds and Walgreens around StL.

Where I'm living in the midwest, these things are everywhere and are even threatening places like Blockbuster and Family Video. Can't beat a $1, new release video.

What about where you're at? Is Redbox common place?

 

[n5wd]

What about where you're at? Is Redbox common place?

Yep, beginning to see them in quite a few locations around Dallas-Fort Worth.

 

[NAR29996]

Can't help but trip over them here in Charlotte.

 

[MKP]

I've heard of them, but I've never seen one, here in south-eastern Utah, or any where else, but then, I don't frequent the stores they're at.

 

[Thorn]

They're all over in the Salt Lake City area. Finding a Redbox is no problem. Finding a movie I actually want to see in one of them is difficult. I'm assuming all the good movies are always checked out. It seems like they mostly have a lot of B grade and straight to video releases. I seldom take the trouble to look through them any more.

 

[JRThro]

Extremely common in Houston, especially at McDonald's and Walgreen's.

 

[Peartree]

I *think* there at most of our Wal-marts and maybe a few others. I don't really pay much attention since we haven't rented videos in about ten years...

 

[WiK]

Interesting... So they're like a mix between vending machines and Netflix?

 

[astrowolf67]

Troy, you can go to redbox.com and search for locations. Redbox has already caused the closing of one of our local Blockbusters, and, is crippling a few others. We've tried it once, and, didn't have a good experience. The DVD we rented, was scratched badly, and, wouldn't play. We returned it to the location, and as expected, were told we would have to contact Redbox to resolve the issue. Two months later, we were given a free rental and haven't been back since.

David

 

[AKPilot]

I did that, search on-line. That's how I found out how few are up here in Seattle, when I went to return my rental from StL.

For those that haven't seen them - they're great. It's $1 a night for all movies, including new releases. If you choose not to return it after the first night, it's just $1 for each additional night. Much, cheaper than $4-5 a rental at other places. If you like the movie, keep it or don't return it and it's yours for $12.

The neat thing is that they're in a lot of places; albeit a bit rarer in some areas (such as Seattle). Down where I live we have four of them within two miles of our home.

You can go on-line, find the movie you want, it'll tell you the location to pick it up at, and even hold the movie for you.

Our family does pizza and a movie on Friday nights, so the kids would get home from school and tell me where to pick it up on the way home. Btw I, personally, don't have to change the way I travel to pick one up.

You can also get free rentals with on-line coupon codes. The last ne we found was "breakroom". Also, we've never had a movie that was unusable due to scratches or smudges. We can't say that from our local Family Video/Blockbuster.

And no, I don't own stock in them . . .

 

[eugenefl]

In the quest to seek convenience and on demand entertainment, here is my story about Redbox (and other entertainment source options).

I love Redbox (well, loved Redbox). I got hooked when I first saw it in my local grocery store. For the first dozen movies or so that I used it I would definitely get it back to the store the next day and take advantage of that $1 rental. (I would laugh as I drove past a certain brick and mortar store's $5 rental fee.) As time went on it got more popular. People would sit in front of it and stare and take forever to make a movie selection. I started to get noticeably irritable and kindly educate some of the customers in line about their online reservation service. Sometimes I would forget to return my movie. I travel on the weekends so by the time I got home I inevitably racked up a $5, sometimes up to $8 rental fees!!! Eventually, they added a 2nd machine to the grocery store and added 2 more across the street in the WalMart. Laziness got the best of me and I was slowly convinced that holding onto the movie for another night was just a buck so let's just put off returning the movie until tomorrow. Tomorrow turned into the next day and so on. Well, after a month's worth of doing that I started spending close to $15-$20 in Redbox DVD rentals. It's totally my fault, but what I discovered was that the drive for me wasn't necessarily a convenience even though the store is a measly 4 miles away and the appeal of a $1 a night rental was no longer worth it. Yes folks - I'm becoming ONE OF THOSE lazy Americans. LOL! (Truly, I work 5 1/2 days a week - 55-65 hours - and appreciate any free time I have to the point where I dislike spending it doing anything that is considered inefficient. I save time where I can.)

My solution? $8.99 Netflix - 1 movie out at a time and unlimited streaming videos from their website. Oh yeah, Hulu.com supplements perfectly for me for the TV shows that I care to watch (and they even offer full length movies now too - FOR FREE!) I pulled an older 1.6GHz computer out of my closet with a S-Video out video card and recommissioned it to serve as my media PC now hooked up to my living room TV and stereo system. It's neatly housed in my entertainment armoire. Now, I can check Email and watch TV/movies at the same time whenever and only ever have to return a hardcopy DVD to my mailbox. The price is right too for what I was spending on Redbox rentals.

Great topic!

 

[WiK]

Yeah, I've been using LoveFilm (UK equivilent of Netflix) for a few years now - brilliant service. The Redbook thing sounds handy for the odd movie night, but I'd be too spoiled by the sheer range of stuff Lovefilm has to bother with something like that if it came over here.

 

[quickburst]

There are three in our small town. We use it exclusively.

 

[Peartree]

Our local library is less than a block away. Three days for free and $1/day late fee. I have been late too many times so now my wife doesn't like me borrowing them. About half the time I'm too busy to watch them anyway. My neighbor loaned me a movie three weeks ago and I still haven't watched it...