Redbox to test selling DVDs through kiosks

Redbox has begun testing selling DVDs through their kiosks this month, offering new and catalog releases for about $20 USD alongside their $1-a-night DVD rental kiosks.

The sell-through kiosks will sell the DVDs under the brand name Vidigo and is currently being tested in five locations in Los Angeles. The kiosks look almost identical to Redbox ones in shape and size but will be colored black instead of red.

Redbox will begin testing smaller sell-through kiosks made for convenience stores soon however, adds president Mitch Lowe. In other news, Lowe says videogame and Blu-ray rental testing is going well.

The rental company recently began circulating a study that showed that Redbox renters are not taking a big chunk out of studio sales like Fox, Universal and Warner have been claiming and instead actually support the figures.

According to VB, "In the past six months, Redbox renters said they bought 3.3 new DVD or Blu-ray titles and 1.4 used DVD/Blu-ray discs. That compares to non-Redbox renters who say they purchased 3.1 new DVD/Blu-rays and 1.2 used DVD/Blu-rays. Additionally, the heaviest Redbox users, who rent at least one $1 title weekly, say they�ve bought 4.4 new DVD/Blu-rays and 1.9 used DVD/Blu-rays."

Lowe also noted that despite Fox, Warner and Universal's 45-day restriction on new titles for the rental company, Redbox would still buy the titles from wholesalers and have them available on retail launch dates.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Oct 2009 18:35

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8 comments

Unfocused

So, I'm going to call my company RedBox, but I will alienate and confuse my customers by making the box Black....... Genius!

18.10.2009 19:24 #1

cart0181

I agree with Unfocused. The idea to color the box black is nonsensical.

18.10.2009 20:11 #2

klassic

The "Redbox" in my local walmart is blue.

18.10.2009 23:09 #3

NINVIN21

I hate them there taking people's jobs same as the self checkout.
And Coinstar ripped me like $4 off last week.
(Redbox runs on Windows XP)

19.10.2009 09:56 #4

slickwill

Originally posted by klassic: The "Redbox" in my local walmart is blue.Mine too!. The top part that advertises the title is in read, but the actually unit is blue....it's totally misleading.

Originally posted by NINVIN21: I hate them there taking people's jobs same as the self checkout.
And Coinstar ripped me like $4 off last week.
(Redbox runs on Windows XP)The real problem is that we live in a society that depends on earning money. If people were able to contribute to society any way they wanted to regardless of earning money while still getting what they need to survive, then it's wouldn't be such a big deal if a machine takes away jobs.

If you look at history, machines have taken over a lot of tasks that used to require manual labor. Any example would be tractors used for farming and spot welding machines for car manufacturing. So, this outsourcing of jobs by machines has created shift in the workforce where a large demographic of people are working in the customer service industry. If most of these jobs are replaced with machines, where will the people go to work? Theoretically, if all jobs were replaced by machines, the monetary system would not work b/c their would be no one earning money to buy the products that the manufactures are making, meaning the manufactures would cease to exist. The main problem being, the manufactured resources are available, except no one has money to buy access to those resources.

But then again, the point of creating machines is to make our lives easier and ride us of repetitive, mundane tasks. Eventually, the world is going to have to transition into this type of non-monetary system. However, not many people realize this, and they continue to blame machines replacing jobs, when in fact they should be blaming the fact we still live in this type of money dependent system.

In addition, there are those that will purposely hold back this type of progress and try to keep the status quo. For example: Walmart could reduce their workforce by creating web-based system where the customer can shop for all their goods online or from a kiosk at the store, and all the customer has to do is drive down to a Walmart and pick up the items they have purchases online. Off course, this type of system is already partially implemented, but I'm talking about making the whole store like that, so the customer no longer has to push carts around the store and spend their time selecting and waiting in line to payout.

19.10.2009 13:15 #5

Unfocused

Quote:Originally posted by slickwill:

In addition, there are those that will purposely hold back this type of progress and try to keep the status quo. For example: Walmart could reduce their workforce by creating web-based system where the customer can shop for all their goods online or from a kiosk at the store, and all the customer has to do is drive down to a Walmart and pick up the items they have purchases online. Off course, this type of system is already partially implemented, but I'm talking about making the whole store like that, so the customer no longer has to push carts around the store and spend their time selecting and waiting in line to payout.If they did this, then I would have nothing to do at 2am upon leaving work. Half the fun of shopping at Wal Mart is just roaming the aisles and picking stuff up and looking at it.

With all of this technology and digital distribution that we as a society have embraced, there is still a very large market segment that still requires having a product in their hand to touch and feel before deciding upon making a purchase.

19.10.2009 21:07 #6

Gnawnivek

slickwell, thanks for the post, good read :)

22.10.2009 11:48 #7

petersov

$20.00!! per title? I can go to Target or WalMart and get new releases for around $15.00 and older movies for around $7.00 to 10.00, who are they kidding?

22.10.2009 17:11 #8

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