RedBox pulling their rental machines out of Canada

[Language]

On a similar but unrelated note, how are adult video stores still in business?

Was driving down McLeod the other day and saw one and it got me thinking. With so much free porn online, who the hell still walks into a sketchy adult video store to rent videos.

[photon]

I was having that exact discussion the other day, I saw someone walking into a adult video store and I thought "do you not have the Internet?"

[polak]

I think they sell other stuff.... think....

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by polak

I think they sell other stuff.... think....

A few year back a buddy and me went to the one on McLeod Tr, located just south on cemetery hill on the east side. We were looking for a blow-up sheep for a stag.


As we stood there deciding which one to buy, yes they had more than one blow-up sheep to select from, we heard an older lady (50's) speaking to an employee. There were standing in front of the larges collection of dildo's I have ever seen.

The older lady said "I am looking for a present for my daughter in law".

Thank you, cool story.

[rayne008]

I think RedBox would've done better if they had the upgraded Blu-Rays that contained deleted scenes and commentary. That's what I miss from the streaming services.

[JohnnyO]

I loved going and picking out a movie as a kid. 7-11 rented VHS and I'd get a slurpee, later Rogers/Blockbuster and lurking at the recently returned area. LOL!!

I am glad my kids got to experience renting movie from a store and they are not even 10. They would lose their minds when I took them and they EACH got to pick a movie. Granted the decsion took forever, but it was worth it.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Shomi is the Rogers/Shaw service and Crave is the Bell/Telus service. You need to subscribe to one of their services (cable/TV or internet) to access either streaming service.

How is the quality of the selection? I'm under the impression they're not good enough to replace netflix.

[RW99]

Boooo. I live a block from a RedBox for a few years now. Half the price of a on demand version and a better quality as well, viewing with a nicer home theatre.

[photon]

Originally Posted by polak

I think they sell other stuff.... think....

Yeah but there's much better and nicer stores to buy the other stuff in around Calgary.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

How is the quality of the selection? I'm under the impression they're not good enough to replace netflix.

TV shows are fine but movies are at least 2 years old on average. I will cancel it after 3 months free trial for sure. Canada doesn't have the market size for multiple of these types of services.

[Swift]

I'd never actually utilized Redbox, but there are still plenty of options out there for viewing films.

Netflix - I haven't checked out the US version (and don't intend to) but I don't understand the people who say there's not enough content on there. Granted, I'm a film geek, but my to watch list on there is consistently 30-40 films deep, with a few TV shows thrown in there too.

Library - Not a huge selection but they have blu-rays ranging from blockbusters to Criterions, of which I currently have some on loan. I'm pleasantly surprised at what is a free service.

Casablanca Video - Since they moved closer to me, I've been intending to frequent them more, but I've been trying to hold off because I could spend more money than I want to in there.

TCM - If you're interested in classic and/or foreign films, this channel is a godsend. Easily my favourite TV channel. I scour their listings every week and end up recording a lot of films.

For streaming options, I have Telus and Playstation Store (about a dollar or two cheaper than Telus) If you have the space, you can download your rental from Playstation in advance and thus don't have to deal with the deficiencies involved in streaming. iTunes too if that's your thing.

And of course, there's the cinema too.

To me, it feels like I have TOO much access to films these days, and always have a huge backlog of stuff I want to watch.

[Igster]

Originally Posted by polak

Although there are pretty much no more cheap movie options for the non-tech savy folk.

Don't really need to be too tech savvy to use Netflix on a smart TV or a BD player.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by RW99

Boooo. I live a block from a RedBox for a few years now. Half the price of a on demand version and a better quality as well, viewing with a nicer home theatre.

Not only that, I made full use of the fact that I could check which redbox had the movie I wanted and reserve it. The next day I would return it to the closest Redbox to me, not the one I rented it to. It was super convenient and cheap, and I'll really miss it.

Lots of rose-coloured glasses on in this thread. Movie rental stores sucked. Maybe there were more Blockbusters and the like in Calgary a decade ago, but it was far from convenient for me in Westbank and I never felt like the selection was very good. They also overpriced their video game rentals, but it was nice to try games out for a couple days before buying them.

[polak]

Originally Posted by Igster

Don't really need to be too tech savvy to use Netflix on a smart TV or a BD player.

Netflix has a limited selection.

If you want to watch a new release its 6 or 7 bucks now.

[JiriHrdina]

I actually find it interesting how adult stores are the last ones to hang on.
I paid close attention to the death of the video store over the years. I worked in video stores all through college, and my first job after graduation was within the marketing department of Rogers Video (my big project was launching DVDs).
So I had more interest than most. Basically the way it went down in terms of who went first
- Small independent stores/chains: the ones with little selection/buying power and inability to keep costs down
- Larger non BB/Rogers chains – VHQ, Max Video, etc. Those went next
- Established/niche independents – Birddog, Hollywood Bollywood, and other neighborhood favorites. They held on for a long time
- BB/Rogers
- Adult stores.

So why have some adult stores hung on? I figure combination of having a wider breadth of products to sell – rentals probably doesn’t drive their business anymore. Second – I look at them as very similar to niche stores – they have a target customer that maybe is still served by them.

As is the case when most industries die – Rogers/BB just didn’t see it coming until it was too late. They perceived that customers would still see value in the browsing experience – and ignored the pain points that people HATED about video stores (e.g. late fees).

I would have loved to be in the board meeting where the big wigs at BB got together and said “Well folks – we are F****’d”.

The video business is interesting because basically from birth to complete death it was about 30 years. That’s quick.

[polak]

I remember when Blockbuster tried getting rid of late fees but they couldn't pull it off. Besides taking Netflix more seriously, that was the one thing that could have saved them I think.

If Blockbuster bought Netflix or put out something like that around the same time, they'd be quite powerful.

[tvp2003]

I wonder how much it costs to operate/maintain the machines. Aside from rotating the signage and rotating/replacing discs, I would think most of the upfront costs have already been booked.

Unless of course, the Canadian machines were doing so poorly that it made more economic sense to move them into the US instead...

[dino7c]

I called the end of video stores in the late 90s and everyone laughed at me

[Maccalus]

This makes me sad, but I am not surprised. We used them quite a bit, because I refusedto pay $5-7 for a streamed new release movie through shaw/google play/cineplex. The $2-2.50 price point per day I found to be perfect and the reserve/return to any box system was so easy and quick. They lacked a mobile app in Canada, which I think hurt them and it is still more difficult than streaming from an effort point of view.

Now I am not sure what I will do to see new release movies legally. I still think the $5-7 dollars to stream it is too much in this day and age and subscription based services have limited libraries/take much longer for movies to reach them. It looks like I will just be skipping more movies now than I used to, especially when we run out of scene points/movie passes for the theatres.

[polak]

Torrenting is super easy...