Redbox to Close Over 500 Movie-Rental Kiosks

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Messages
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Look quick, because that big red box right down the street could be gone soon. Redbox, a familiar sight at storefronts across the nation will begin to cut its losses and remove its less productive kiosks this year.

But beyond the flat growth, Redbox seems to be running out of new spots for its signature rental machines, having already hit saturation across most major US supermarkets.
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I think I get my money's worth with Netflix alone.
However, that said, if Redbox wasn't trimming back at some point, they would go up outspending its intake. They've added game rentals, but I don't know how well that does for them.
 
Redbox is where the derps go who are too cheap to pay $8/month. Not surprised by this announcement.
 
shade91 said:
Redbox is where the derps go who are too cheap to pay $8/month. Not surprised by this announcement.
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Or who don't have fast enough internet, don't like the limited selection on Netflix, don't have a smart TV, roku or other streaming device, only rent 2-3 movies a month, etc.

(and for the record I've never rented from Redbox, but I know people who do.)
 
Master [H];1040850554 said:
I think I get my money's worth with Netflix alone.
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If it wasn't for my ladies fascination with shitty korean soaps I'd have gotten rid of Netflix a long time ago. Their new release selection is ok with TV shows, but movie selection keeps getting worse and worse.

I end up watching my free VOD (w/Prem Channels) much more often than Netflix.
 
I mean, I've got a good internet connection and know that streaming is the way it should be, but using Netflix as an example is just foolish. I'm trying to think of a better word to use to describe their feature selection than "shitty."

On top of that, to pay 3-4 dollars for an extra compressed, limited audio stream from some other source when I can take a quick jaunt down to the corner and get a bluray for $1.60, you can't say Redbox doesn't have a purpose.
 
I will, however, add that there are waaaay too many kiosks. The two at my aforementioned corner seem to only serve to occasionally shorten the line, the rest of the time it's just two machines sitting unused instead of one. I can't even imagine how many kiosks exist in total within a couple miles of me.

Trimming it down seems prudent.
 
shade91 said:
Redbox is where the derps go who are too cheap to pay $8/month. Not surprised by this announcement.
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Yeah becuase Netflix has all the movies. :rolleyes:

Netflix has shit for a selection so where the hell I am supposed to get the movies I actually want to see? My job involves driving so I drive by at least 30 of these a day on my route so its convenient to pick up and drop off.
 
Noooo... I love the fact I have a dozen kiosks within 4 miles of my house :( We only watch at most 4 movies a month, so RedBox is cheaper than Netflix for us, doesn't chew up Internet and keeps playing if the Internet goes down, and the best part is I can watch full BluRay quality on my 65" TV without compression.
 
I didn't realize that people still rented movies on discs, I'm pretty sure no one I know does this anymore.
 
Some of you are making no sense. AGAIN Redbox has movies that a re NOT even on Netflix or any other service.
 
shade91 said:
Redbox is where the derps go who are too cheap to pay $8/month. Not surprised by this announcement.
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Yeah whenever I walk into Ralphs and pass the kiosk next to the entrance, I always kinda wonder about the people standing in front of it slackjawed, like "who ARE you?"
 
Quix said:
I didn't realize that people still rented movies on discs, I'm pretty sure no one I know does this anymore.
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Had you said "DVD" I could of agreed...If It's gonna be in shit quality I'll just stream it and pay a little more and not deal with the hassle of having to return the stupid thing. However usually if I want to "Rent" a movie, I want a blu-ray and I really don't give a crap how cheap redbox is. People who are blind and have shitty TV's are more than welcome to keep using that garbage. So yea, I'll still rent a "Disc" here and there because streaming at Blu-ray quality just isn't a viable option at this point, though more often than not if I want to actually watch something I just buy it outright and trade it in if it sucks. Ends up costing me about the same anyhow.
 
Quix said:
I didn't realize that people still rented movies on discs, I'm pretty sure no one I know does this anymore.
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I do. $1 for a night for a new release? Not bad at all.

Although, the one thing I don't like is that some have a rental version, which strip out the higher quality audio. Other than that, I still rent from them. It's nice to watch a movie without buying it (some aren't worth buying, especially at new release prices).

There are way too many kiosks, though. I can walk into the entrance to Fred Meyer (or Wal-mart), and in each entrance (2 of them) there are a couple kiosks. 4 per store. That's way too many. I'll see someone there sometimes, but the majority of the time no one is using them. That does mean that the movie/game I want is almost always available, though!:)
 
the problem here is the expectation on shareholders and the somewhat skewed article. Combined, they paint a picture far worse than reality need be.

500 kiosks? that's nothing. Unless you happen to depend on one of those, specifically, most people won't notice. It's not a dramatic reduction. They've reached saturation and need to pair down and re-adjust their projections.

Once they hit the sweet spot, they could easily ride that for the next few years. It's an easy to use service that makes sense and nowadays, provides a service you almost can't get anywhere else: physical disc rental from a physical location. The problem is that the current American way is BIGGER BIGGER BIGGER. If your company is posting amazing gains, something is wrong and your major shareholder who are already rich as hell, start panicking and actually turn things sour. When you could actually be just fine.


I have netflix disc service. But if I want a different/newer movie RIGHT NOW, I walk two blocks from my doorstep and grab one from redbox. Two blocks left or two blocks right.
 
They just installed one at the grocery store here, I don't see myself using it but it looks like a neat idea. I thought this was new as I never heard of it till I saw the machine a few months back.

I wonder how those do in the winter though, since it's outside.
 
shade91 said:
Redbox is where the derps go who are too cheap to pay $8/month. Not surprised by this announcement.
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Ah Redbox gets movies at least one to two months before Netflix genius.That's why people go to Redbox not to mention playing an actual bluray disk is better quality then the horrible compression that Netflix uses. I have Netflix by the way.
 
I have Netflix and it's great for TV, but I'd say 70% of the stuff I want to see is in Redbox and not Netflix.

Not to mention Redbox gets movies earlier than Netflix.

I have 3 Redbox machines that are within a 10 min round trip walk for me.

Red Squirrel said:
They just installed one at the grocery store here, I don't see myself using it but it looks like a neat idea. I thought this was new as I never heard of it till I saw the machine a few months back.
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You haven't heard of Redbox until a few months back? Where do you live?
 
I rent 5 or more redbox movies for every one Netflix disk. If it weren't for Netflix's larger catalog, I'd cancel them altogether.

If I discover the lossless audio track is missing, I rip the movie and torrent it out of spite.

Btw, streaming is for retards who need to have their eyes checked.
 
Wrecked Em said:
Btw, streaming is for retards who need to have their eyes checked.
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Really? I definitely prefer a disk, but streaming is fine on a lot of smaller TV's. When you want the best (home theater with a good movie), a disk is definitely preferred. Watching a comedy in the bedroom 40" TV? Streaming is good enough.
 
Xrave said:
I have Netflix and it's great for TV, but I'd say 70% of the stuff I want to see is in Redbox and not Netflix.

Not to mention Redbox gets movies earlier than Netflix.

I have 3 Redbox machines that are within a 10 min round trip walk for me.



You haven't heard of Redbox until a few months back? Where do you live?
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Northern Ontario, I figured Redbox was new. It's been around for a while I guess?
 
shade91 said:
Redbox is where the derps go who are too cheap to pay $8/month. Not surprised by this announcement.
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The derps? There is so much missing from netflix... Why on earth would you talk down on people for not wanting to wait for movies to come out?
 
Since Blockbuster closed, I don't even bother with this shit any more. The movies take so long to actually come out, the lag is many many months. Either see it in the movie theater, or see it on HBO ... some day .... in the distant future. Netflix, redbox, even on-demand on verizon are total shit compared to what Blockbuster was doing.
 
xX_Jack_Carver_Xx said:
Since Blockbuster closed, I don't even bother with this shit any more. The movies take so long to actually come out, the lag is many many months. Either see it in the movie theater, or see it on HBO ... some day .... in the distant future. Netflix, redbox, even on-demand on verizon are total shit compared to what Blockbuster was doing.
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What the fuck are you talking about? Netflix and streaming services i get but redbox gets them day 1 just like blockbuster did and they dont charge idiotic fees or require memberships.
 
shade91 said:
Redbox is where the derps go who are too cheap to pay $8/month. Not surprised by this announcement.
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Well redbox has lots of movies you cannot get on amazon prime, Netflix or anywhere. And until the movie industry allows new releases to stream this won't change. I had Netflix and dropped it because it never had any content what few movies I wanted to see were never available. So instead I and many like me just grab a movie if we are out shopping.
 
sometimes i see 10 red boxes within a 1/4 mile.....every store doesn't need one.
 
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