Redbox

This past weekend, I finally tired out one of the Redbox movie rental kiosks that have been popping up around town. There is one in the Neighborhood Market, and at McDonald's off the end of Kiehl, across from McCain Mall, and on JFK and N. Hills. You'll know it when you see it. It's literally a big red box.

The way it works is that you swipe your credit card and it dispenses movies. You pay $1 a night and you just have to return it before 9pm the day after you get it. If you don't return it in time, they just charge you another dollar for each extra day.

The movie I was looking for had just been released the previous Tuesday, but the Redbox had a copy, so I swiped my credit card and entered my email address and zip code (to verify my billing address). The movie came sliding out and I was on my way. The whole thing took a couple of minutes and the dvd came in a hard plastic case.

I wish I'd checked to see whether entering an email address was optional, but at the time, I just wanted to see what kind of confirmation email they'd send. I ended up getting three emails from them: one verifying my rental, one verifying its return, and one showing the charge. Three emails over one rental seems a little much, but I can see why each one is useful.

I currently subscribe to Blockbuster through the mail and return them in the store, but I actually liked Redbox enough that I might suspend my blockbuster subscription for a month or two and try Redbox instead. My blockbuster plan is $16 (plus tax) a month, which would buy me 16 Redbox rentals if I manage to return them all on time. If you use Netflix or Blockbuster Online and always send the movies back through the mail, Redbox probably seems like a huge inconvenience to you. On the other hand, if you're like me and you usually swing by a Blockbuster to return movies in the store, Redbox only adds the inconvenience of having to pick up the movie ahead of time.

I checked out the Redbox website and I really like that you can see what movies are available at a location prior to leaving the house. You can even reserve a movie and have it on hold for you when you get there. The one thing I can't believe is missing is a quicker way to locate movies. You basically have to look through screens showing 10 dvd covers at a time. They're sorted by title, release date, or availability, but you can't just view a list of all available titles at once or even search for a movie title and see what locations nearby currently have it. I can definitely think of some basic features that would make the website more useful, but the very fact that you can check a Redbox inventory and put movies on hold before driving down there makes the website worth using.

The one disclaimer I will add is that Redbox's inventory of movies is (from what I've seen) exclusively new releases. If you're into foreign movies, or seasons of tv shows, or old classics, don't count on Redbox to have anything you're looking for.