“Box” makes renting & returning videos easier for RVers
Not all of us have satellite TV, or on-demand movies in our RV. But nonetheless, most of us enjoy an occasional unwind in front of the TV with a new movie. Imagine pulling off the road at the end of the day, and having a fresh video of your choice at hand in less than half a minute. Better still, say you want to see it again, but you’ll be 300 miles away at days-end tommorrow. It wouldn’t be a problem if you could simply return that video at your next stop. And add the icing on the proverbial video cake–you’re only charged a buck to rent the video.
Maybe it is a brave new world out there. Red Box Video challenges the concept of movie rental stores by putting a kiosk in every Walmart. OK, not in every Walmart, but in lots of Walmarts across the country, and in places like McDonald’s fast food joints, and Albertson’s grocery stores. What doth Red Box offer?
* $1.00 a night DVD rentals (just add a buck a night for each additional night you keep it)
* Reservations on the video of your choice by Internet (your movie waits for you)
* Around 200 new titles per kiosk, and new titles added on every Tuesday
* Returns at ANY Red Box kiosk, regardless of where you originally rented the movie.
We were afraid that “new releases” probably meant we’d never find anything we wanted. But popular “older” titles like Lawrence of Arabia are actually up for rent as well. And if you’re traveling with the younger set, there are plenty of family class videos available–chuck one in the DVD player on those long stretches and don’t worry about the, “Are we there yet” chorus.
How does it work? You can either run up to the video kiosk and choose from whatever titles you see displayed, or run up redbox.com on the web and pick out a video you’d like to reserve. Either way, at the kiosk you’ll swipe your credit or debit card and the machine pops the video out of a slot. On return, simply hit the “return” key and follow the instructions to have your video verified and checked back in. Here’s the catch with reserved videos. Your card is changed when you make the reservation, and if you don’t turn up at the appointed kiosk by 9:00 pm that evening, your “reserved” DVD can be checked out by anyone else–and you’re still charged the rental fee.
For a redbox location near your RV, go to redbox.com, and be prepared with either a zip code or city and state. Now, if they can just add fresh popcorn with your choice of butter and salt, maybe this concept would be perfect!
