One word: Netflix.
Once people get wise, all the regular rental stores are done.
Two Questions:
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How long does it take for the movies to travel to and fro?
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Do you ever have problems with Not In Stock (or Not Carried) selections?
I’ve only recently thought about using Net Flix. Of course the website is going to make everything sound wonderful. As a third party consumer advocate, convince me to use Netflix, but also caution me on the pitfalls.
Thanks
I don’t really understand the outrage by customers over this. Blockbuster has always charged off the purchase price of a movie to a customer after a certain period outstanding - in my store it was 30 days. They’re just shortening the time period and eliminating late fees altogether. The way I see it, this is a boon for the customers and will turn out to be a headache for the stores. I would hate to still be working there.
Up to 70% of the EVF revenue (extended viewing fees) was made up of balances for tapes that were 1-2 days late (they still charged per day when I ran my store). Late fees don’t account for nearly as much revenue as you’d think, though. It looks like this will pretty much wipe out that small chunk of change for the stores.
Where I see them really losing money on this, though, is in new release rentals. Especially if they charge-off at retail prices instead of studio prices. If I rent a brand new movie and either forget or decide to keep it, and they charge me $20 for it I’ll consider it a fair deal. I can see this happening a lot, especially considering you pay 1/4 of that to rent it for a couple days. So right off the bat, the stores are going to have to keep more inventory to anticipate this.
Then you’ve got to contend with the fact that roughly half of those people keeping tapes out won’t have credit cards to secure their accounts. And trying to collect on late fees without a cc to charge-off is nigh impossibe. So not only will the stores be out the stock, they’ll be increasing their bad debt too.
Oi vey. I used to miss working there, but this looks like it’s going to be a major headache. Personally, I think they’d have been much smarter to go to a format closer to Netflix’s, but they sort of tried that already and it didn’t work. We had a promotion where, for a fixed amount (either $30 or $50) you could buy a card that would allow you to have up to three rentals out at a time for a certain period of time (a month or two). That totally flopped.
I think the major appeal of Netflix is the convenience of not having to go to the store. The sad truth is a majority of customers just don’t want the hassle of returning their rentals, and expect to be able to return them ‘whenever’ without incurring any penalty.
I’m referring to blockbuster. They have the same deal as netflix.
I used Netflix for about a year, and found very few problems with service or selection. It took about two days to get my tapes, but that will vary based on where you live and where their closest distribution center is. You should be able to check on their site to see estimates for shipping time.
As far as items not being in stock, it works a little differently. You create a queue of items you want to see, you can put in as many movies as you want. The top three titles on your list that are available are sent to you. If an item is not in stock, they go to the next title on your list and send that. The item that wasn’t in stock gets put back at the top of the list, and if it’s in when you return one of the items you have out, then you get it. If not, then it stays on the top of your list until it’s available and you’ve got another rental coming.
Quite frequently titles I requested would be pushed back one or two cycles, so I wouldn’t get them in the order I picked them, but would have to wait a time or two after returning my current rentals. Also, some of the less-mainstream titles I couldn’t find or were on backorder for quite some time.
Still, I’d highly recommend the service. The only drawback I could see is that you might not be in the mood to see the movies that were next on your list; I always solved that by just keeping them until I felt like watching them though. At $20 a month even if I only got my three per month it was worth it.
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it depends, but usually I send a movie back, they get it the next day, and I have my new movie the day after that. I’m in the same city as a distribution center, so your own experience may be different.
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Rarely. I’ve been waiting forever to get Eddie Izzard: Circle (for some reason), but I’ve almost never had to wait, even if it’s a new release.
My general experience has been from the day I put a movie in the mail to the day I get the next one in is about 4 mailing days. Not too shabby.
But with blockbusters new rental deal there is no waiting time at all. As long as you have a blockbuster near you anyway.
Yep, that’s me. Idiotically celebrating the fact that in one swell foop good old fashioned competition will send $250-300 MM per year right out the door of a big corporation and into the pockets of consumers of video rentals. That’s a buck for every man, woman and child in America with one press release. Revenue that the corporation hopes to make back by, goodness!, making customers happier and by reducing stupid marketing and promotional expenses. Yeah, I’m a regular Monty Burns here. Smithers, release the hounds!
Grrah! That movie is the exact reason I left Netflix. I put it on my list as soon as I saw they were going to be offering it, and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally I got with it and downloaded it.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/14/news/midcaps/blockbuster_latefees/index.htm?cnn=yes
http://slate.msn.com/id/2095258/
To me, 250-300 million dollars seems like a very large portion (merely for late fees) of the above figures (assuming they are accurate and similar in 2004). But I am no economist and may be missing something crucial.
Nothing to do with that.
For the record, i have no problem with Blockbuster’s altered business model being discussed in this thread, and i have yet to make a post suggesting otherwise.
I was simply criticizing your knee-jerk idiocy regarding jackelope’s earlier post, as well as your quaintly 50s-style reference to “commie scum.”
Well, you know, a boy’s got to do something to retain his status as a “free market whore.”
You post an idiotic rant, do not back it up, don’t explain your outrage and then you prosume to speak for the entire American public. When I call you directly rather then obliquely on it, it makes me a condescending ass.
You’re not good enough to eat me.
“Commie scum” references never go out of style, much like the plain white button-down shirt. Besides, when the dialect fits, wear it.
Well, I don’t know about the entire corporation’s figures, but in my store and the 14 other stores in our district, late fee revenue accounted for less than 12% of overall revenue per store. Some people seem to be under the impression that we make most of our money on late fees when it’s really not a major source. Also, my experience is from back when per-day late fees were charged. I don’t know how the change in rental return policies has affected the revenue from late fees in the past few years, though.
Well, I’m glad that you’re able to unburden yourself with these tales of Blockbuster woe, and I hope it won’t haunt you in the future. You really need to let this stuff go.
Oh, and you’re also completely full of it, and that’s twice you’ve implied that I’ve lied, defending that business you claim to hate. So why don’t you come right out and say it? I’ve said it. The Blockbuster at 8510 Highway 7 in St Louis Park, MN, has let returned videos sit unattended and then charged late fees on them.
So, what is it?
I have the base plan, three movies at once for $18, and watch all three the day I get them and have them in the mail the next morning. Two days later, I get three more and repeat the process for six DVDs a week or 24 a month. If mail were delivered on Sundays, I’d manage six to nine a week and around 30 a month.
I have lots of time on my hands though and am not the usual customer.
I love Netflix and doubt I’ll ever have need for Blockbuster.
The reason I don’t go to Blockbuster is that I don’t like the IDIOTS who fucking shop there.
I’m sure there are plenty of really nice people who shop there, but the fact that they had to get rid of late fees because the late fees were pissing off the customers absolutely proves that I am right, the people who shop at Blockbuster are sickening, bossy, greedy, losers.
It’s not usually that people are telling lies (although thats bad enough- one time a woman said “Oh yes, I remember we turned it in on time, right after school” as she looked at her nodding teen daughter. I credited the fee, and then looked up the date. It was a Sunday :rolleyes: ), it’s just that they don’t pay attention. They rent their movie, walk out, watch it and forget about it. Then half a week later, they see a movie sitting on the counter and think “Oh gee, I wonder when that’s due- I must have rented it on Tuesday, so it’s due back Wednesday.” They turn it in on Wednesday, “knowing” they were on time. And then they get hit with fees, and they get indignant because they know they turned it on Wednesday right before the due date. Usually if I sit there with a calander and get them to think back on when they actually rented the movie, they notice the fault was that they just kind of made up a day when they thought the movie was due. Usually I just credit the fee off.
How do I know all this? Because I WORKed there, I was there every day, I had access to my account info whenever I wanted, I thouroughly understood the policies, wachted my movies be checked in by hand and I still had countless endless late fees…often that I was pretty sure were on time.