DVD Rental vending machine at local grocery store (1 Viewer)

[Brad_See]

So yesterday I was grocery shopping and I checked out and saw a strange looking new machine. I went and checked it out and it's a DVD rental machine. You insert a credit or debit card, select a movie or movies and it dispenses them and charges you 1 dollar per day. Not a bad deal! You bring the movies back and return them by inserting them back into the machine.

They didn't have anything real obscure but they had a decent selection for a machine. I could foresee some problems though...the machine will have to have some way of positively identifying the movies you are returning so no one rents, say, Master and Commander, but returns the copy of Gigli they got as a gift in the Master and Commander packaging. It may have something to prevent that but I don't know as I haven't used it yet.

brad cook

 

[Kevin Webb]

At least 5 years ago (probably closer to 10), there was a store in my area called Video-O-Matic. It was a self-service video store. The title boxes were scattered along the wall so you could see what was available. You would purchase a debit card, put it into the machine and punch in the number of the film you wanted. If it was in, you would watch the huge robotic arm go, grab the film and drop it into the bin.

It was unique and I liked it. They usually had a good selection of new titles. Unfortuneately, it just didn't catch on and was closed within two years.

Been waiting to see if someone would try again. I'm going to have to look for one of these vending machines.

 

[Jeff]

Yeah, these things are an old idea. 15 years ago VHS rental machines were all over the Toronto area. There is another thread here about McDonalds test marketing DVD rental machines.

 

[StephenA]

There was a video delivery service here about 15 years ago. You'd get a binder with the selection they had, then call them up and tell them what you want and they'd deliver it and put it in a bin on your door. They'd often send updated pages too. It was a pretty neat thing, but too bad it never caught on.