So I guess it's old news by now that Redbox has increased their rental price to $1.20, instead of a flat $1.00. I had no idea about this increase until yesterday when I went to rent a movie online. Seriously? .20 extra cents? May not seem like much, but if you rent one movie a week that adds up to an extra $10.40 out of your pocket. You could have bought yourself so many jelly beans with that $10!
My other problem with the increase is, once a company gets away with one price increase, they don't stop. .44 cent stamp anyone (oh and that is increasing to .45 cents in January)? It's the whole give an inch, take a mile thing, that my 3 year old is so proficent with. Before you know it Redbox will be $1.50, then $2.00, then new releases will start costing more, etc, and before you know it Redbox is just Blockbuster in a red box.
(Stepping off soap box)
I learned the same thing last week. Plus tax. They killed Blockbuster, now like you said they will morph into Blockbuster. But rest assured someone will come in with a blue or green box and kill red box. It's just sad we are bullied into paying more in the meanwhile!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your posts. :)
Well said Survivor. I really enjoy it when people agree with me.
ReplyDeleteSo, what do you suggest they do if they aren't making enough profits? Don't you believe the free market balances this rather effectively?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, don't get me wrong, I am a capitalist at heart, but every good capitalist looks to his own wallet first. And second, they recorded record level gains last year prior to the price increase.
ReplyDeleteBlockbuster and Netflix nearly killed themselves by misjudging the market, and apparently Redbox wasn't paying attention. BBV had a broken business model and expected their dwindling customer base to bail them out, while Netflix did what most big corporations do: eliminate the competition, then jack up the price at will. It almost always works, except in a crippled economy that's stretching every dollar as it is, and no longer has any sympathy for these billion-dollar corporations.
ReplyDeleteLike you said, an extra $.20 doesn't sound like much...but where does it end? I guess that depends on where the customer base decides to draw the line, eh?
I did not know this, I LOVED Red Box. Unfortunately, this is what always happens to the things we love. Suprisingly the dollar menu at McDonalds hasn't increased yet!
ReplyDelete@Alif, well no it hasn't, BUT they did take the double cheeseburger that used to be a dollar, and turn into the "McDouble" by taking off a piece of cheese. Now if you want a real double cheeseburger, it's like $1.29-$1.49.
ReplyDeleteI think Blockbuster heard you, this weekend i tried renting a movie, new realeses were $3, other movies $1 or $2
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