Not that I disagree, but that will be kind of a sad day for the world of film rental. With the (likely) ultimate demise of Blockbuster B&Ms, most Americans will no longer have any local movie rental place at all anymore. With the inherently limited and biased selection of films found in your average kiosk, that means anyone who does not subscribe to Netflix or a comparable service will no longer have any opportunity to rent lower popularity titles (many independent films, smaller releases, documentaries, many TV shows/miniseries on DVD, etc.).

Yes, one could argue that those who were interested in titles such as these already have Netflix accounts but that is a fallacious assertion. One, its just not true on its face. Two, I think a lot of the lower popularity title rentals from B&M establishments were impulse rentals, resulting from people "skimming the new release wall". They see a cover that looks interesting or the title of some film catches in their memory banks based on something they read 6 months ago or something like that.

Those rentals will not happen anymore. Ultimately, this may have a significant impact on the rental viewership and profitability of lesser known titles.

This will not affect most of the people here. Likewise, this will not affect the millions of people who only watch the big blockbusters and latest Disney releases on DVD. It will affect the many millions who reside in the in-between.

I am not one to cry that the sky is falling in the retail world. Brick and mortar stores will never just go away in place of e-commerce. I understand the appeal of the kiosks and the streaming of movies and all that. But there will be and should be always a place for an actual STORE. Thank God amazon.com and Itunes haven't made book stores and music stores obsolete yet. Granted, they have declined in popularity, but we aren't seeing them all closed up because of e-commerce.

I'm going to throw out a crazy idea, but I think it COULD work. Could we be seeing the rental market come full circle and bring back the mom and pop operation? I know we're long since past the time of having 20 of these shops in a town, but I think a few could actually do really well.

When a lot of those stores were starting, you were looking at 100 bucks a VHS tape, so the startup costs were horrendous. Now, you can easily build a DVD catalog at $5 a copy and even if you end up paying $30 for a new release BR, you're still talking about getting three copies for less than what one used to run, and that's not even adjusting for inflation. At that cost for inventory, even at 3 bucks a week, your old titles are profitable after two rentals. Heck, you could even swing 3 bucks for 5 days on new releases and while it would take longer to recoup your costs, they would get there and it could very well be good for you in the long run. You'd be able to turn a profit, without going to a distributor, and be able to undercut Redbox in pricing.

I know that the idea isn't perfect and doesn't take into account a lot of variables, but I think a few people who love movies (like a lot of the people who started mom and pop shops in the first place) could make a decent living.

I've already written about this on my site and we'll be talking about it on our podcast, but I wanted to see what the DVD Talk braintrust thought about the idea as well.

I think with the online streaming and every cable system offering rentals and the studios pushing for the 28 day window, I think even with Blockbuster and all the major players out, a mom and pop store would still have a heck of a time competing even against Redbox and Netflix.

I agree. I don't think it would be easy, but it's possible. I think what Blockbuster and MG haven't realized is that they're part of a niche market now, but they're still acting as if they're the only game in town. There will always be a place for a B&M rental presence just like with bookstores, except I could see B&M rentals being far more tough. There are people who are still willing to pay cover price on a book. Rentals are a far more aggressive market.

I guess my point is that it's far more possible/plausible to compete with Redbox/Netflix than it was even 5 years ago. You could even go as far as to offer a by-the-day rate of $1 a day for new releases and $.75 for catalog titles (catalog titles being releases more then 3 months old). If you did that, you'd actually be recouping the cost of a copy even faster but still have the convenience for those who want the movie for a single day while still keeping the other pricing in place for people who want to have a more traditional rental window. Add in selling excess rental titles at $5-$10 after the film goes from new release to catalog status and someone could make a go of it.

It probably won't happen, but I just thought it was an interesting thought.

i concur. isnt family video doing well? ive read mention of another local video store on here somewhere about a movie/pizza night once a week promotion that does well.

also re family video, they are prolly doing well because they make use of a b&m as well as an online presence. heck, maybe in the future even they will mail out rental disks or even stream :P

Other direction -- I work south of the city (for another month anyway, then I get to go north ... way north). It's right off the highway at the Pawnee exit ... I think it is technically in Auburn.

FV does well because they remain a private company ... they haven't forsaken the customer for the shareholder.

I agree that it may be coming full circle and I whole-heartedly agree that a brick and mortar video store is a viable concept IF done correctly.

There should be local rental stores specializing in stuff that is long out of print, even if it's on VHS, Beta or Laserdisc. Of course they'd have to require huge deposits to ensure people returned them.

Other than that, if it's in print I'd rather just buy it- in fact if I ran a video company I would be against rental altogether because renting just makes it too easy for people to obtain stuff to make illegal copies from. Oddly enough Fry's has been the best brick and mortar place to buy DVDs for a while now with Tower gone and Borders cutting back their selection and raising prices- Fry's carries a lot of obscure stuff in addition to all the new releases, and they're always priced at least 5 bucks below list. They even have a porn section, though it's usually poorly organized and I can never find any specific titles when I'm looking for them. Their stores don't have quite the same atmosphere as Tower did, but I can still waste hours looking and not even go into any of the other sections of the store where they sell the electronics and stuff.

Seems like every year or so someone comes into the forums with the bright idea of turning his collection into a rental store, and is always dissuaded by the people here. I'm not sure that a local mom and pop could survive with $1 rentals, especially considering that they'll have to build up a large backstock and order heavy on new releases, hoping they can recoup some money with used sales. That's not even taking into account the theft aspect. But I agree that rental b&m stores serve a purpose and it would be sad if they were a much rarer sight.

As for the buying vs. renting... at some point you look at your collection, filling walls and walls of shelves, and think to yourself "I haven't watched that in years" or "I will never watch that again" or even "the shrinkwrap is still on that sucker and will never come off." And then you realize that buying everything you have an interest in watching is not a great idea, even if it's only a couple of bucks difference. Or you get married and get to have that pointed out to you...

I'm going to skip right past the "bright idea" bit, just because I'm sure I'm reading it as far more inflammatory than you meant when writing it. I'm not saying it would be an easy task to undertake, but it's more plausible than it would have been even a little while ago with the resources now available to a small operator that weren't there until fairly recently. Add in the void that is being left by the big two taking a nosedive, and SOMEBODY is going to step in to fill that void and make some money. It could be a mom & pop outfit or Family Video for all I know. Heck, it could even be Redbox if they increase the inventory in a machine.

It's a great idea for someone else to give a try and I'd be more than happy to take some business to a place like that.

I apologize for the threadjack and now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.

Everytime I hear about Family Video I laugh at the observation one Hollywood Video manager made about 10 years ago when rumors were flying that one was coming to town (at the time HV was the only corp. rental place in town)... It went something like Family Video draws people away from HV because of free kids rentals, yet has that room in the back for adults as well. Pretty much summed it up. HV was worried about losing market share in our community to free kids rentals and porn. Needless to say, they are now one of the stores closing down.