It’s not like I need any additional enticement to visit the local supermarket (weekly specials, check out chicks) but now it looks like it will soon be possible to hire DVD movies while doing a grocery run.
Instant DVD has installed vending machines in 12 supermarkets throughout Melbourne and Sydney and intends to expand to 500 throughout the country, creating yet more competition for the traditional video shop.
The hire prices are too bad either, but there’s a rub. If you don’t return the hired DVD within two weeks, your credit card is charged for its full cost, though it does then become yours to own.
All movies cost $2.99 a night to hire and can be returned to any of the service’s vending machines. If you fail to return a movie within two weeks its price is charged to your credit card and it becomes yours to keep.
I’m not really up on the state-of-play when it comes to late fines on hire movies, since returning hires is about the only thing I actually do promptly, but it seems to me someone more casual about returning them could end up with quite an impressive DVD collection under this particular regime.
If nothing else it makes for a good way to try before you buy. If you like the movie enough simply keep it, and two weeks later it’s yours. I wonder how the price of the “to keep” hires compares with those on weekly special at the supermarket though?
Interesting concept. I hired a dvd for the first time in literally months last week (only because my son had an assignment on Fight Club). But if it was there as a tempter… I could see the appeal.
$2.99 a night sounds like a good deal, until you think about how much that is per week - $21. You can pretty much buy a DVD for that price. Unless you go to your supermarket more than once a week, you are going to be paying a lot to rent a DVD, especially since in video stores, it is about $6 a week.
Handy, yes, but not really cost effective.
@ Meg - I don’t hire dvds much either, and certainly not new release movies, which our local video shop charges out at $7.50 (I think) for one night. Going to the movies on a Tuesday is cheaper! So on that basis $2.99 for one night isn’t too bad at all :)
@ Riayn - as I said to Meg $2.99 for one night is pretty reasonable (at least around here) for the hire of a new release movie, and given the local supermarket is a 10 minute walk away it would be a viable option for me. Other people’s mileage will, quite literally, vary.
If I wanted to loan it for more than say two days I might shop around though. Whether I’d “keep”, that is, not return, the Instant DVD movie would obviously depend on the cost levied for buying it.