Move over Blockbuster and Netflix, because Mcdonalds is moving into the DVD rental market. Most of you may have seen the commercials or seen the Red Box DVD rental kiosks at Mcdonald’s, but have you used it yet? My wife and I just used it tonight, and this will mark the fourth time that we’ve used the Red Box DVD rentals at Mcdonalds.
If you’re not familiar with it, I’ll give you a quick rundown on how it works. Basically, you pick a a movie from their decent selection of mostly new releases. Once you choose your movie, you swipe your debit or credit card, and the Red Box charges you a $1 for every 24 hours that you keep the rental. If you keep the rental for longer than 25 days, it will just charge you $25 on your credit card and you keep the DVD. We rented two movies for $2, and we’ll watch one tonight and the other either tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon. We bring it back tomorrow night by 7pm, and we don’t get any additional charges. If I had done this at Blockbuster, I would have cost me $8 and change. Many Netflix subscribers pay for the $14.99 plan, and I would assume that many do not get through 15 DVDs in a month with all of the shipping back and forth.
The Red Box isn’t the solution to everything when it comes to renting a DVD. The selection is limited, some people don’t have a Mcdonald’s near them, and some people are horrible with bringing back the DVD. However, if you are the average rental user and you rent mostly new releases, have a Mcdonald’s near you, and are diligent about returning the movie the next day, this is a great way to save some extra cash on DVD rentals.
Check it out, because I’m sure you’ve seen the Red Box, but haven’t had the urge to try it out. I think it’s a pretty cool way of renting DVDs until DVDs are phased out by on-demand rentals on cable and satellite networks.
