Ask Slashdot: How To Make a DVD-Rental Store More Relevant?

smi.james.th writes "Here on Slashdot, the concept that older models of business need to be updated to keep with the times is often mentioned. A friend of mine owns a DVD rental store, and he often listens to potential customers walk out, saying that they'd rather download the movie, and not because his prices are unreasonable. With the local telco on a project to boost internet speeds, my friend feels as though the end is near for his livelihood. So, Slashdotters, I put it to you: What can a DVD store owner do to make his store more relevant? What services would you pay for at a DVD store?"

Comments

Re:Well...

[dubbreak]

Ding ding ding ding ding. We have a winner.

Seriously.

The ONLY video store I know that is still successful specializes in difficult to find material. The kicker is all their staff are avid film and movie fans and can recommend films you haven't seen, "Oh you like that director? Have you seen his little known release X? What about this director from a decade prior that was his main influence?"

Personally I think it would be cool if rental places could do a beer growler style service. You bring a flash drive in, they drop a 1080P film on it of your choice. I like my movies in HD, but I'm no fan of BR. Of course DRM and the MPAA stands between that ever realistically happening. Why would I want such a service rather than online or a kiosk? Aside from online DL speed being slow on low compression HD videos (especially less popular ones), the same reason the as above. So I can have a human help me select something. That's where the value is added.

There's a successful, large rental outlet here.

[urbanriot]

We've had a rental outlet in my city for the past 20 years or so and they've survived by giving people what they want and people drive 30 minutes out of town to rent videos from this place. What sets them apart is the following:

- wide selection of movies and TV shows, stuff you won't find elsewhere or downloadable via torrents, like lesser known foreign and independent movies, the place is huge.

- enough copies of popular movies so you can almost always get what you went there for

- blu-ray, DVD, VHS (!), Xbox 360, Wii, etc., whatever you and your family needs, it's there

- two for one days on slower nights of the week and other coupons for the past decade brings plenty of people into the outlet

- extras are sold off at a good price when they're no longer rented

Re:Stop renting DVD's

[atriusofbricia]

Judging by what happened to Hostess, anyone who actually wants to keep that job.

You mean how Hostess tripled their CEO's pay and raised other exec's salaries, while cutting worker's pay and benefits?

Stop drinking the far right's Kool Aid. It's not unions that are killing companies like Hostess, it's vulture capitalists.

Perhaps you should stop drinking your own Kool Aid. The Baker's Union was told that if they continued to strike the company would fail. Not "we don't want to pay you more" but "the company will close and everyone will be out of work". Their response, even after the Teamsters agreed, was "up yours". Shockingly, the company closed. The Baker's Union was greedy and assumed the owners were lying to them. They weren't. End of Story.

The CEO's pay had exactly nothing to do with the demise of the company and is nothing but a red herring.