McDonalds expands use of DVD kiosks

Boston.com tells us that:

"At a Stop & Shop supermarket here, one of 550 test sites around the country, customers can get DVDs of the most popular movies -- from Clint Eastwood's hit ''Million Dollar Baby" to ''National Treasure" with Nicolas Cage -- from a pair of cylinder-shaped vending machines at the front of the store.

"The machines belong to Redbox, a company launched by McDonald's Corp. that executives hope could change the video rental industry almost as much as the Golden Arches changed Americans' eating habits.

"For storefront video rental companies like giant Blockbuster Inc., Redbox is the latest competitive headache spawned by the decline of bulky videotape cassettes and the rise of lightweight DVDs. The success of the unheralded start-up Netflix Inc. showed that consumers would rent movies on the Internet and have them delivered by mail. Now Redbox, based in Oak Brook, Ill., will challenge video rental stores by making the process as simple and as cheap as using a Coke machine.

"'It's really being seen as another way to make McDonald's convenient and relevant to customers,' said Greg Waring, Redbox senior director of marketing.

"Redbox charges a dollar a day, plus local sales tax. In Connecticut, it comes to $1.06. There's no need to fill out a registration form before renting. All the user needs is a valid credit card. A renter swipes the card and picks the movie using a touch-screen video monitor. The DVD emerges from a slot, packed in a plastic case."

Read the rest of the article here.