Within a few days of Redbox announcing Blu-ray rental availability from their nationwide network of kiosks, I swung by for confirmation. And, as it turned out, their press release was overly optimistic — neither Blu-ray title availability or even a category in the UI was found at my closest outpost (MickeyD’s). But when Engadget was tipped that Blu-ray rentals have started turning up (for real), I once again braved smells of the worst hamburgers in America to discover the truth. Low and behold, this particular Redbox now contains three lonely Blu-ray titles renting at the expected $1.50/nt rate.
While I’m not much into physical media rentals these days, there’s no question a lot of people appreciate movie rental kiosks. With their growing retal footprint (CVS is next) and absence of a surly staff, I quite imagine their success has been hastening the end of the brick & mortar video store.
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