Film Rental Idea
Yesterday I rented a movie in China for the first time. Instead of being given a set number of days to keep the film and paying a standard price, I put a 10 RMB deposit on the film and was told that each day I held onto it would set me back an addition 1 kuai. When I return it today, I'll be given 9 RMB back.
Isn't this a much better system than the one we (as in Americans) have? In the US, as you probably know, customers pay a small fee to rent a movie for a few days, and movie rental businesses charge them extra for returning a film late. Late fees, in fact, comprise the bulk of a movie rental place's income.
Wouldn't it make sense to, instead of late fees, just charge each customer a deposit set at twice the value of the film? Imagine being able to rent a recent film (say "The Bourne Ultimatum") for 4 bucks a day with a 45 dollar deposit. Instead of worrying about late fees, you could simply take it back when you're ready and be given money back in exchange. If you forget or blow off returning it, the film will be yours for twice the retail price, and you won't have Blockbuster or anyone sending you a bill in the mail.
Here's a problem. A deposit is no big deal at 10 RMB (about $1.25), but 45 dollars is a lot of money. Most people wouldn't hit the rental shop carrying that sort of cash. Also, charging and then un-charging credit cards would be a time-consuming hassle. Deposits of this sort tend to work better in societies where everyone pays with cash, like China.
In any case, I wonder whether anyone in the US (or anywhere else) has given this a try before and how well it worked. Or, as it seems, nobody goes to rental shops anymore and just uses Netflix.
September 25th, 2007 - 12:09
Given that I’ve recently moved from the state’s I’ve got a bit of up to date info on this.
Yeah, pretty much everyone uses Netflix. That is until Blockbuster finally rolled out a competing system.
The way blockbuster online works is just like Netflix, but with a few twists. Like Netflix, you pay a monthly subscription to receive DVDs in the mail. (varying by how many DVDs you want out at a time, etc. The highest being $25 a month.)
The awesomeness about it though is that rather than putting the DVDs back in the mail, you can opt to walk them into the store where they will handle returning them. If you do so, you can rent the same number of DVD’s from the store for free. (This is just on the side, it doesn’t stop your online queue from continuing!)
I know this was quite a lot to say about simply renting videos, but I tell you man, it was the best. I was watching videos like a madman! (and for close to nothing.)