I have been seeing reports over the last few days from commenters gman69 and ladoblaze that they are seeing a price increase to $1.15 (+tax) per night in their area. This comes after other price testing late last year.
Ladoblaze says they are seeing this in Washington State – are you seeing this in your area?
While price testing is nothing new, it does come as a bit of a surprise so close on the heels of Redbox’s recent deals with some studios that put a 28-day delay on new releases, and after Coinstar reported a tripling of profits over last year.
Some critics of the Redbox business model on this site believe that Coinstar may be using some creative methods to hide the fact that Redbox’s important “profit-per-kiosk” numbers are actually sliding as of late, even amid the rising profits that are being reported. Could this be the reason for this 15% price increase? If prices went to $1.15 in your area, would that cause you to think twice about picking up a rental?
With competition heating up from Blockbuster Express in some areas, it looks like we may have a fight for marketshare on our hands. And, as long as NCR has the smaller operation, they can continue their workaround to get new releases on the day they come out, bypassing the embargo. Many of our users who were previously loyal Redbox customers are jumping to Blockbuster Express due to this reason, and the fact that promo codes are more abundantly available for the service right now.
What do you think: Could Redbox – even with a massive 20,000 kiosk head start – be in for some serious competition here? Will price, promo code and new release advantages cause you to seek out Blockbuster Express whenever you can? Let us know your thoughts (and if you have seen this recent price increase) in the comments…
Still $1.00 Pittsburgh, PA. I agree with Tinybrat who pointed out that in the past 5 years or so the price of everything else has gone up yet Redbox has remained loyal to its base customers with a $1 price. Therefore, I can understand and , gulp, support a Redbox 15cents increase. Have no problem with this…The only problem is as another suggested that once a price is increased even a little the price/snowball tends to start rolling, and rolling, and rolling, and getting bigger,bigger,bigger….AND THEN THERE’S NO STOPPING IT!!!
I think your rite watch it snowball
The Average transaction price is already close to $10. That’s impossible right?
Nope. Just do some math. Take the total revenue from Redbox, divide the number of Kiosks, than divide by how many transactions there are per day.
The $1 advertising is just smoke and mirrors.
I do not have brand loyalty. In this day and age where companies are only interested in the bottom line I too am only interested in the bottom line. If movies are cheaper at another kiosk I will always check that one first.
what a surprise. redbox gets horrible feedback on their intentions to raise prices and michael deletes all the negative comments. what’s wrong michael was redbox not happy you let the cat out of the bag on their intentions to raise prices? let me guess computer glich happened as soon as yahoo tech picked up the story. erandboy!
Look for the box that says older comments, idiot.
I’ll second the idiot notion!
Umm… no comments have been deleted, but thanks again for showing everyone your intentions.
I live in Kennewick, Wash., and the two redboxes near my house have increased to $1.15. Not a huge deal, but I hope they weren’t conditioning us and are now going to start regularly raising the price…!
I live in New Mexico, we have been paying $1.50 for about a year now. when redbox first started we payed $1.00. But even at $1.50 a day it is cheper then renting at a movie rental place (if you can find them any more………) it’s like you can rent 2 or 3 for the price one from the redbox. But i wish it would have not gone up in price.
I found a 1.25 Box in Carlsbad, CA. The first inflated Box I have found.
Stay away from Redbox!
Still $1 here in Greensboro, North Carolina. I wish Redbox would have just charged $2 a day and worked out a deal with the studios to get the new movies. Waiting 28 days is not working for me. I have loyalty, but as long as Blockbuster has the movies on the release date, and they keep giving me $1.99 rental coupons I have to get those new releases there, and I hate using Blockbuster.
When they gave out more codes, I rented a few extra with my paid ones that I wouldn’t even think about twice but did since it was free. When the free codes went, so did those extras which actually did me a favor as I now have more time to watch the ones I want. As prices rise, I will just rent less (only the ones I really really want to see). I don’t have an unlimited budget and someone has to pay for Obama’s free handouts. Simple math.
Still a buck in Chicago… Of course I rented Avatar from the local place a month ago. This mom/pop shop has rented movies for $2.50 each and 3 for $7.00 for the last 15 years. They chased the Blockbuster store that was down the street away 2 years ago. What keeps them in business is that they have a huge inventory of Adult rentals (gay, straight and bizarro) and they will rent out new releases (to select customers) a week before they hit retail outlets. My only gripe is that they still sell their used movies for $9.99 when $5.00 would be more reasonable and they don’t and won’t stock blueray.
$1.25 here. Just happened, bit of a surprise. Means i’ll be more picky about choices, that is going to add up faster when not returning within 24 hours. Netflix may be much more appealing. No, return fines, just a flat fee.