Discovering Red Box

I have been eyeing the big red box at Stater Bros. for a while now. It stands on the other side of the doorway from the Coinstar and advertises $1 DVDs. I thought there might be a catch. Plus, I thought it only had the movies that are advertised on the side of it's shiny red box. When I did try to check it out, husband ushered me along with the assurance that the movies were all terrible anyway.

Finally without husband, Mr. Big and I decided to try it out. And now, I consider myself a Red Box convert. There are quite a few more movies available than are advertised on the side of the box. The system requires a credit or debit card. The system is paperless if you give them your email address.

The movies really are only $1....per day. If you keep the movie after 9 p.m. the next day, they charge you another dollar for each day. Still much cheaper than renting movies at Hollywood Video, plus you don't have to go out of your way (to another City) to make the return, but just do it the next time you need groceries. Actually, you can return the videos at any Red Box location (there is also a red box at Albertson's up on Foothill in terms of Pomona, and locations all over Southern California).


You won't get a pretty box for your video, but instead just a red and clear generic plastic container. And I'm not going to say that the movies they have are universally great. But they have a lot of the newest releases, with a few oldies thrown in (like I noticed they have the Karate Kid, for instance).

There is a whole internet undergound revolving around Red Box. The company puts out tons of promo codes that can be used for a free rental. I used promo code "DVDONME" yesterday and got it free, but of course we didn't return the movie today, so RedBox still got our one hundred cents. There are people who pride themselves on using a promo code every time they rent and never have to pay for a rental. It's just those darn late fees! But, I kinda respect a company that gives out free stuff, even if it's a trap because they know they'll get you in the end.

You can supposedly go online and reserve a video, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet (perhaps it doesn't actually work yet). I also have not been able to figure out if Red Box movies are the same in all their locations, or if Red Box "redlines" in any way by putting certain kinds of movies into what they perceive as certain kinds of neighborhoods.

For now, we are just enjoying our latest cost-saving discovery. Anyone else redboxing?

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