Mike & Michelle:
I've enjoyed reading your blog. Thanks for taking the time to share
your experiences with your kiosk business. We own two kiosks in Estes
Park, CO and like you got in when DVDNow was in its infancy. One of
the things I've always struggled with is what movies to put in the
kiosks and how many of each title. Do you have some type of system
you use to decide this (like a certain number based on box office
receipts)? Also, we are buying our DVDs from VPD. Do you use them or
do you have another source you find is more cost effective. Thanks
for any input you can provide.
Erick
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
Great Question! We've tried several things but what has worked for us has been no more than 2 movies for each title. There were a couple of titles we did 3 for such as "300", I Am Legend, "Transformers", and there were a couple of others that I can't think right off hand too. Michelle and I have basically come up with two movies for each title. We absolutely do not spend more than $400 on each of our machines a month.
We look at the VPD list and see which movies do well at the box office. We have found out that "black comedies" don't do to well in Montana and that action flicks do the best. To break it down, here is how we do it.
We order only movies that have some decent box office information. If it makes money and the actors are well known, we generally get those copies. If the movie doesn't have people in it that people can associate, it is usually a rental that won't work for us.
As far as VPD is concerned, "yes", we use them. I have 4 out of my machines in other cities so I really can't do much about that. I also want the videos sent to the manager of my machine in the other cities so he can preview them first. I think it's a nice perk to have videos on your doorstep early and be able to watch them before they go into the machine.
Remember too! If you use VPD, you also have access to their Customized Newsletter that's designed for your customers. I'm not sure if you use it or not, but it's awesome. Best of all, it's free. Every Monday evening, everyone that you stick into your VPD database get's a newsletter that's customized by you. If you don't customize it yourself, their default newsletter is sent out with the movie trailers that are in your order. This allows the customer to view the trailers for the movies going in. It's really neat. You can add codes for free movies or even coupons for your host store owner if you want.
I sell each of the movies that come out of the machine to the store manager and he get's an opportunity to sell them on his shelf before I even charge him. I float all of the movies to the store owners on a monthly basis. They make their money before I even bill them.
I know it's more expensive to buy them from VPD, but I find their service worth it. The only thing I've really changed was where I get my RFID tags. I have had great luck with Atlas. I have so many tags in the basement right now that I don't need to worry about them for about a year. Mark Rudolph from DVDNow did send me some tags about a month ago which are holding up really well too. The great thing about DVDNow tags are that they are pretty good about getting you a couple if you get bad ones in your next order. Atlas won't do that. I know that I am off on a rant again so I'll stop here. If you have anymore questions, just let me know..
Mike
Oh, I forgot, I never order "just one" movie. It's harder to see in the Kiosk and if you have a buch of single titles, customers will miss what they are looking for. They will overlook the new release unless you have it marked each week like we do. We actually have little arrows that point to the new release for each week. Nice Hot Pink at that. You can't miss them. Still, we never order one. It messes up our slots too.
Mike
I see the arrows in the pics of your machine. Do you buy them somewhere are make them yourself? How do they stick?
We make them ourselves. We just pop a little tape behind the arrow and point it to the New Releases.. We also cover the arrow on both sides with clear packing tape so you can reuse it.
Mike Weiland
http://readydvd.com
Who is Atlas? Would you mind sharing their contact information?
It's listed on the side of this blog. Look to your left.
Mike Weiland
http://readydvd.com
I have been giving some thought to the order the DVD are stacked in the kiosk. Presently I stack mine newest to oldest. I have noticed that when people rent two DVDs one of the DVDs is a family or kids movie (usually animated), it doesn’t seem to matter how old it is. I wonder if grouping movies by section would be helpful or a the least group a bunch of kids/family movies in one area. Has anyone had any success or experience.
Thanks Curtis
I try to keep the new ones at the top and older older ones lower. I wish it would let us move movies that are out. It's hard to keep them together when one is in and one is out. Mike, do you think the software is changable and worth a question to DVDnow?
Mike,
Any way you could get a blog going of what movies and the quantity of each title owners are putting in. I would certain post my weekly strategies. This would help everyone new and old to this venture. We could enter in something like what's below.
3 Pineapple Express (selling one on Ebay immediately after the first weekend)
2 Righteous Kill
1 Wackness
1 Babalon AD
Walmart ($105.00)
Regards,
Cedric
I modified your info. under "How Do You Decide What Moies to Put IN? Plus How Much $$$ (below left)
Sincerely,
Mike Weiland
http://readydvd.com
Oh one other comment, one of my machines is in a rural area where there is a lot of horse property and small ranches. I had a request for some old western movies. Clint Eastwood, John Wayne etc. I had a few in my own collection so I put ten of them in the machine. They have not rented well, but they do sell, I can buy them for $5-7 and sell them for around $13.
Post a Comment