Thursday, March 5, 2009

Where Is Your Kiosk Located?

Diane has asked a question that I thought might be good. We really haven't discussed where our kiosks are located yet. It might be a good idea to let everyone know where they are and how they are doing. Also, what are you doing or what did you do to make them work for you? Add anything else that might help other potential Kiosk Owners. I've personally received several e-mails asking this question. Plus, the phone calls that I've received and the questions that have been asked are all over this blog. I think putting them under one Blog will work for all of us. Here is Diane's Question:

Hi, where do most of you have your kiosks located? grocery stores? convenience stores? I may have to move a kiosk and am trying to make a good decision about which way to go.

Thanks, Diane

20 comments:

cddiller said...

I'm currently located in a 500 unit apartment complex. It has not been going well. I've been there for 6 months and have yet to turn a profit. I'm in discussions right now with a few other locations. I'm also going to discuss some possibilities with the apartment management to see if we can work out some deal that allows them to keep the kiosk while making it worthwhile for me.

It's obvious that if you're not making money, you should move the kiosk, but how much do you all feel you need to make in a month for it to be worthwhile?

-Chris
Movies on the Go, LLC
Twin Cities, MN

Anonymous said...

I started with 3 machines all in convenience stores. I have moved one to a hotel in a resort town (Gatlinburg, TN, if you ever take a vacation I'll hook you up with some rentals! :) ) and it's just dead up there right now so I'm trying to limp it along til tourist season hits. My DVD now guy says advertising could be real good there. I'm looking to move at least one more from it's c-store, the other is maybe halfway to not losing money, but I think it has the most potential so I'm gonna leave it for a while longer. I'm kind of sour on convenience stores right now, but am trying to keep an open mind as I think the area around the locations may just not be good places for a machine.

Joe Fusco said...

Hi Donnie. We were up your way last summer. We stayed in Pigeon Forge. Nice area.

I'm in a grocery store. slow start but averaging 20 to 30 open rentals a night and on the good night it gets into the 30s. My record is 46 out one night right before a snow storm.

I put the word out by using the Attractions brochure that VPD has for .10ea. You can see them on the left of the blog under Ad Examples. I get about 200 a month, comes to $23.00 with shipping and hand them out to the businesses in the area. Plus I have a "take one" holder on the machine.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I am in my second grocery store. The first grocery store was doing ok, it was my monthly expenses were high. Merchant account, internet..etc. I have recently lowered my fees and moved to another grocery store due to remodeling of the other store. I average 20-30 movies per night. I am hoping to increase to 30-40 per night, by offering free night rentals, advertising, on site advertising and changing my movie selection. I have only been at this location for 3 months. I recommend grocery stores.

taidogs said...

We started with one kiosk in a univercity that only prodiced about 4 rentals per day and one in a 500 unit condo complex but occupancy was seasinal so it did less than 4 per day. We relocated these two kiosks to grocery stores and added a third to another grocery store and after 3 months we are averaging 5-7 rentals per night. We are now looking for better locations with the help of a location finder.

Curtis said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Curtis said...

I started with 2 kiosks, I placed one in an Athletic club with over 1500 members, and the other in a local C-store, not far from my home. I knew both of the owners, so it was not hard to place them. After about 4 months I could see the athletic club and the first c-store were not going to turn a profit. I had set my price too low at $1 and I was only renting about 7 DVDs a night on average. I recently moved both kiosk to two Sinclair c-stores owned by the same company. They have been up and running about 2-3 weeks. I am already concerned about my placement choices as they had very few rentals this last week and aren’t showing much improvement. Price $1.49/.99

The one thing about the Athletic club was a lot of business owners are members and I had 5-6 calls about placing more machines, I purchased two more Kiosks and placed them in c-stores. One of which is doing great, It is a new store in a rural area with lots of new homes in the area, It also has a fast food restaurant. I don’t pay the owner anything for being there, but I do give them coupon codes for the restaurant. I give away a lot of freebees but I actually turned a profit last week. My price is set a 1.49/.99

The other c-store is located across the street from a blockbuster and about 2 blocks away from a couple of redboxes. I tried to raise my price to $1.49 but the rentals just stopped. I lowered it back down to a buck. The real advantage of this store is the owner lets me sell my used DVDs. I put box on the counter next to the register, I clean up the DVDs, put them in a new case, shrink wrap and price them. I give the store $2 from each sale and the rest is mine. They cut me a check once a month. This Kiosk is almost breaking even.

The number one thing I have always heard about business is location, location and location. It could not be truer for the DVD Kiosk business.

I think grocery stores are the best place by far to put kiosks. Unfortunately in Utah red box signed a deal with most all of the IGA stores about the same time as I got into the business.

I truly appreciate Mike and the rest of the owners who share their success and concerns

Anonymous said...

Hello, I'm a business student a university of about 40,000. My dad and I have been considering placing a DVDNow machine in the newly built campus center which holds the food court, bookstore, and ample space fore common areas. There is a 300 room hotel across the street along with a network of 3 hospitals which are connected. A VA hospital is also near by. The university is located in the heart of a downtown of around 400,000. Really what we were wondering, is if anyone else has place a machine in a university and what can we expect. Our location backup plan include a hospital or one of major hotels downtown. We are a convention city. I also have made a survey to be passed out to get a better feel of demand and sale forcasting instead of just purchasing a machine and picking a location while not knowing what to expect. Any comments or suggestions would help us.

Thanks,
Josh

Z-Machine said...

I have one machine in a local pharmacy. I have had it there about a month and a half and I am averaging about 3-4 new rentals a night. So not making a profit yet. I did some promotions however, handing out FNF coupons around town to local businesses and noticed and immediate jump to 6-7 rentals per night. I think you really have to work on spreading the word with these machines. I also put an add in the paper with a FNF coupon code, not a great turn out but it is just part of getting the word out in the community. I am currently working with a locating company to place my 2nd machine. It is tough getting in to grocery stores but it sounds like those are the best locations. What are the demographic numbers you look for when selecting a good location? Foot traffic, average income for the area, etc. ?

Thanks,
Zack
Z-Machine DVD

Kyle B. said...

Hello all,

I currently have four machines, two at grocery stores and the other two at college based apartment complexes. I started with two and just recently added two. I have to say grocery stores so far in my experience do offer the best oppurtunity to make the most of the machines. I started with one machine at a grocery store and it has performed well avg. 15 rentals per day, in dec. and jan. it avg. 21 per day, guess with all the kids out of school and the holidays it performed better, makes me think the summer will be good for me.


On the other hand my college apartment location has performed poorly. It currently avg. 1.5 per day. I got a call back in november from the one of the heads of this apartment complex and they wanted me to put a kiosk at their other apartment complexes, I told them that it has not performed well and I am not inclined to add more at apartment complexes at this time. They soon came back that they would not charge me anything to have the kiosk at their apartments. I became interested and visited other properties of theirs, and decided that there was one possible location. It was a large, high traffic area, within the apartment complex, in the morning all the kids gather a coffee bar within the apartment complex before they head to class and they would all see my kiosk. So I decided to take the risk and I put a machine there. For the three weeks it has been operation I am avg. 5 rentals per day. I think this is awesome as it will most likely grow and the more and more people find out about it.

If I decided to answer this question a month ago I would have said grocery, grocery, grocery stores and only grocery stores, but I waited because I wanted to see how this new apartment complex would perform before I close the book on apartment complexes. In doing so I have learned that foot traffic is key, to start your kiosk it is a impulse purchase, and it is your job to distinguish yourself and provide a great product and great customer service and then you will develop customers that will go to your location with intent to rent and not a passer by.

I am interested in seeing other people try out different locales and I think the possibilities are endless, however if someone was starting out, my advice for your best results, would be to find a grocery store, with about 1000 foot traffic a day, and also ask the owner if they have a lot of credit cards being used. Once you become more established then you will feel a little more comfortable branching out into non-traditional locations.

Anonymous said...

I noticed that most of you are saying that "you got to get the word out" With that said how are manny of you getting the word out during your first few days of sales? Is anyone doing anythin out of the ordanery during the first few days to get the word out?

taidogs said...

We may be moving two kiosks to large malls and wonder what experiences others have had with malls?

Anonymous said...

Did anyone have luck putting these machines in Big Office buildings?

Mike at ReadyDVD said...

There are a few of the Kiosk owners that are in a trial phase on this right now. I've talked to couple that are going to be posting on their experience.

Mike Weiland
http://readydvd.com

Anonymous said...

I'm located in a complex and have done poorly last few months. Looking into two grocery stores but now my confident level is low because red box is now located in 7-eleven stores. Looking to make a move within a month but now willing to try and sell machine. Any suggestions, any comments please reply.
Thank you,

rccdvdnow, New Jersey

Unknown said...

I look forward to reading those posted experiences! thank you.

Anonymous said...

My location owner wants a contract. Where do I get one?

Mike at ReadyDVD said...

DVDNow has some blank ones. I think I also have them in the "private Blog" that you can download for yourself. You'll have to sign up to get in there though. Look at the upper left hand corner of this blog and you'll see the "private Blog"

Sincerely,
Mike Weiland

Anonymous said...

I am new to the DVD world and really looking forward to owning my first two. I see from here that a grocery store is the only way to go, how did you approach them with the opportunity?

Mike at ReadyDVD said...

I would suggest you watch the video that Troy Siron put together with me. If you have already watched it, just use some of the key points to sell your business to the owner or manager of the store. Kiosks are a huge thing right now and any store that doesn't want one to generate floor traffic is missing opportunity.. I would suggest you sign up to the "Private Blog"

Sincerely,
Mike Weiland
http://readydvd.com