I Like Redbox

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the gift to the world that is called Redbox. I didn't know about it until last summer. I wish I had heard of it sooner. Every Monday, they send you a code for a free movie. I rent, on average, 3 movies on Monday. As early posts state, I am a thrifty person who loves free stuff. The rental fee on every day, but Monday, is a mere $1. Blockbuster charges, when I last rented from them, about $5. $5 to rent one movie that you will probably only view once. I would take $1 a day over their $5 any day. I know that you can keep most of the Blockbuster movies for 5-7 days at their fee. However, like I said, people rarely watch a rented movie more than once. I think I've only watched a movie twice and that's if I fell asleep during one viewing. In our current economy, the idea of spending $5 on renting a movie is unthinkable. I can't believe I once paid $2.49 let alone $5. To think that there were weekends when I spent 15 plus dollars during one transaction at Blockbuster is so wrong. What was I thinking?!? My family was as middle class as you can get on a teacher's and cook's salary. And yet, every Friday night, my mom would take us to Blockbuster and we'd rent movies and video games. I don't know how they afforded it then and I know that it would've been impossible now. Don't these companies realize that their prices are too high? They see that they are going out of business, but it never occurs to them that it might be due to their rental fees being through the roof.

And to go to a movie nowadays, you need to sell an arm to get past the ticket counter. (Yes. I do realize that I sound incredibly old. Wait until a future post when I'll write about how I had to go uphill, both ways, in the artic tundra!) How can a theatre say that 8 dollars is a bargain matinee? I remember when the night admission price changed to $7.50 and my friends and I boycotted AMC until we cracked after a week. I remember when AMC movies were $3.50 and my parents would still take us to the Lowell Cinema because it was $1, no matter what the time of day was. There was one time when I used my Easter money to take my whole family (parents, plus two brothers) to a movie at the Lowell Cinema and I bought them snacks too, all for under $10. That was my proudest moment from childhood. I still feel like a big shot for doing that. I doubt kids can do that nowadays and that's sad. What are these movie people thinking charging 11 bucks for popcorn and soda?!? It's the same corn and syrup from years ago. Why is there such a markup?

A couple of months ago, while driving in the southeastern part of New Hampshire, Nikki (a close friend) and I stumbled upon a movie theatre with an admission price of $3.50, regardless of time. For the same eleven dollars, we got a bucket of popcorn that was almost the size of one of the Christmas popcorn tubs. The drink was triple the size of an AMC large. I was so excited. I felt like I was a kid again when things actually cost their worth. I wished that my father was there. He loved bargains as much as I do and he would've been truly in awe of that theatre. I don't know if we'll ever go back (It was over fifty miles away, heading into the mountains, which is a journey especially in the winter.), but it makes me feel really, really, really good to know that it exists. Even though the rest of the world is going insane, charging prices that people from years ago would joke about in reference to the future, there is still one theatre that understands that movies are supposed to be fun, not the cause of bankruptcy.

To get to back to Redbox though, if you haven't given it a try, you should. All you need is a debit or charge card and, on Mondays, it's just used as a means to track who has the movie. You can book your movie online which I find makes life a lot easier. Apparently, Redbox is popular with a lot of people and the line forms fast. Also, people get very rude if you take more than a second to make a decision. The only down side of Redbox, like many things, is that rude people come out in numbers to use this machine. I can't tell you how many near arguments I've either been involved with or seen happen. I wish that there was a part of the machine that put a bubble around you so that you didn't have to deal with these people making noises, inching closer because, as we all know, if you make it hard for someone to make a decision, they'll take less time at the machine. I wish people could take a step back and allow people a minute to do their business. I can't tell you how many times I've had people literally on my shoulder. I guess they think that the line starts at my behind. Oh well.

Sometimes saving money matters more than personal space.

*This article was written prior to Redbox's decision to send out only one free movie code a month.