Reader Valerie sent me an email tip that the Blockbuster located in Plymouth Meeting will be closing. No surprise, the business model for Blockbuster is dead. Valerie tells me that the location will no longer be renting movies and will become an outlet store temporarily.
So, the big question, what are the options for you movie renters? (I don’t include myself in this group, I have not rented a movie in years)
- Netflix — so this is the most obvious. Still a great service and the market leader for “keep as long as you want, mail order DVDs”. They have a local distribution center so delivery of new DVDs from your queue is about 1-2 days, not half bad. Netflix also has an included, on-demand feature that hooks into XBox 360, Roku, and a host of other devices.
- redbox – the newcomer of the group but a viable alternative. Redbox is a cross between the traditional Blockbuster type store and Netflix. They have kiosk based boxes in many local stores (Giant, Acme, Walmart just to name a few) where you can reserve DVDs online and pick them up at the kiosk. You then return the DVD to any redbox. The cost is only $1.00 a night.
- Apple TV – I admit, I don’t know much about it but it seems like a viable alternative to the traditional movie rental house.
- VOD – Video-On-Demand or VOD for short is the classic approach to watching movies at home. Comcast, Verizon FOIS and Amazon all have the ability to do VOD at your house. I’ve used Verizon FIOS’ service as well as Amazon and both work fine. The releases are a bit behind the DVD releases, but usually new enough for me.
Any other ideas?
I have been catching up on my favorite 60′s and 70′s TV shows on hulu.com. Watched about 10 hours of Adam-12 this past weekend
Even without netflix I can rent movies on my xbox 360. FIOS on demand has a pretty big selection and plenty of older movies for only $2.99. When I get movies from redbox up at Giant I always forget about them for at least 3 or 4 days so I don’t think that saves me any money. I have bought a few hundred dollars worth of used video games from that blockbuster. Going to miss that.