For those of you that don’t know what “Redbox” is, let me explain: In the south east and other parts of the United States a new way to rent DVDs has gained popularity very quickly, I would even gander to say quicker than Netflix ever did. It’s a very simple system and even my Grandmom has started using it, there is a kiosk of DVDs which looks like a big Vending Machine. But the biggest things that defines the Redbox system is the cost and the online system, you can browse all of the Videos in every Kiosk at Redbox.com and then Rent the videos online with the cost of renting @ $1 a night with 0 contract. You can rent a DVD for 1 night and return it the next day and it will cost you $1 and nothing more, no hidden fees and no hidden agenda by Redbox. At $1 dollar a rental I have watched a plethora of DVDs that I would have never watched back in the $5 rental days. After numerous rentals and standing in line time after time I feel as if there was a need for something on “Redbox Etiquette”  before the number of Redbox users skyrockets beyond it’s already massive base. Let’s begin:

1) People Returning DVDs and you aren’t 100% sure what DVD you are going to get this time – What do most people do? If you guessed they completely ignore the person returning the DVD then you are correct, and most people might say that they got there first so it’s only proper, I have a problem when the person returning the DVD is either a) obviously in a hurry b) cutting it close to 9:00pm – I have seen someone returning a DVD who got in line at 8:38pm (the DVDs are due by 9:00pm) and have to stand in line until after 9:00, to which they walk away having payed for another night or c) Family, Family Family – If it’s obvious the group standing behind you isn’t happy, the baby is screaming and needs to get home, the mom is flustered, I beg of you, Please Let Them Return The DVD!!! Returning a DVD takes all over 30 Seconds, and it’s only right to think about those standing in line.  Let’s show respect to our fellow man, and actually look out for one another instead of having our blinders on and forget about everyone else around us.

2) Redbox.com – There is a website and every kiosk is connected to their servers, you can browse the titles in the kiosk and you can even rent them online. I cannot stress enough how much people need to start using the online part of Redbox, and it’s even more of an issue if you want to rent a DVD that has been released in the last 2 weeks. You can go online and click on the Movie you want to watch and actually “check up” on all of the kiosk in your area to make sure they have that Movie in stock. The system used when you rent online is also a time saver because you don’t even have to go into the menu system of the kiosk itself, you just click a big button on the front menu and swipe your card and out comes your movie. On a final note, when you rent a DVD online the Kiosk automatically removes the movie you rented from the list of available movies. This means you will always be able to get the movie you picked, no matter what!

Part 2 of “Redbox Etiquette”: Redbox Etiquette (Part 2)