I spotted this lurking at the Tesco on Liverpool Street yesterday which I think is a relatively new addition. Sadly my short lunch break twinned with the lady faffing at the machine prevented me from investigating further. However I’ve scoured the net and found that its part of a trial DVD rental booth scheme between Tesco and Movie Booth.
Dispensing rental DVDs for £1.50 a pop the machine is the brain child of Carlos Marco Rider who noticed a gap in the DVD rental market- I’m not too sure when exactly he spotted this gap, but by the looks of it it was circa the early 1990s. Rider then seems to have sensibly waited till we were sat on the cusp of developing a film download market alongside the promise of fibre optic broadband to unleash it- not to mention blockbusters recently touted in store download booths.
But hey, although I sit here and grumble about the scheme I’ll no doubt be eating my words when its a huge success, at least in the short term. I can imagine its ease and cheapness appealing. Although the booths rather limited shelf space means it won’t be stocking much beyond blockbusters and studio releases, at least it offers the immediacy and control over your rental choices that I feel I’ve lost through Love Film- which will cunningly issue me Umberto D in time for a fun Saturday night in, when all I really want is to zone out in front of Mean Girls.
I might give it a spin purely for research purposes tomorrow- if I do I’ll be sure to post something about my thrilling vending machine experience - bet you can’t wait.
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