Redbox Is Running DVD And Blu-Ray Price Hike Tests Again

Movie and game rental kiosk company Redbox is considering another price change to its DVD and Blu-Ray rentals. They’re testing out new pricing schemes in different markets, presumably to figure out which pricing scheme consumers hate the least. In the market where reader Dave is, in Salt Lake City, Utah, they’re trying the price points of $1.50 for DVDs and $2 for Blu-Rays, a price hike of 30¢ and 50¢ respectively.

We reported similar pricing tests in 2010 and 2009 before Redbox settled on its current pricing scheme in the fall of 2011.

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Dave, for one, is unhappy with the change, mostly because all of the other options for DVD rentals have left town. “I have always thought Redbox was inferior to a brick and mortar- they have no depth, no inventory, just the new, popular stuff,” he writes. “And now that they are the only game in town, they start raising prices. I mean, it’s not like they have increased costs- what, some machine wants a raise?” Well, someone has to stock those machines and repair them when something goes wrong, and they do have to buy new discs. We haven’t yet hit the Kiosk Uprising where the machines demand raises or tip jars, though.

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We hadn’t heard about it at the time, but Redbox quietly announced that they’re raising prices in some markets at the beginning of August. According to Investor’s Business Daily, the company plans to evaluate how the tests go and report back to investors on those tests in the last quarter of 2014.

Redbox tests DVD price increases, lowers kiosk count [Investor’s Business Daily]

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