Each Movie Spot holds up to 1,000 DVDs featuring about 300 or more movie titles. Customers can rent the newest weekly releases as well as other [image-nocss] popular rental titles for $1.99 a night.
"Today's time starved consumer demands convenience above all else. We believe this proposition not only offers tremendous value to our current loyal customer base, but it can also become a differentiator in our channel, increase foot traffic and attract new customers," said George Kioussis, director of merchandising and marketing at Mac's.
"The Movie Spot network helps Canadian retailers deliver added value and convenience to customers by extending their product offering while driving customer loyalty and repeat visits," said Shamira Jaffer, president of Signifi Solutions.
Customers can access each Movie Spot's database of movies by using the intuitive touchscreen monitor to browse available movies, read reviews and search for movies by title, actor, genre, date of release and more.
A customer can select "Rent" from Movie Spot's touchscreen rental wizard to choose up to three movies to rent at one time. To complete a rental transaction, a customer swipes a valid Visa or MasterCard and following a successful authorization, Movie Spot dispenses the DVDs. To return movies, a customer selects "Return" from the Movie Spot touchscreen and inserts a DVD into the dispensing slot (the same slot used to pick up the movie). Movie Spot accepts the returned movie and automatically places the DVD back in inventory and can be rented again immediately.
For added convenience, Movie Spot members can also reserve movies online atwww.moviespot.ca for pick up in store within four hours, at no additional charge.
Mac's is part of Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.'s group of companies. Couche-Tard currently operates a network of 5,416 c-stores, 3,574 of which include motor fuel dispensing, located in 11 large geographic markets, including eight in the United States covering 33 states and three in Canada covering ten provinces.
Movie Spot is a placement initiative managed by Mississauga, Ont.-based Signifi, which provides a solution that includes self-service digital entertainment units (movies, music or photos), powered by Signifi's Media Delivery Framework (SMDF). This platform delivers the retail distribution and sale of digital photo products, movie rental and music purchases through burn-on-demand and download self-serve kiosks.In related news, Margaret Chabris, spokesperson for Dallas-based 7-Eleven Inc., correcting reports that it was deploying redbox DVD rental machines chain-wide, told CSP Daily News that "7-Eleven is testing the redbox program in a couple of markets, but has made no announcement about an expansion."
Video Business magazine erroneously reported the rollout.
Gary Lancina, redbox vice president of marketing, told the publication that the company is targeting the c-store market for future growth opportunities: "We have developed strong relationships with our convenience store partners and both execute around a similar goal, saving busy consumers extra time in their day while offering terrific value and convenience."
The convenience business represents a third major expansion phase for redbox, which first pushed into McDonald's restaurants before more recently pushing into the mass merchant/drug/grocery business with such partners as Wal-Mart, Walgreens and Albertson's.
Currently, redbox is installed in more than 12,000 locations nationwide.
Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based Redbox Automated Retail LLC is owned by Coinstar Inc., GetAMovie Inc. and a wholly owned subsidiary of McDonald's Corp., as well as private investors.
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