Five years ago, if you wanted to rent a movie, you’d get in your car, drive to the nearest Blockbuster and spend 15 minutes browsing the movies on the walls, make your selection, and then proceed through the aisle of candy and popcorn to the next eager & available checkout clerk who would scan your membership card and take your money. Today, if you want to rent a movie, you probably add it to your Netflix queue and wait a day or two for it to arrive in your mailbox, or you visit a big giant vending machine robot called Redbox.

Redbox seems to be all the rage these days (from what I hear on the street). It’s so easy. Pick your movie and swipe your card, and you get your movie for a dollar a day. Although the selection isn’t nearly as extensive as Netflix or Blockbuster (Redbox kiosks stock about 200 titles), you can still rent a handful of newly released titles while checking availability and reserving movies ahead of time online. Redbox currently has distribution deals with Sony Pictures and Lions Gate, and has lately been in a battle with other studios over the immediate availability of new releases. Studios like Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Home Video, who aren’t happy with the dollar rental model, are trying to delay delivery of new releases to Redbox. I suggest checking ahead of time that your local Redbox has a movie your interested in seeing before walking out the door.

So for the past month, I’ve been giving Redbox a try. My motives are probably very similar to most Redbox customers: I’m not wanting to fork over $5 at Blockbuster or wanting to wait for my movie to arrive in the mail. And besides, there are three Redbox locations between my house and the nearest Blockbuster (which is less than 2 miles away): one at a Kroger, a Marsh, and a McDonald’s. So I thought, I might as well see what all the hype is about.

The Verdict
Let’s just say I’m not impressed, and I’m not surprised. I got what I paid for. Thanks, Redbox. The entire movie rental experience has just been ruined for me. Renting a movie has found its place beside candy dispensers, coin counters, shopping carts and drive-thru windows. For now, the Redbox experience involves a night by yourself, watching some B-rated movie ordered out of a vending machine, while “enjoying” a Big ‘N Tasty with some scratch off lottery tickets. Could you feel worse about your life decisions? Honestly, it makes me feel like an unsophisticated, fat & lazy American. Especially as I’m pulling out of the McDonald’s parking lot.

I’m not saying that renting from Redbox was a bad experience. Renting and returning a Redbox movie couldn’t be faster and easier from a user experience perspective. The touch interface is very minimal and intuitive. I’ve placed a transaction at a Redbox in under one minute. It’s actually pretty impressive. I’m just saying that the entire rental experience itself, from deciding to rent a movie to taking it back the next night (before 9:00pm for Redbox), is a lot more impersonal than it used to be and renting a movie is becoming almost an afterthought, especially when you take into consideration the locale of most Redbox kiosks. For me, walking around a Blockbuster is so much more satisfying. Sure you could rent a Redbox movie and be back home watching it in a fraction of the time it would take you to walk around a Blockbuster store, but if it’s convenience and time you’re so interested in, maybe you should reconsider those two hours you just wasted on Marley and Me.

I think it’s unfortunate to see the near extinction of the rental store experience. Although Blockbuster is pretty much single-handedly responsible for wiping out most of the previous competition, I’d hate to see them disappear because convenience is the consumer’s number one priority. While I don’t think we’ll ever see the end of Blockbuster entirely, now that they’ve rushed into the online and kiosk rental markets, Blockbuster is still planning on shutting a fifth of their stores by the end of next year. Maybe instead of trying to compete in the online and kiosk rental markets, Blockbuster should refocus their energy (and a lot of it) on what will and has always set them apart from the competition: in-store rentals.

I’d take advantage of rental stores now while you can, because, in a year, when you’re standing in line to return a movie to a big red or blue robot with an aching heartburn inspired by the Big ‘N Tasty from the night before, you may just wish you had been able to “Make It a Blockbuster Night.” I’ll probably be at home with my Netflix.