Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Blockbuster vs Netflix

Before I met Tai I had Netflix I enjoyed the convenience of Netflix. I could choose movies online and they'd appear at my house. I'd keep them as long as I liked and when I returned them a new movie would come in its place. It was a lovely system.
In those first few months of dating Tai I put my movies on a shelf and kind of forgot about them. Then one day Tai said, let's go rent a movie. I explained to him the lovely convenience of Netflix and showed him the 3 movies that had been collecting dust for the past few months. He looked at them and said "I don't want to watch these. Let's go to the video rental place."
Now, I'm sure you've experienced the horror of wandering through a video rental place with another person. Let's be honest it doesn't matter if it's your boyfriend or your friend it's not always easy to decided on a movie. Well Tai and I did this a few times. It was a hit or miss solution. Often we couldn't decide on something or they didn't have what we wanted.
Tai couldn't get into the Netflix experience. Choosing movies online seemed odd to him. He did used to work in a video store so some habits die hard.
Around this time Blockbuster announced their online movie deal. It was similar to Netflix but you could rent movies in the store as well. This was the perfect solution to our problem. We switched to Blockbuster. We get 3 movies from our online queue and return them at the store for 3 movies there at no additional cost. It really works well for us. I couldn't be happier with Blockbuster. Plus it's totally convienent since there is a Blockbuster down the street from our place.
So we still go to the store which Tai enjoys. He likes to interact with the staff and see how our choices rate. And there is less wandering around now. We know movies we want to see since we know what's in our queue. Plus there seems to be more movies to choose from now. Probably because more people are using the online options.
What about you? How do you get your movie fix?

7 comments:

  1. Oh man I could never give up Netflix. Even before we got it I prefered the more varied Hollywood video over blockbuster.

    I loathe the selection at Blockbuster and frankly sometimes I'd rather have the chance to watch KungFu Hustle instead of the latest over bloated crap fest that stars Bruce Willis.

    While it is sometimes nice to look around and find a movie by the cover (kinda like going to a book store) there are times too when it's just nice to look online and find exactly what you want instead of braving the possibly empty shelves.

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  2. None of the above. We usually get moves from the On Demand feature on our cable. We so rarely get a chance to watch them, that we can usually find something there.

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  3. None of the above. We usually get moves from the On Demand feature on our cable. We so rarely get a chance to watch them, that we can usually find something there.

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  4. Netflix. Without a doubt. They have a great selection of old movies and tv shows, plus I can watch movies online now. Since I have a widescreen HD MacBook, movies look great on the computer. I'm awful at returning movies on time, so Netflix is the best option for me. If I absolutely have to have something right now, and there's nothing but westerns on Turner Classic Movies, I can hit Redbox. But I'll still forget to return it on time.

    It seems like Blockbuster did its best to beat down the little guys, so I like that they have competition. I think these mega chain stores get a little too big for their collective britches sometimes. It's good to see them get serious competition. Especially in this economy.

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  5. FH uses netflix too... i simple watch disney channel or disney family channel and NCIS reruns when i can :-)
    RelentlessBride

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  6. me hearts redbox! best idea EVER!!!!

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  7. Hubby does Blockbuster online, but I know he has been having issues with them.

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