Redbox may be as obsolete as disco, but that doesn’t mean it can’t live on in your living room (in a way). Redbox’s parent company went bankrupt with hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid debt. The company also left more than 24,000 of its iconic red machines in various retail stores, The Wall Street Journal reported and Gizmodo discovered.
These machines are heavy, unwieldy, and difficult to dispose of, with former RedBox executives suggesting it would cost $500 to remove one of the kiosks. The situation is further exacerbated by the fact that some machines are actually embedded in concrete. With retailers planning to salvage the items for scrap at a loss, collectors are taking the initiative to pick up some before they end up on the scrap heap.
Jacob Helton, a 19-year-old from North Carolina, picked it up at a drugstore because he “felt Redbox was important in American media history.” He went on to argue that “its demise marks the end of the video rental era.” Now he has a huge DVD rental machine in his garage.
Now, before you go to your local Walgreens and ask about the aging Redbox machine sitting outside, there are a few things to keep in mind. First of all, these things are heavy and very difficult to carry. As mentioned above, some are immersed in concrete.
These machines also consume large amounts of energy during use. Walgreens told the judge it costs $184,000 a month to power its 5,400 kiosks. This works out to about $35 per month for one machine. It also requires regular maintenance. However, if you have a large DVD collection, each machine can store approximately 500 DVDs. You can pretend to lend it to a friend or family member, but that’s it.
Just 10 years ago, Redbox was on top of the world, with annual revenue of about $2 billion and more than 43,000 kiosks across the U.S. and Canada. It managed to survive a little longer than Blockbuster, but now it’s gone forever.
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