Winn-Dixie joins DVD rental market with $1 Redbox - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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(NASDAQ: WINN) is offering $1-a-day Redbox DVD rentald in a test marketr of 15 stores in theJacksonvillre area. "We saw Redbox as a way to offert convenience toour time-starvexd consumers -- allowing them to stop in on theif way home and pick up dinner and a movie," Winn-Dixie'd vice president of general merchandise, Dewaynes Rabon, said of the program. In fall 2007, the Jacksonville-based grocer with 521 stores around the Southeast joinede a growing number of grocery store companies throughouyt the nation that have signed agreements with to provide automated DVD rentaol kiosks outside andinside stores.
Redbox spokeswomamn Kristin Zanini declined to disclose details of the agreement with but said most grocery store company agreements involverevenue sharing. Each kioskk holds more than 500 DVDs that includ e 70 new movie releases and new titleseverg Tuesday. Customers use a credity or debit card topay $1 per DVD per Customers can return the DVDs to any Redbosx location nationwide. If a DVD is not returned withibn25 nights, the customer is charged a total of $25 and can keep the DVD. a five-year-old company based in Oakbrook Ill., is owned by and , a wholly ownedc subsidiary of (NYSE: MCD). Redbos vending machines can be founsd at morethan 6,300 location around the nation.
Among its biggest clients are McDonald'd and numerous grocery store companiexs thatinclude , Supervalu Inc. (NYSE: SVU) and There are 97 Redbo machinesat Winn-Dixie stores, McDonald's restaurants and stores in the Jacksonvill e area. President and CEO Rick McAllister said almosyt all large grocery store companies have tried offeringvideio rentals, but because they are labor- and space-intensive, many have abandoner it. "This method gets rid of all thosed negatives," McAllister said. The Jacksonvillr McDonald's Redbox test market includesa 67 of the 100area restaurants.
The one-year test will end in Marc h and local operators will be offered severapdifferent options, including renewing the agreement with Redbocx for four more years either with a sharedc revenue agreement with the company or by investinv in the vending machines themselves. Othetr McDonald's markets, including Denver and Salt Lake City, have alreadyt completed the one-year test and have extendede their agreementswith Redbox. McDonald's public relations representativer Bill Kral said based on the response from both customeras andrestaurant operators, Jacksonville-area McDonald's will likely continue providinv Redbox machines.
Hitchcock & Sons, baserd in Alachua County, has installed Redbodx machines in six of its 10 stored in NorthFlorida -- including one in Clay County and one in Putnak County -- and expects two others to be installed by the end of Alan Hitchcock, the company CEO and grandson of the founder, said the machine s have been a big hit. "oI think Redbox brings some excitement to our he said. , based in Lakeland, is also testingf the Redbox machines at stores in theMiamui area. Publix spokesman Dwaine Stevens said it had no plana to expand the test to Publiz stores in theJacksonville area.
Rabohn said Winn-Dixie will evaluate the succesws of the Redbox at existing locatione before determining the next So far, some of the top Redbox rental at Winn-Dixie have been "Knocked Up," "jI Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" and