Does It Matter If Walmart Thwarts Redbox?

So I was reading a couple different articles about Redbox and a really interesting conclusion came to me.  Just to walk you through it, here’s the salient:

1. Seems Walmart’s catching a little heat from Hollywood studios for selling to Redbox. So Walmart, in turn, is limiting the amount of DVDs that can be sold to five copies per person.

2. Redbox can open one kiosk per hour…and is doing so.  Even in front of LIBRARIES.

Now, on the one hand, Redbox needs product.  And their workaround is proving a mite tenuous, though probably more inconvenient than anything.  It’s one thing to say “only five per customer”, it’s entirely another for one person to go into the store, buy five copies, and come back ten minutes later at a different register, or moreover, one of those self-scan registers at two in the morning or in the middle of a big shopping rush.

Just because Walmart hangs out signs that say “No dealers please” doesn’t mean dealers won’t come.

And if Redbox can get kiosks in front of libraries, this poses a whole new game-changer to Walmart.  Redbox doesn’t NEED space in front of Walmart.  They can get space in front of the library by offering badly needed cash to municipalities.

The advantage is currently Redbox’s…but it may not stay that way for long.