Jump to content

Starting a Video Rental Store(Help Needed!)


TwwIX

Recommended Posts

I am at the begining of my information gathering process and have some very basic questions. Unfortunately I am having zero luck in getting any real information. My net searches to dates have yielded only the same lame "How To" manual which is really an ad for selling the manuals. Local bookstores have nothing either. Does anyone know of a book, business manual etc on starting a video rental business? Anyone out there run one and be willing to talk?? Other than the wise practice of determining the local market, competition etc, there are a number of questions that I don't know, esp. about the legal aspects of renting and where to get my starting stock of videos(Distributors etc). Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

By the way.If there's anybody who has a big collection of used vhs tapes/dvd's and lives near by the Chicago area and thinks about selling them,plz let me know.

Link to comment

you chose a VERY hard buisiness to get into, and some people wont even look at you unless you prove to them that you have something unique going on for you...

lets examine your buisiness for a second...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

blockbuster -

2 bucks for a movie, 6 for a game and you keep both for a week.

have everything the day it comes out, and in my experience they usually have what u want.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

i dont get what your buisiness angle would be. its going to be hard as hell to even get customers to even look at you if you dont have a VERY UNIQUE strategy. its going to take alot more then a nice personality to get a video rental buisiness started.

your not going to be able to get many things that blockbuster doesnt have, they have nearly everything. and renting videos for less then 2 bucks is going to be very hard to survive on...

anyways good luck, but its not going to be easy by ANY means

Link to comment

Please spare me your comments if you do not have any real advice to offer.I am asking for help here and not your damn opinions.I see no reason why i should worry about something like Blockbuster.I mean that's like saying "why open up a restaurant when people got mcdonald's".

I do not know where you come from but here where i live people usually prefer quality over quantity.And as far as i know a new blockbuster flick usually costs around five bucks and not two.Yeah,you get to keep it for five days but it's pretty much fackin useless after you're finished watching it.

its going to be hard as hell to even get customers to even look at you if you dont have a VERY UNIQUE strategy

You think so?

Well there are currently two mom & pop rental stores near by where i live and they have more customers then half dozen of the Blockbusters that are located in this area.And we're talking about Chicago here.Unique Startegy?Well yeah, they got cheaper prices and a much better selection of movies available.

Anyway,as far as "unique" strategies goes and how much money i'd be willing to invest is something that i should worry about and not you my opinionated friend.

Edited by Guest
Link to comment

heh you asked for advice and then lashed out when i gave it to you because it was to "opinionated." what do u want? sample tax returns or maybe a nice big check? asking for advice is asking for opinions. but none the less il let you have your parade and thank you very much for basically telling me to fuck off.

l8r

oh and 2 things

-------------------------

quality over quantity... what are you planning on doing making the movies gold plated? :lol:

a much better selection of movies at cheaper prices? uh huh thats a good angle good luck with that :lol:

hehe sorry im done now, i just thought id give u 2 more opinions before i left

Link to comment

I found this site on Google by pressing the wrong key:

http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section ... ntID=24635

It's intended for libraries, but 90% of the content is relevant to what you want to know.

Please spare me your comments if you do not have any real advice to offer.I am asking for help here and not your damn opinions.

If you look on the bright side of it, all these comments bump the topic up and stop it slipping onto the second page (which hardly anyone looks at).

Link to comment

One place here in my little rural town was going out of business due to a blockbuster moving in, and his store honestly did suck balls...he was bitching about business one day, and i told him jokingly to put in a LAN for kids to play on while parents shopped at the local albertsons...

two weeks later he invested and put a 10 pc lan in the back of the store...

now he hardly sells any videos, but he's practically a daycare lol

Well, I honestly don't know if it helps, but anything to set you apart from the crowd.

Edit -- i decided to call the place, turns out he changed primarily to a lan place and runs 30 pcs now...so perhaps it is a bad example...and i should've gotten something for making him a good business dammit lol

Link to comment

twwix, i've worked at a rental place in the past.

2 things: you need a supplier, and the cost of a new tape with a liscence for renting it out is roughly 70 canadian dollars (at least thats how it was a few years ago).

the best way to start is to actually buy out a rental place's stock that is closing. i don't know of any "marketplace" for this, i guess you need to know people for that.

my opinion: try and get some old movies, let the big chains handle the new releases. if you import japanese stuff, that's gold for the geeks, and try and get the cult flicks (jesus christ-vampire hunter :wink: )

i still keep in touch with my old boss, so i could hit him up for details if ya needed me to. of course, this is canada, so practices may differ

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...