I picked up this idea for a post because it’s so darn Japanese — I mean, why haven’t we had DVD kiosks before now? Basically they are DVD vending machines (jidouhanbaiki) in supermarkets or wherever. Pretty soon we’ll see them at rest stops where you can grab a soda, pick up a DVD for the minivan and still get mugged by streakers. Hah! Just kidding. About the soda, that is.
According to the company, DVDPlay Kiosk, each kiosk holds about 500 movies, with about 70-100 titles. You might not find that great 1980′s movie you’ve been looking for (check eBay or in Tucson, Casa Video) but new releases are in the bag (cheesy pun intended).
Anyway, I had fun doing this video and Ben had fun being the star. The point was to demonstrate how easy the kiosks are to use, and since my 5-year-old successfully rented the video of his choosing in about a minute, I’m going to say they are pretty easy. I like that the movie rental only costs $1.49, too. That’s my favorite part, because this whole 5-day thing is kind of silly. Who needs 5 days to watch a video? I miss the old 99 cent videos that had to be returned the next day, so I’m happy there is a kiosk in my local Safeway. Old world video prices meet new world technology…pretty nice.
