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partygirluk
03-29-2005, 11:43 AM
Has anyone got experience with it. I was looking at it from amazon.co.uk and their blurb was here (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/subs/rentals/help/learn-more-popup.html/026-4480720-2822068) . I was wondering about a couple of things

i) Have you any experience with online DVD rental, and if so how was it for you?

ii) How do amazon make money on this. £10 for 6 titles. They provide postage to you, and return postage. So you pay £1.66 to rent each title, and it costs more than this to post a DVD first class (is about £1 each way). Well, presumably Amazon get a pretty massive discount from royal mail, but even so I can not imagine that their margins are particularly high. They also need to pay costs of staff, storage space, electricity, advertising, setting up and maintaining the computer system, dealing with enquiries, buying the DVDs, replacing broken ones etc. I'm guessing that they thus rely on people not taking up their full allocation of rentals per month, and the extra business revenue it generates.

Brainwalter
03-29-2005, 11:52 AM
[ QUOTE ]
they thus rely on people not taking up their full allocation of rentals per month

[/ QUOTE ]

That's gotta be it. Just like buffets probably lose money on fat people or even on regular young men, but they still make an overall profit because of the old people, women, and children that don't eat much.

I'm probably going to get Blockbuster online.

jakethebake
03-29-2005, 12:03 PM
There have been a bunch of posts debating the merits of netflix vs. blockbuster online. do a search on those. i don't know anything about amazon though.

daveymck
03-29-2005, 12:24 PM
Screenselect is the one to get in the UK cheaper than Amazon and Blockbuster and no limit on how many each month.

Screenselect dont post the boxes I assume the others dont which will reduce the postage costs and increase the margin.