1 Day or 2 Day for a small store?

[Hardcopy]

I wrote a computer program that takes the post offices data and calculates using the formulas you mentioned before. I know the market share. And yep I did try it. I did every Saturday was 2 day rentals. Saturdays showed no marked improvement, though Sundays dropped by over 50%. I did this for 2 years.

I am currently at about 50-60% of the market share in my area. Remember I share it with other stores. Last year at this time I was at 30-40%. Next year my goal is 70-80%.

I am not opposed to 2 day rentals and think they probably would help slightly, but I couldn't afford the short term losses as they would be significant.  I would need to immediately double my orders. Wednesday I would have nearly zero copies. Same with Friday. Same with Sunday. Or I would have to have copies sitting on the shelf.

I simply don't have enough customers to warrant it yet.

[Kerry]

I've been reading this thread because I have been contemplating a similar move.  

I have always rented new releases for 1 day, all others including recent releases for 3 days.  If they rent those on Thursday they get an extra day because I'm closed on Sunday, same with NR rented on Saturday.  I currently charge 3.50 for NR.

I have been contemplating going to 2 days on new release rentals but my being closed on Sunday kind of puts a kink in it-people getting movies on Friday would get them till Monday and there wouldn't be much left on Saturday.  I'm sure Friday rentals would go up a lot but am not sure it would compensate for the decrease in Saturdays.  Copy depth isn't that much of an issue the rest of the time.

One option I've considered is giving customers the option of renting NR Mon-Thurs. 1 Day 3.50, 2 Days 3.99-the extra day being paid for at time of rental.  ADRs 3.50 per day (unless they call and arrange to rerent for another 2 day period before it's due back).

Is anyone else doing this sort of thing?  Should I try the Mon-Thurs. thing or just charge the regular rate for 2 days and let the Friday and Sat. thing go and not worry about it?

[amanda]

paying a little extra to have it for 2 days is a great idea, if you can support a movie being gone for 2 days without losing money from it not renting full the next day (if it comes back or if it does rent out the next day). Your customers would probably want it to be thru the whole week, which is better than switching to a 2 day for everything, without the price being higher.  

We have our movies split into 1 and 2 days, which works great, with the 2 days not being the brand new ones, which we need as one day rentals.

[Kerry]

I have been thinking this over and may try the following (maybe start advertising it as a summer special, keep if it works)

Hot New Releases-
Your Choice-1 day:2.99 2 Days:3.99

2.99 is less than I charge now, and would keep the one day renters happy, and 3.99 is slightly more but for the customers who have trouble getting them back on time they'd have more time for less money ( my late fees are full price).  Of course, they'd have to choose at the time of rental..I'm considering making the late fee less, though, so it wouldn't hurt quite so much.

[lanna5]

I think that's a good idea. I may do the same thing. I started this thread when I was contemplating the 2 day rental, and from the advice I received, I did the following:

I made two new release catagories in my store instead of one. I made a Hot New Release section and kept them one day rentals as before, but I made all my "Newer Releases" 2 days but kept them the same price at $3 but also lowered the late fees to only $1.50 per day (whereas before, everything was $3 to rent and $3 late fee)

I also made all my catalog titles 2 day rentals, and still have the 5/5/$5 on catalog VHS and 3/3/$6 for DVD catalog.

I may add the extra dollar or even $.69 cents or something to the Hot New Releases to give the option of a one day for the current price of $3 and 2 days for ? not sure how I'd do that yet.

Alanna

[SpecialFX]

I can print these items for you...  I can print anything ;-)  Reminder postcards, coupons, labels..etc...

[SpecialFX]

I'm thinking of changing this to Hot New Releases within the first few weeks stay the same except have $3 rental $3 late fee, keep for 1 night. But then have anything older than 3 weeks or so, be Recent Hits or something similar and they can keep those for 2 nights and have the $2/day late fee.


Alanna

This is what I do, Alanna...works for me!!
But I might try that $1 coupon thing on the recent hits just to see if it works at all..

[woobie]

hey folks, couldn't resist replying to this thread.

All movies in my store are 2 day rentals.

NR titles are $4.00 for a 2 day rental.  BB closest to me is $4.50.  I give a $1.00 credit in my POS for one day return.  Coupons would be better, but no easy way to give coupons to early returns in my drop box in the morning.  These are the best returns as I have all day to re-rent them.

I estimate that half of the NR titles are returned in one day.  A dollar seems to be just enough to motive customers to return early.  So after only one day I have stock coming in and coming out every day.  I do now buy more copies, but only on the very popular movies, maybe 4-8 titles per month.

I justify the cost effectiveness like this.  Each copy costs me $20.00 from Ingram, or $15.00 from walmart.  Hot titles I buy 50% from Walmart.  Average cost per disk $17.50.  I sell PVT for $9.00, and rarely have any problem getting rid of stock.  If I rent the disk 3 times for $3.00, I have covered my costs in three days.  At $4.00, I'm only .50 sort of break even after 4 days.  Either way, the product is generating profit in less than 1 week!  If I have to buy 10 extra copies of a title to meet demand for the first few weeks, they go to PVT after that period.  As rental demand dies down, extra copies go to PVT. Each disk will have rented from 6 to 12 times, made money for me, made customers happy, and will sell as PVT very quickly as the release is still "new" in people's minds!

People just don't like one day rentals.  I agree with the previous poster that business will increase with longer rental periods.  Since switching, I rent more titles, and many people will pick up two movies since they have two days to return.  

Just my 2 cents