No real place for this topic, but I need opinions

[Excillon]

Ok, here's the thing. I live in a really small town (pop. 3000) and because of this, a lot of people know each other. Thus, I've gotten to be friends with the guy who owns the local video store. Now, here's the problem, and there's a lot of smart people, so maybe you all have some ideas. They just opened a family video franchise right here in town. Rediculous for a town of this size, I know. I'm trying to help him find a way to stay competitive, and for the most part he is except one area. Here's the breakdown:

Hours:

Family video: 11a-Midnight

local store: 11a-10p

New releases: he upped how many he buys to compete.

Pre-viewed movies for sale (local store): 7.95 per DVD or 5 for 25. Newer releases go on sale 1 month after being released.

Family video: Usually 60 days after release, aside from new copies, they sell for 9.95-12.95

Video games: he charges 5 dollars for 5 days, and sells for reasonable rates. Here's the problem though. He only gets a 10% discount, and he's taken a bath on a few of them that no one rents. 54 dollars is a lot to invest for a small business owner. I've tried to help him by recommending games I know would actually rent and have so far been successful.

I guess what I'm asking is if you were in this postion, how would you stay competitive? How would you draw interest to your store to take away from this evil franchise?

[Keith]

Ok, here's the thing. I live in a really small town (pop. 3000) and because of this, a lot of people know each other. Thus, I've gotten to be friends with the guy who owns the local video store. Now, here's the problem, and there's a lot of smart people, so maybe you all have some ideas. They just opened a family video franchise right here in town. Rediculous for a town of this size, I know. I'm trying to help him find a way to stay competitive, and for the most part he is except one area. Here's the breakdown:

Hours:

Family video: 11a-Midnight

local store: 11a-10p

New releases: he upped how many he buys to compete.

Pre-viewed movies for sale (local store): 7.95 per DVD or 5 for 25. Newer releases go on sale 1 month after being released.

Family video: Usually 60 days after release, aside from new copies, they sell for 9.95-12.95

Video games: he charges 5 dollars for 5 days, and sells for reasonable rates. Here's the problem though. He only gets a 10% discount, and he's taken a bath on a few of them that no one rents. 54 dollars is a lot to invest for a small business owner. I've tried to help him by recommending games I know would actually rent and have so far been successful.

I guess what I'm asking is if you were in this postion, how would you stay competitive? How would you draw interest to your store to take away from this evil franchise?

Flaming pile of dog crap in their return slot?

[Tober]

Has he considered a complimentary adult XXX DVD with every rental of Zelda?

Otherwise loyalty programs or offers for new patrons.

[Noyhauser]

One thing I'd suggest is to look at is maybe using ebay or some other online retailer to sell remainder games if they are not popular, at least as a supplemental source of income. It might be hit and miss, but it might be more than selling it in a discount bin for 5~10$. A friend of mine who owns a game store uses it to recoop losses and sell excess stock.

[EXO]

If you can solve the problem of big corporations shutting down the little guy, then you'd be one of the very very few. The only way he can probably do it is make incentives for loyal customers and other incentives for new customers. Then as soon as you have a good size clientèle, start being really friendly and treat them right so they'll feel guilty about leaving. And after all that... open a freakin Starbucks in the vicinity and stop renting out videos... problem solved!

[Max Jenius]

Let him flounder. If he becomes too successful, then he may become one of these evil successful businesses.

[eugimon]

Let him flounder. If he becomes too successful, then he may become one of these evil successful businesses.

yeah, better the evil we know, than the evil we don't know. Maybe this guy would bring back late charges.

[kalvasflam]

Interesting problem, there are a couple of good points so far.

My thoughts on the small business:

1. What is the local geography like? How many other local towns within say a 100 mile radius?

2. What is the population mix of the town your friend is in? How many kids and so forth?

The reasoning is this, he has a very small size customer base to deal with, he is going to take a significant loss of video rentals no matter what he does unless he improves the size of his customer base. I mean quite literally, if a place like a Blockbuster is having problems, a small business will definitely take it on the chin.

So, the ideas:

1. Go adult videos

2. Start doing video games. (longer rental periods of course) Go with the more popular titles if you can.

3. Increase service to a larger region, this depends on geography, and use the netflix model, mail out video rentals over long time frames (say period of a month or so), don't do subscription fees, since that'll force him to increase his stocks. Set up a website.

4. Some marketing is definitely needed, by that I mean if he has to put up small signs around town (think telephone poles with web address) that'll be good, if he can do local areas, even better.

5. If he goes web, he needs to make sure that his system is constantly updated so people pulling things from the web can see what's going on.

I have to say, this is a tough business to be in. Remember, if your customer base has access to the web, everything your friend is providing can be pulled off of the web, legally or not.

[Mr March]

There was a great independent video store called Bird Dog in my old home city of Calgary. They had a great little incentive program built around a simple discount card. After 5 rentals, you'd get half off the next purchase (your option to use it or save it for later). After 10 rentals, you'd get one free (again, your option to use it or save it). After a year, I had dozens of free rentals and half price rentals. It worked great and kept me coming back. Of course, their slection was also quite good, especially foreign film and rare movies.

[Dax415]

every successful small business i know of has some sort of niche they fill.....he'll probably have to focus on that. For example a buddy of mine owns a gym,...talk about being in a tough business! to get people not to go elsewhere he got creative....offered 2 free training sessions, got staff to not simply stand their but text clients reminders on their cell phones (he's got it set up on a computer somehow) to actually come in to work out if they miss one of their scheduled workout days, has social events, leads offsite exercise challenges, etc.....the whole point was more attention, social atmosphere and fun variable workouts......so far its paying off.

for your friend for example....if he goes adult video, offer some way customers can get their video without feeling like the rest of the town knows it.

as for the rest of the product and business he'll need to do what is suggested before....reach out to get more customers, probably the net would be best considering he's in a small town.

video games....offer discounted pre purchases and reduce the number of games purchased for the store itself so he doesn't have to eat it. even the big boys don't give big discounts on video games till further along down the road. no offense, but it sounds like video games are not going to be a big part of his business....probably more of a way to get some foot traffic in the door.

hope this helps

[EXO]

Hooters version of video rental... and for the ladies... wednesday is chick flick night... get free ice cream and a bar of chocolate with a rental of your favorite Julia Roberts movie.

[CoryHolmes]

What about setting up a website that would allow customers to pre-rent their movie before they leave the house, and then have it ready for them to pick up as soon as they show up?

[lord_breetai]

how about offering things that usually arn't covered by the big franchises like more independent and foreign films...

Also just some kind of gimmick, like this one chain in my hometown of Edmonton (which is better then March's hometown ), offers free freshly popped popcorn to all the customers... it's just a gimmick sure but it makes them seem more friendly and I go there as opposed to the big chains.

[Mog]

I agree with the rest of the folks here: if there's certain niches or genres in either videos or games that are not supplied by the bigger store, that might be the business angle to consider.

.....And >EXO<, don't forget about the Bon-Bons. B*tches just eat those things up when they're watching them chick flicks!

[CoryHolmes]

in my hometown of Edmonton (which is better then March's hometown ),

Pfft. Vancouver is superior to all.

[Noyhauser]

Pfft. Vancouver is superior to all.

Jeez I'm Born AND raised in Vancouver and I wouldn't say that.... don't even get me started on it.

I think Victoria is a pretty cool place though.

[Mr March]

like this one chain in my hometown of Edmonton (which is better then March's hometown )

Watch your mouth, now

[sketchley]

Vancouver? Victoria? Pffft.

Left both for the otaku promised land*, not looking back.

*Maybe that should be "left for a place where the sky isn't overcast and it's constantly raining"?

[CoryHolmes]

*Maybe that should be "left for a place where the sky isn't overcast and it's constantly raining"?

It's not constantly raining! Sometimes we have sleet and a few fightful days of snow.