I'm fascinated by different pricing schemes for products and the often unpredictable psychological effects they have on people (and how seldom companies test different pricing) (and how widely misunderstood the relationship is between pricing and profitability; why do people always talk as raising prices necessarily makes more money?).
So, the Blockbuster late fee thing was quite interesting. Given my own recent experience, I suspect it's going to work out well for them. I don't have Blockbuster, but the Blockbuster-wanna-be in my new neighborhood rents all their movies for five nights, no matter what. And if you go over five nights? You don't get a "late fee," they just rent them to you again -- for another five nights.
The effect? If you have a personality like me, you end up renting at least four or five movies at a time -- cuz you got all week -- when you would have otherwise planned on renting one. And then you forget when they're even supposed to be back.
I suspect I'll be doing less of that, though, because now I have cable (for the first time in five years), and this OnDemand thing looks interesting. Especially HDTV OnDemand movies. (And yeah, I have NetFlix too, but that's too hard.)
So, the Blockbuster late fee thing was quite interesting. Given my own recent experience, I suspect it's going to work out well for them. I don't have Blockbuster, but the Blockbuster-wanna-be in my new neighborhood rents all their movies for five nights, no matter what. And if you go over five nights? You don't get a "late fee," they just rent them to you again -- for another five nights.
The effect? If you have a personality like me, you end up renting at least four or five movies at a time -- cuz you got all week -- when you would have otherwise planned on renting one. And then you forget when they're even supposed to be back.
I suspect I'll be doing less of that, though, because now I have cable (for the first time in five years), and this OnDemand thing looks interesting. Especially HDTV OnDemand movies. (And yeah, I have NetFlix too, but that's too hard.)