After work today, I stopped by McDonalds to treat myself to a chocolate shake. As I did, I noticed their new movie rental machine. Pretty cool, $1/movie/night, all new releases.
My wife and I had to run an errand or two, and I mentioned to her that I saw this machine. She thought it was a bit strange (but cool), and wanted to see it. On the way home, we swung into the local McD’s so she could see for herself. As we got in there, we saw that they had a guy in to service the machine. He explained a little how it works, and showed me the inside, since it was already opened.
Before we left, he offered us a little tip. While checking out, it will ask if you have a promo/coupon code. Two codes that will give you free rentals are “happy” and “meal”. What’s cool is that it ties your rental to a credit card that you swipe, so as I understand it, you can get two free rentals for every credit card you use.
This is a somewhat limited thing. He said they have them all over the Twin Cities, and also mentioned St. Louis and Houston. They have 900 machines in McDonald’s restaraunts in total, and are putting in more all the time.
At $1/movie, I can see why Hollywood is crying about decreased theater ticket sales. I’d much rather sit in the privacy and relative quiet of my own home than go to a theater that charges $8 with a tall guy sitting in front of me and a kid kicking my seat behind me, along with cell phones ringing and sticky floors, while being charges $4 for a Coke and $3 for a box of Dots.
This is just a post. I installed a spam block to my .htaccess file, and this post is to ensure that it doesn’t affect actual comments.