The Power of Retail

Blockbuster announced that it would be testing out $1 a night DVD vending machines at Papa John’s and Family Dollar in Lexington, Kentucky. The usual rate for a five-day rental is around $4 at most Blockbuster stores. The Blockbuster Express boxes will stock 250 movies each and will be in three Papa John’s locations and seven Family Dollar stores in the Lexington area.

The main competition for these vending machines are DVDPlay Inc. and Redbox Automated Retail LLC which are owned by McDonald’s Corp and Coinstar Inc. and have been offering $1 DVDs at supermarkets, pharmacies and McDonald’s. Blockbuster will be testing more kiosk locations in fast-food restaurants in Lexington and other locations as well across the country. Blockbuster has tested this concept earlier as well, in 1999 when it put up VHS vending machines outside 7-Elevens in the Dallas area.

According to Arvind Bhatia, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., “It’s a question of whether can they execute. Almost overnight, without having to go any place, they can very, very quickly put these kiosks in their stores to start with.”

I’ve been thinking of setting up a proper office for myself at home, since I spend so much time on the computer. The problem I usually have is that most office furniture sites provide a very narrow selection of furniture that is workable only for traditional offices and not for home settings, which is what a lot of people are looking for now. I don’t want my office setup to look like an office, but rather something multi-utility items that I can use for other purposes as well. What I am very keen on is a console kind of setting, which I can use as a desk and which will double as a nice piece of furniture in the room.

It’s been a while since I posted here, hard to believe how fast the time flies and all of a sudden, it’s been over a week since I last wrote here. Things have been hectic at work, with lots of stuff happening on the retail front. The food retail sector is the sector to watch for the next few years, as the number of consumers coming into the middle class will increasingly push the food sector to the top of the list.

As with most developing countries, food retail is the one to pick up the fastest as it is the sector where the consumers are willing to spend first of all. Other sectors such as apparel, footwear, accessories will see the benefit of higher incomes much afterwards. It is one of the most dynamic sectors there is.