Kate Kzaplinksi, Herald Editor
April 4, 2012
A movie and game rental company with plans for a national and international roll-out has unveiled its first rental kiosk at Shelton’s Beechwood Market.
The two friends behind the business venture are Shaun Hunte, a Shelton native, and Dan Rodrigues. They are working with Canadian-based rental kiosk manufacturer Signifi, aiming to compete with video rental kiosks like Redbox and even mail-order rental companies like Netflix.
“Part of the business model is focusing on retailers that are ignored by Redbox,” Hunte said. “A place like Beechwood is in the center of town and can do very well for a kiosk.”
The rental kiosk, called “eGo,” short for entertainment on the go, opened for business at Beechwood last Friday. You put in your credit or debit card, pick your movie, get it and go.
Kevin Scanlon, Beechwood owner, thinks the new addition to the recently remodeled the store will be a boon for business.
“I’m hoping it’s a home run for us,” Scanlon said. “This could change our hours, we might stay open later if it’s popular.”
Scanlon said foot traffic to the Huntington Center store has been down since Tropical Storm Irene knocked power out for the market for days, forcing the store to discard its product and completely restock.
Scanlon has been trying to get a video and game rental kiosk in the store for months, but the major companies won’t look at a smaller market because of customer volume.
The new kiosk offers DVD rentals, Blu-ray discs, and games for PS3, Wii and Xbox systems. Regular DVD rentals are $1.25 a night.
The machine is also four times faster than its major competitor, according to Hunte and Rodrigues. Returns are easier, and soon customers will be able to pay a monthly membership fee for unlimited rentals if they want to.
Redbox recently purchased Blockbuster kiosks, which are also found in major national supermarket chains. It’s become a bit of a monopoly, Hunte said. That’s why they are looking to launch Signifi kiosks in areas ignored by the major company.
The young entrepreneurs, both in their 20s, have been working to raise private equity. The next step is to manufacture more machines, somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000.
Beechwood
The kiosk has been at Beechwood for a couple of weeks near the entrance and was covered up until last Friday.
Customers have been asking a lot of questions about the mystery addition and have been pleased with the answer, Scanlon said.
“People have been excited,” Scanlon said. “Just had the baseball coach from Shelton High in here and he was like, ‘Wow, I won’t have to go all the way to Stop & Shop now.’”
The machine can hold up to 800 discs. Last Friday, Rodrigues was loading about 220 DVDs and some games and Blu-ray discs.
“We have some new releases in there and we’re going to see how it goes,” Rodrigues said.
The opening weekend went well, Hunte said. There were about 18 rentals, which is a good sign.
If things go well, Scanlon’s 17-year-old might be covering the store until 9 p.m. on weekends, Scanlon said.
“I have 17,000 households in my market. If I was to get 1,700 customers — 10% — that would be huge for us,” Scanlon said.