The New York Times: NEW YORK — When VCRs appeared on the market in the early 1980s, renting movies was expensive and cumbersome. It often required costly membership fees at video stores that were few and far between.
Since then, renting a movie has become a lot easier and cheaper. Rental stores opened on what seemed like every city block. The spread of DVD players spawned Netflix, the online rental service that sends movies by mail. And now home viewers can rent movies from their cable companies or download them from the Internet, much like music.
Entering that crowded market is a new concept that in some ways is a throwback: A self-service video store. (Free registration required.) Read more …
