Re: Kiosks live in the States
Yes. I've never used them myself, but they seem to be very common - I know of some in both of the places where I have homes (Michigan and New Mexico), and I've seen them elsewhere on my travels.
The history is a bit curious. Redbox was originally funded by McDonalds to sell a variety of products, but when McDonalds discontinued that business the company switched to DVD and video-game rental. Redbox tried to interest Blockbuster and Netflix in their business, but ended up being acquired by Coinstar, which runs change-collecting kiosks in grocery stores. Redbox eventually picked up Blockbuster's kiosk business.
Apparently they tried to expand into Canada, but demand was too low. It seems the US market is unusually strong for physical movie / game rental. According to Wikipedia, rental sales did drop significantly over the past few years due to streaming, but are still reasonably robust.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
