Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Henderson libraries become Redbox locations

Movies now available for rent at Paseo Verde and Green Valley branches

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Steve Marcus / Las Vegas Sun

Donna Hurd, a Redbox merchandiser, shows library patron Tim Larson how to use a promo code for new customers at a Redbox DVD movie rental kiosk in front of the Paseo Verde Library in Henderson on Tuesday. The Paseo Verde Library and the Green Library recently added the rental kiosks.

Click to enlarge photo

Amy Choi checks the selection of movies at a Redbox DVD movie kiosk in front of the Paseo Verde Library in Henderson on Tuesday. The Paseo Verde Library and the Green Library recently added the rental kiosks.

Two Henderson libraries now house Redbox movie kiosks as part of a nationwide trial by the company.

Gayle Hornaday, assistant director for Henderson District Public Libraries, said waiting lists for movies is a chronic problem for Henderson libraries. The Redboxes are expected to alleviate the problem by providing more copies of popular films.

“We can’t really up our expenditures, but by teaming up with this vendor we can provide access to more current movies,” she said.

Patrons get frustrated by having to wait, and it isn’t unusual to have a 20-person waiting list for a popular title, she said.

Henderson’s Paseo Verde, 280 S. Green Valley Parkway, and Green Valley, 2797 N. Green Valley Parkway, locations will become Redbox sites. Redbox rentals cost $1 per night, with late fees of $1 for each day the film is overdue, up to $25.

Until Feb. 4, Henderson library patrons can go to the Paseo Verde or Green Valley libraries to get a free voucher for a one-night movie rental from the Redbox kiosk.

Henderson is one of many locations chosen for Redbox’s national trial. Other locations include Charlotte, N.C., Lexington, K.Y., and Orlando, Fla., said Brian Downing, a cofounder of Library Ideas, the company that provides marketing for Redbox.

Redbox has a waiting list of about 200 libraries that want to become kiosk locations, Downing said.

“It scratches an itch,” he said. “It turns the library into a 24-hour branch, whereas the library typically closes for 8 to 10 hours each night.”

Participating libraries receive 3 percent of the money Redbox makes at their location, he said.

Downing said the Henderson libraries were chosen because they are known as a “progressive location that was receptive to new initiatives.”

Libraries in Princeton, N.J., were the first to serve as Redbox locations, adding kiosks in July 2009.

Leslie Burger, the executive director of Princeton Public Libraries in New Jersey and the former president of the American Library Association, said the libraries added the Redbox because it offered a service the library could not — 24-hour movie availability.

The difference between Redbox and the library, she said, is that Redbox can afford to stock dozens of copies of popular films, while the library can typically only buy two or three.

“It allows us to spend that money on things that Redbox doesn’t stock,” she said, including TV series sets and more obscure foreign films.

“It has been a great decision,” she said. “It’s really been a win-win for everybody.”

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