Blockbuster Online: A Good Choice?

It must be said up front that I love watching movies. My wife and I often go to movies weekly and more often than that watch movies at home. I have been renting movies from video stores for many years. Remember the good old days of VHS? Sadly, the only video store close to my home is Blockbuster. I say sadly not because Blockbuster is bad, but I liked the competition and variety that more than one video store offered.

During one of my visits to Blockbuster, I notice they have a program called Total Access. I signed up at the store and started to receive my movies. Total Access has three levels. As of February, 2007 prices, Level 1 is $9.99. It entitles you to one movie at a time. Level 2 is $14.99. It entitles you to two movies at a time. Level 3 is $17.99. It entitles you to three movies at a time. I chose level 3. I think it's a great deal and here are the reasons.

Typically, I would rent about 4 to 6 movies a month. As of February 2007 prices, it would cost me about $24 a month. That would give me approximately 6 movies with an occasional coupon for a free movie. My level 3 cost is $17.99. Therefore, I am a saving about six dollars a month. The number of movies I am getting is far greater than six. My average is about 14 movies a month. That works out to about one movie every other day. If I wanted to, I could probably get close to 25 movies a month. How? The Total Access program at Blockbusters works like this. You sign up for your movies online, and they mail them to you similar to Netflix. Once you have seen a movie that was mailed to you, you can either mail it back or take it to a Blockbuster store for them to mail it. You can then pick a new movie. As soon as the distribution center receives your movie, they send out another one. The process just repeats, you're sent a movie, return it to the store, and choose another movie. Keep in mind that I have up to three movies at a time mailed to me plus what I pick up at the store. The most movies I have had in my possession at one time were five. Because the distribution center for the Blockbuster store I visit is only 8 miles away, I get the movies in the mail within two days and occasionally one day. The Blockbuster store I visit is within walking distance so I can also get my exercise when I shop for a movie.

If the distribution center was far away from your Blockbuster store, it would no doubt take longer for the movies to arrive at your home. Therefore, your chances of getting 25 movies a month would be slim. However, I see no reason why you could not easily get 12 to 14 movies a month with a level 3 plan.

In addition to getting a movie from the store and the mail, once a month I can print out a coupon from the website that gets me a free movie.

In the future I may drop down to level 2 to see if that suits my needs for a cheaper price. This is easy to do on the Blockbuster's website. Choosing the movies you want to see is equally easy to do on their website.

Like Netflix, they have a two week free trial. Give it a try and see if it works for you.

I have no monetary interest in Blockbuster and do not own any stock in the company. I just happen to like their Total Access program and recommend it to anyone who enjoys watching movies.