Dollar Video Pro:

• Free membership

• Close location to campus

• A large adult film section (wink, wink)

• Cheap rates

• Large indie and classic section

• L.A. Tan is located within the store. Get a tan and rent movies at the same time.

• Daily Specials: On Mondays rent any two movies, get one catalog movie (an older movie) for free. Tuesdays, half-price late fees when you pay them off. Wednesdays, all rentals are half-priced.

Dollar Video Con:

• Late Fees. It’s the price of the movie charged everyday it’s not returned.

• No game rentals

• Short rental times. You can rent catalog movies for five days. But all new releases are one day rentals.

• Lots of their older movies are in VHS.

Blockbuster Pro:

• No late fees.

• The movie is guaranteed to be there, or it’s free

• Rent online and through the mail

• Library of over 85,000 titles

• Able to rent games

• Ability to download movies

Blockbuster Con:

• Farther from the NIU campus

• More expensive membership

BEST BET:

This is a story of big business versus the little guy. Right away, it looks like Blockbuster has everything. Blockbuster can cover guarantees, they have more services available to their customers and their name is very familiar. But then again, all of those things mean they need more money, which means they charge the costumer more.

Dollar Video may not be able to cover the guarantees, but it’s also a lot cheaper. At Dollar Video you get about the same selection of movies for a lot less. There are also better deals at Dollar Video, like the daily specials and the employee picks, which are free with a rental. At Blockbuster, there’s only a few free movies available a month.

At both places, you can buy previously viewed movies, although with an older selection, Dollar Video is cheaper.

Dollar Video is the best bet. It’s closer to campus, has cheaper rates, better daily deals and has all the new releases Blockbuster has. There’s also a closer feeling and connection made with the employees of Dollar Video, like employee Carol Hanisch said, “It’s a great place to work and it feels like family here.”