QUICK PICKS: Renting vidoes in Cache Valley
For this edition of Quick Picks we thought it might be a good idea to focus on a particularly popular activity available to students rather than food items. Considering the plethora of fun things to do in Cache Valley, we narrowed the list down to an activity enjoyed by all – renting videos. To make your choices a bit easier, I took the liberty of asking around at a few of the top local video rental shops. This is what I came up with.
3 (Tie). Flicks Club – Flicks Club is a fairly new addition to the video rental lineup. Basically, they have figured out a way to beat the system by charging one yearly fee and calling themselves a club. They specialize in edited videos for more sensitive audiences. I have seen Gladiator and The Matrix under their editing supervision, although they were both still extremely violent. Flicks Club offers a variety of membership plans which happens to be a little better than the video selection itself.
3 (Tie). Blockbuster Video – Blockbuster and Hollywood tend to have very similar prices and selections. The one thing that puts Blockbuster in third place is the confusion they put on the length of the rental term. New releases in a red box are $3.92, and are due back in two days by noon. Blue box rentals are the same price, but you can keep them for five days. Regular releases run $2.11 and can be kept for five days as well. Personally, I’d rather they just keep it simple.
2. Hollywood Video – They have slowly made a name for themselves in this valley. New releases and DVDs run $3.79 which isn’t bad and the older videos are $1.99. Their big promotion is their guarantee to always have a couple of the newest releases in stock. This would be great if they had enough copies of the video to back it up. Unfortunately, being in Logan has its disadvantages, so plan on walking away with a raincheck rather than the newest video in your hands.
1. Hastings – By now it has definitely found its niche in the Cache Valley economy and everyone who has ever rented a video there knows why. Their new release price is better than all the rest at $3.49, and older movies are only $.49. That price is unheard of elsewhere. They claim to have thousands of movies in stock, and I personally have never been disappointed. The only drawback is a $1 membership fee. When I went in the first time, my name was miraculously already in the computer, maybe yours is too.