The DVD rental kiosk originally slated for JDUC use in September won’t be available this year because it wasn’t “cost effective” to keep open for only three months after it’s deliver from Italy was delayed.
“The machines come from Italy–built on order, shipped from Italy,” said Nic di Cristo, the owner of Princess Street’s Videoself who negotiated last April and May with Bill York, AMS student services director, about creating a DVD rental kiosk in the JDUC.
The company di Cristo orders the kiosks from wasn’t able to deliver the machine in time for September. “Normally it takes around 45 days to get delivered, but it could have been due to backlog of orders they were working on,” di Cristo said. “It could be several reasons that maybe I don’t know of from the head office.”
After factoring in the December exam period, the holiday break, Reading Week and the April exam period, di Cristo said a delivery in December would have resulted in only two to three months of business before this summer.
“For me as a businessman, it didn’t make sense. It was not cost-effective,” he said.
Di Cristo said he hopes to have a DVD kiosk installed in the JDUC by the 2007-08 academic year.
York will no longer be student services director at that point, but he said he will leave a recommendation for his successor to put in a machine.
“I think it’s a benefit for students but that will be something for next year’s AMS to decide,” York said.
Di Cristo said he plans to try to organize this with next year’s AMS executive, and is waiting to speak with the new directors who are going to be in office next year.
“The possibility is always there. I’d like to do it because I think it would be a great service for the students.”
York said the AMS didn’t spend any money on the venture.
Students were supposed to rent movies from the automated kiosk, located in the JDUC’s upper ceilidh next to the Tricolour Market, using a prepaid hip card starting in September.
York and di Cristo said an agreement for the kiosk was in place had the machine been ready for installation.
Originally, di Cristo said, the DVD kiosk was set to arrive in September, but the delivery date was pushed back to the first week of December due to complications in getting the equipment delivered.
–With files from Anna Mehler Paperny
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be ed, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to [email protected].