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Moving Pictures
Lake Anna couple comes up with new way to sell DVDs.Date published: 5/15/2004 By CATHY JETT Drive-thru video rental in the works Ruth and Richard Nehrboss enjoy brainstorming innovative businesses concepts. Most get tossed aside. But when friends told the Lake Anna couple that their idea for a drive-through DVD store was a keeper, the Nehrbosses decided to run with it. "It was the first idea we'd had that had no detractors," said Richard Nehrboss, 35, who retired early after selling his computer-services business in Minnesota. He and his wife, who is 43, kicked around ideas for their dream version of Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, and conducted informal focus-group interviews outside both stores. "Something can seem intuitive to me, but other people may see things a different way," Richard Nehrboss said. The result is DVDs on the Run--a site with four drive-through bays equipped with touch-screen computers and credit-card slots. A mechanical arm in the storage area overhead finds orders and drops them down a chute in 10 seconds. "Basically, a retiring baby boomer could buy it and service it every Tuesday when the new movies come in," Nehrboss said. For now, the business is just an 8- by 40-foot mockup tucked away in a Stafford County warehouse. But the Nehrbosses will decide shortly whether to build the prototype on property they own on State Route 3 in Spotsylvania County and franchise their idea, or try to sell the concept to a movie-rental company. Time is essential, because they aren't the only entrepreneurs interested in this approach. Movie Gallery, which has 2,146 video specialty stores nationwide, has opened a prototype drive-through movie and video-game rental store near its headquarters in Dothan, Ala. The Nehrbosses recently read an Associated Press article about Movie Gallery's plans. In it, a company spokesman was quoted as saying the idea was a first for the industry and could change the movie-rental business. "My first thought was, 'This is terrible,'" said Richard Nehrboss. Then he realized Movie Gallery's version, called Fast Forward, is different from their business. Fast Forward customers order from a touch-screen displaying a menu of the chain's top 25 movies and top five video games, then drive up to the next window to pick up their order and pay the attendant. "It's like a McDonald's," Nehrboss said.
Date published: 5/15/2004
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