Video rental

A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms agreed upon in a rental agreement or contract, which may be implied, explicit, or written. Many video rental stores also sell previously-viewed movies and/or new, unopened movies.

In the 1980s, video rental stores rented VHS and Beta tapes of movies, although most stores dropped Beta tapes when VHS won the format war. In the 2000s, video rental stores began renting DVDs, a digital format with higher resolution than VHS; DVDs eventually replaced videocassettes. In the 2010s, video rental stores added high-definition Blu-ray discs and game discs to their offerings. Video rentals are also offered in other business such as drugstores or convenience stores.

The widespread availability of video on demand on cable TV systems and VHS-by-mail services offered consumers ways of watching movies and other content without having to leave their home. With the advent of the widely-available and affordable World Wide Web, Internet services such as Netflix, a subscription "streaming" service have become increasingly popular since the mid–2000s. All of these new ways of watching movies have greatly reduced the demand for renting DVDs and other discs from video rental shops.

Typically, a customer must sign up for an account with the shop and give a form of security such as a credit card number or driver's license. If the customer does not return the movie, the store can charge the cost of the movie to the customer's credit card. If items are returned late, the shop usually charges late fees, which typically accumulate day by day. Some shops have policies where instead of late fees, they will treat overdue items as a sale after a certain date, and charge a price equivalent to a standard sale of that object (with appropriate deductions for the rental fee already paid and for its pre-opened condition).

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