Boxed In

A semi-regular and his friend whom Fernando had never seen before are in the store. As the semi-regular peruses the offerings upon the rental racks, the friend exchanges meaningless small talk with Fernando.

“What's the best movie that came out in the past year?” he asks of the Keeper.

“That depends on what you mean by 'best.' The Avengers, maybe?” Fernando answers. He tends not to think too heavily in absolutist terms like “best” and “worst”; as far as he is concerned, movies are either tolerable or they are wretched, with no real gradations within the categories.

“Yeah, that one was pretty good,” says the stranger. Fernando cannot think of a meaingful response or addendum to that, so he remains silent. The friend fidgets before the counter. “Have you ever thought about expanding?” he asks after he'd come across another conversational thread which might prove of interest.

“The thought had crossed my mind now and again. I'm busy crafting a business plan to that effect, actually.”

“Oh, really now?” he asks with unbecoming eagerness. “What exactly?”

Fernando has learned that one needs to play cards very close to the chest, indeed, in this world. “I don't want to get ahead of myself because everything depends on whether or not I can get that plot of land next door.” Fernando points across the counter and over the guest's shoulder, at the foyer's opposite wall.

“Oh, I was thinking you could stand to benefit from bringing a Redbox in here.”

Fernando feels one corner of his mouth twitch. “Wait what?”

“It could help you garner some extra income.”

“Uh, probably not.”

“How do you figure? Many stores have been going into that kind of partnership.” The guest's soothing tone and not inarticulate speech suggests to Fernando that he has a stake in getting Redboxes set up.

“I wager not very many of them are video rental places.” Fernando's voice is matter-of-fact. “Redbox stands more to gain than the business in question.”

“How do you figure?”

“I doubt Redbox would set up a kiosk if they were to experience negative profit thereby. Therefore, I must conclude that a Redbox makes, and keeps, more money from the rentals of their movies than the venue charges to keep the machine on-site. Considering that I am, myself, in the business of renting out movies, I would in effect be paying Redbox to rent out their movies at my location if I were to do such a thing, seeing as they would offer the same product that I do, and it is my experience that pissing away money is a bad idea. So, no, I don't see myself bringing in a Redbox inside my store anytime soon.”

Fernando's refutation of Friend's argument so cowed him that he left the store. The semi-regular customer paid and went on his way without incident.