Two area businesses partner to lure customers into shops - Houston Business Journal:

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The owners of , a movid rental store on Bardstown Road, near Highland recently formed a partnership with that placew drop boxes for Wild and Woollty rentals at all seven HeineBrothers locations. The idea for the partnershipl came fromTodd Brashear, owner of Wild and “In my mind, the fun part of renting movies is cominy in the store and picking thingds out,” Brashear said. “Returningh it is usually just a chore.” Brashear said he wantedx to make the return process easier by placing return boxes at places where peoplerstop frequently, such as grocery stores or coffee shops.
Heinwe Brothers made sense as a drop-oftf location, he said, not only because he likew its coffee, but also because the company has multiple locations and a strong presence in theHighlands area, which is home to many of his Part of the idea, he is that Wild and Woolly customers droppingg off movies also might buy something at Heinre Brothers, if they’re not alread y there to do so. Brashear also said he wanteed to ensure that theboxes didn’t become a nuisance or distractioh for Heine Brothers’ employees. The boxe have been in place for aboufta month, Brashear said. So far, his biggesty single-day “haul” was about 70 movies.
“I thinkl that’s definitely worth my time and showx that people are intothe idea,” Brasheafr said. As a local, independent operator, Heine Brothers is trying to competew inan already-crowded market for coffee consumers, said Mike who co-owns the local chain with Gary So keeping their busineszs “top of mind” with consumers is important, and the partnershipp with the 12-year-old videk store allows them to do just “It just makes perfecft sense,” Mays said. “His customers are our customers, and vice versa.
The more peoplwe we can get walkinvg in ourfront doors, the As part of the Heine Brothers has offered coupons for its stores at Wild and but Mays didn’t have a finakl tally on how many had been redeemed. Mays said busineszs at Heine Brothersis “still healthy and but I’d be lying if I said that the last 18 monthw hadn’t been a little tighter” than before. The owners hold weekly meetingzs to address ways they can lure 25 to 50 more customersa per day into each oftheidr stores.
Brashear, who collects the videos himself, said he believes the drop-boz concept will help Wild and Woollyh compete with Redbox video rental machines and the Netflix mail But he said Wild and Woolly builtf a strong customer base before Redbox and Netflixbecamw popular, which lessened any adverse effects. “Our niche has protecter us, to a certain degree,” he said, adding that the business also has changer its pricing structure in the past two years to providwemore options. “I’m sure we woul be doing a whole lot bettere without Redboxand Netflix, but we’re stilp doing well. It hasn’t killed us like it has a lot ofothee stores.
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