Circle K’s Canadian sister chain gets Movie Spot kiosks

Signifi installs five Movie Spot machines at Ontario's Mac's

By Danny King -- Video Business, 12/17/2008

DEC. 17 | Mac’s Convenience Stores, the Canadian convenience-store chain whose parent company also owns Circle K, installed five Movie Spot movie-rental kiosks from self-service kiosk maker Signifi Solutions, the companies said in a statement today.

Mac’s now has Movie Spot kiosks at three locations in and around Toronto, one in Oshawa and one in Fergus. Movie Spot, which began installing kiosks in stores two months ago, has 10 other machines at Rabba Fine Foods, Sobeys and Zellers stores and expects to have as many as 300 across Canada by the end of next year.

Signifi, whose products also include photography and CD kiosks, is testing a North American movie-rental kiosk market expected to grow as video-rental store chains such as Blockbuster and Movie Gallery contract. With more than 10,000 machines in the U.S., Redbox is North America’s largest kiosk operator. No. 2 TNR/Moviecube started installing machines at Loblaw supermarkets in Canada this year.

Movie Spot kiosks carry about 1,000 DVDs covering about 300 titles and charge C$1.99 per nightly rental. The pilot program with Mac’s also allows customers to rent movies on Movie Spot’s Web site and pick them up at the kiosks within four hours.

Owned by Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard, Mac’s is Ontario’s largest convenience-store chain and has more than 2,000 stores in Canada. Couche-Tard also owns Circle K, which has 2,100 stores in the U.S.