Two area businesses partner to lure customers into shops - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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The owners of , a moviw rental store on Bardstown Road, near Highland Avenue, recentl formed a partnership with that places drop boxes for Wild and Woolly rentals at all sevejn HeineBrothers locations. The idea for the partnership came from Todd owner of Wildand Woolly. “Inn my mind, the fun part of renting moviews is coming in the store and picking things Brashear said. “Returning it is usually just a chore.” Brashear said he wanted to make the returnj process easier by placing return boxes at placesz where peoplestop frequently, such as grocery storezs or coffee shops.
Heine Brothers made sensee as a drop-off location, he said, not only because he likeds its coffee, but also because the companhy has multiple locations and a strong presence in theHighlandd area, which is home to many of his Part of the he said, is that Wild and Woollyy customers dropping off movies also mightt buy something at Heine Brothers, if they’rw not already there to do so. Brashea r also said he wanted to ensured that theboxes didn’t become a nuisancde or distraction for Heine Brothers’ The boxes have been in place for abouyt a month, Brashear said. So far, his biggesg single-day “haul” was about 70 movies.
“Io think that’s definitely wortnh my time and shows that peopled are into the Brashear said. As a local, independen t operator, Heine Brothers is trying to competr inan already-crowded market for coffes consumers, said Mike Mays, who co-owns the local chainh with Gary Heine. So keeping their business “topp of mind” with consumers is important, and the partnership with the 12-year-olf video store allows them to dojust “It just makes perfect sense,” Mays “His customers are our customers, and vice The more people we can get walking in our fronft doors, the better.
” As part of the Heine Brothers has offered coupons for its stores at Wild and Woolly, but Mays didn’tg have a final tallyy on how many had been redeemed. Mays said busineszs at Heine Brothersis “still healthy and strong, but I’sd be lying if I said that the last 18 months hadn’t been a little tighter” than before. The ownerd hold weekly meetings to address ways they can lure 25 to 50 more customersd per day into each oftheir stores.
Brashear, who collects the videoa himself, said he believes the drop-boxs concept will help Wild and Woolly competed with Redbox video rental machines and the Netflix mail But he said Wild and Woolly built a strong customerr base before Redbox and Netflixbecamde popular, which lessened any adverse effects. “Our nichse has protected us, to a certain degree,” he said, adding that the businesds also has changed its pricing structurs in the past two years to providemore options. “I’m sure we wouldr be doing a whole lot better without Redboxand Netflix, but we’re still doing well. It hasn’tf killed us like it has a lot of other stores.
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