West Des Moines Gets Another Option to Rent a Movie on the Fly

Think Redbox is the only place you can get affordable movies in West Des Moines?

Think again. And now, think differently.

MediaStop, one of the newest ventures in media and entertainment kiosks, is starting to pop up in the Des Moines metropolitan area, founded by three Ankeny men with entrepreneurial spirits and an idea.

With MediaStop, not only can customers get DVD and Blu-Ray movies and new releases a month before the movies are available in Redbox units, said Travis Wilcox, vice president of sales and marketing with MediaStop, but each one also has the capacity to one day offer customers the ability to download media files to own.

“We’re already positioned for the future by offering this,” Wilcox said. “We’re giving you something Redbox either can’t or won’t.”

The West Des Moines MediaStop kiosk will be located at mall and should be installed by the end of the week, Wilcox said. The cost to rent movies is $1.20 per night. Blu-Ray rentals are $1.50 per night.

“They (Redbox) left so many open doors, which we designed our business around. We looked to see where we could fill in the gaps.”

Wilcox and his two business partners, who wish to remain anonymous, all live in Ankeny. He said they saw what Redbox was doing, but they also saw a lot of things the company was not doing to appeal to customers and business owners.

“They left so many open doors, which we designed our business around,” Wilcox said. “We looked to see where we could fill in the gaps.”

So, You Want Your Own Kiosk?

In addition to offering more entertainment options to consumers, the guys behind MediaStop focused on the business investment portion of their idea to ensure others could get involved should it interest them.

They did this by merging the ideas of entrepreneurship, location and advertising.

One benefit to MediaStop is any interested individual can own one of the company’s units and place it where they would like, including apartment complexes, colleges, hospitals and more. This isn’t offered by any kiosk company, Wilcox said.

Advertisers can also purchase space on the kiosk.

“We give you that opportunity you will never have with Redbox, and we do that because it’s an investment — an opportunity to for someone to get into a business that’s growing by leaps and bounds,” Wilcox said. “They can determine their own level of investment.”

What MediaStop is offering both customers and potential business owners is 100 percent “unique”, Wilcox said. The company also is celebrating the opening of a location in Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines this week.

“You’re going to start seeing these all over,” Wilcox said.