Redbox Makers Try Their Hand At Coffee

Soon, you might be able to get your morning cup of Joe as quickly and conveniently as you get your movies from Redbox. Yes, that's right; the makers of Redbox are looking to dip into the booming coffee market with their new line of coffee dispensers, Rubi boxes.

"The coffee market is enourmous," said the general manager of Rubi to Bloomberg Buisinessweek. "The market is very much about convenience and desire. We've built a platform that can be in arm's length of desire."

Convenience and prudence is the name of the game for the new dispensers, which cater to the frugal shopper. The machines will serve over 28 brews of coffee and lattes at the shockingly low price of $1 to $1.50, with specialty drinks peaking at a mere $2. (Compare that to your Starbucks specialty drink, which could range from $3 to $6!) The machines feature Starbucks's Seattle's Best Coffee brand, which is brewed in a French press style in 12-ounce or 16-ounce cups.

However, one analyst points out the thing that's weighing on all our minds: quality. Michael Pachter argued that the new Rubi boxes will not affect the market in any way similar to the upset caused by Redbox, which continues to dominate the DVD rental market while old-school movie rentals like Blockbuster have imploded. "With Redbox you could get a DVD as cheaply as a dollar, and you've got exactly the same thing you got on video on demand for $5," he said." There is a distinct difference in the quality of coffee you get out of a machine and the coffee you get at a Starbucks."

Oh, if only a perfect world existed where we could get our elaborate lattes at the Rubi price.