DVD, game rental store to open in Towers complex
Three CMU students will turn a class project into reality when a video rental store opens in the Towers this fall.
Mount Pleasant senior Matt Schleede, Clare junior Ty Turner and Pinconning junior Andrew Wiess are the brains behind Director’s Cut, which is scheduled to open Aug. 20.
The store will feature roughly 200 DVD movies — most of which will be new releases — and 50 video games for both Xbox and Playstation2, as well as movie posters, Turner said.
Wiess said rental rates for new releases will start as high as $2.75, but will lower once things get going.
“We’re trying to be competitive with all the other rental stores around Mount Pleasant,” he said. “I think it’s going to be very successful.”
The idea for the store came about while the three were eating lunch one day with Bovee University Center Bookstore Assistant Manager Blake Anthes.
“We went out to lunch with Blake and talked about it and it just came up in passing conversation,” Schleede said. “We brought the idea up to our professor (Charles Fitzpatrick, Small Business Development Center director) and he said it was a good idea and we could use it for the class (ENT 492: Special Issues in Entrepreneurship).”
The assignment called for the students to form a business plan, and the idea for the video rental store fit the bill. They then gave presentations to the entrepreneurship advisory board, the BUC Bookstore and Residence Life and were given the green light for the project.
“The higher-ups have OK’d it and we’ve been ordering fixtures and movies,” Schleede said. “Right now, Residence Life is constructing the room and we expect to have everything set to go by the middle of August.”
The store will be located on the first floor of Carey Hall, where the Academic Advising Office was until its move to the new Towers.
Turner said the three will serve as student managers, but they are still looking for other employees. The store is being funded by the BUC Bookstore and Residence Life.
“The bookstore is paying for fixtures, movies and wages and Residence Life provided the space and construction,” Turner said.
Schleede said Residence Life was a large help in making the plan a reality.
“It was very nice for Residence Life to help us out as much as they did,” he said.
Turner said the store will be open from 5 p.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday and either 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. to midnight Friday through Sunday.
“I think it was a good opportunity and we’re lucky to have the opportunity to do it,” Schleede said. “I think students will enjoy being able to go downstairs instead of having to go to their cars and drive to a local place.”
