I’m also not sure “just ask the store manager if you can have it” is a good idea. It’s not theirs, and even though Redbox is going through bankruptcy it’s still an asset of the company that can be liquidated to pay debts.
Comment on Tinkerers Are Taking Old Redbox Kiosks Home and Reverse Engineering Them
gashead76@lemmy.world 1 week ago
It’s crazy to me that a company can just abandon hundreds (or thousands?) of 700 pound machines all over the place like this. I feel like there should be some kind of court order for the person last in charge of the company to drive the fuck around the country and clean up their mess.
acosmichippo@lemmy.world 1 week ago
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 1 week ago
But it’s abandoned on their property. If you abandoned something on a commercial property and never came to reclaim it, eventually (probably quite quickly) the store management would dispose of it. They’re not going to keep it around stinking up the place forever “just in case.”
acosmichippo@lemmy.world 1 week ago
yeah I’m sure there is a contract and/or standard legal processes that covers this situation. I’m just saying I wouldn’t rely on a casual interaction with a store manager to cover my ass legally, all for the benefit of putting Doom on a computer kiosk.
aniki@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
Mate who’s going to pay the lawyer fee to track down a single asset when the company is gone gone.
r00ty@kbin.life 1 week ago
What do you mean? Administrators/liquidators will have an entire list of assets owned by the bankrupt company.
They will be looking for a buyer to take on the whole company (assets and liabilities) or sell off the assets to cover liabilities.
Those boxes are still owned, they didn't magically become fair game because the company owning them went bankrupt.
If people advertise that they stole one of these boxes, they become fair game to be pursued by the liquidators/administrators or any entity buying the ownership of them.
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
Doing nothing costs a whole lot more than doing something, and then potentially risking getting sued.
Also no random manager is going to take that personal risk. They get paid like 40k a year.
Dkarma@lemmy.world 1 week ago
There’s no personal risk. If anything the store would pay. But again no one’s suing for this shit.
Takumidesh@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I got downvoted for this before, but, when you sublet your property like this, you take on an inherent risk. This isn’t any different to a bad tenant, or an investment not panning out.
Any business who accepted these red boxes should have either a) established contingency with Redbox themselves or, failing that, b) established a contingency through their own means by keeping liquidity to handle disposal of the machine (or something like insurance)
Don’t feel sorry for these businesses, they took a calculated risk, likely made lots of money over the last decade, and now are faced with potentially needing to use some of that revenue to dispose of the machines. Any normal business keeps assets and liquidity available to cover expenses of doing business, the same way a landlord needs to use some rent money to clean up after a bad tenant, it’s part of their business model. If a business thought these machines would just live there forever and magically go away when they aren’t making money anymore, that’s their fault.
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
These things happen more often than people assume. In these scenarios the asset usually has some value. So you need to contact the company, and send a certified letter stating “in x amount of time if this is not removed from the premises it will be disposed of” Then you just wait for no response and sell it or have someone take it for free.
This happens a lot with small trash companies that go out of business. In my experience there is a 50/50 chance that they or whoever bought their carcass will answer and claim the equipment.
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Or e-bikes
verity_kindle@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
That’s well put and cogent, you must not have gone to business school. ;)
Prox@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Most likely, they simply thought the machines would live long enough to be the next guy’s problem.