Rogers Plus was a brand name for the retail operations of

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of mobile phone operator, wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet access, Intern ...

. It was formerly two separate brands, namely the Rogers Wireless chain of telecommunications stores previously operated by

InterTAN InterTAN was created by Tandy Corporation in 1986 to operate Radio Shack stores in Canada, Europe and Australia. After the UK locations, which were branded 'Tandy', were sold to Carphone Warehouse in 1999 and the Australian locations (which were a ...

under licence from Rogers, and the Rogers Video chain of

video rental store A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms a ...

s. In early 2007, Rogers retired the Rogers Video and Rogers Wireless brand names from its stores and re-branded them as Rogers Plus. At its peak, there were over 300 Rogers Plus stores. Rogers Plus stores also provided sales and service for cable television, Internet, home phone service and wireless phone service in markets where they offered these services.

History

1980s to 1990s: inception, acquisitions and expansion

Rogers Video was established in 1988. The company's operations grew considerably in the 1990s through take-overs of smaller, local chains. For example, in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

and

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, Rogers took over eight stores from TVS Video Superstore and Family Video (not to be confused with the Saskatoon-based Family Video chain that became VHQ) chains. These acquisitions allowed Rogers Video to gain the title of the fifth largest video rental shop chain in North America until its demise. In the country's

National Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...

, which mainly consists of

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, the rental chain agreed to provide services in both English and French. Rogers Video also received multiple "Canadian Retailer of the Year" awards in that decade and the next to come.

2000s: DVD-by-mail service and rebranding

In 2004, Rogers Video began a partnership with

Zip.ca Zip.ca was an online Video rental shop, DVD rental and Interactive kiosk, movie rental kiosk company operating in Canada. It had a database of over 82,000 unique titles. Zip.ca was a member of the privately held Momentous Group of companies and ...

to provide a DVD-by-mail service called Rogers Video Direct. This allowed users to rent online and have

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

s delivered by mail. In December 2011, Rogers Video Direct closed and customers were redirected to the Zip.ca website. The company changed the name of their chain to Rogers Plus in 2007.

2010s: rental business discontinued, another rebranding

Competitor Blockbuster Canada shut down all of its Canadian video rental stores in 2011. Following this, Rogers Plus also announced plans to shut down its video rental operations. Rogers ceased rentals on April 16, 2012 and sold all of its previously viewed rental inventory at "

buy one, get one free "Buy one, get one free" or "two for the price of one" is a common form of sales promotion. Economist Alex Tabarrok has argued that the success of this promotion lies in the fact that consumers value the first unit significantly more than the sec ...

" prices to customers. The majority of the Rogers Plus stores would remain open and continue to offer cable TV, Internet, and wireless products and services, although most of these downsized and/or relocated to smaller spaces in the same mall/plaza, as the now-redundant space for rental operations took up over half of typical Rogers Plus store footprint. In May 2012, the company announced in stores and on their website that they would cease renting movies and games, encouraging customers to choose Rogers Anyplace TV or Rogers On Demand instead. In October 2012, the Rogers Plus brand name was phased out and remaining stores were simply branded as Rogers stores, similar to how

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in t ...

and

Telus Communications Telus Communications Inc. (TCI) is the wholly owned principal subsidiary of Telus Corporation, a Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voi ...

stores are branded.

Awards

Rogers won multiple "Canadian Retailer of the Year" awards. Five were awarded by

Premiere A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...

in 1992 and from 1994 to 1997 inclusive. Four more were awarded by

Entertainment Merchants Association The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) is the not-for-profit international trade association dedicated to advancing the interests of the $32 billion home entertainment industry. The Mission of EMA is to promote, to protect, and to p ...

in 1993, 1995 and 1997.

References

External links

Rogers Plus Website
{{Video rental shops Retail companies established in 1988 Retail companies disestablished in 2012 Companies based in Toronto Rogers Communications Video rental services of Canada