Come on, Southperry!

Let's say I lose the umbrella. How much does it cost me?

Lets say they cost us $7, you'd pay $8 or $9. From some really basic estimates, based on the size of my campus, and even like 5% of people using it, between ads, late fees and other things, we might be able to go as lower. At this time we don't really know.

wouldn't this be impractical since it'd probably cost more money to pay the kiosk workers than you would get umbrella renters?

Or is this not about the money, but for the mere sake of convenience?

The whole system is automated. It's a small kiosk with an LCD screen, coin slot/card scanner (For college campus IDs), and slots for the umbrellas. While the the first year we would be in the hole because of the startup costs, over time it become rather profitable, here anyway, because of the amount of rain/snow we get.