Ok, so somebody tell me why Netflix don't do business on the weekends?!? I'm sure they can hire a few more employees for the weekends. It's not even the weekends, just saturday.
Extra employees means less money for Netflix. If the site I looked at is correct, there are 42 distribution centers in the US. Think about if they added 2 employees for that saturday shift? Or if they just paid 2 people already working overtime. If I'm running a business and being open a extra day doesn't bring me in any extra money and ends up costing me, I'm not going to be open.
But I think once Netflix becomes more popular, maybe they will have to start receiving and delivering on Saturdays to keep up with demand.
Actually, I think they used to be open on Saturday's - once upon a time. We had the service back in 2001 or 2002 and I believe they did accept returns on Saturdays. But like you said, it costs more money so they probably stopped specifically to save.
As for becoming more popular - I can't see how. Putting aside the TV ads, they have or had a deal w/ Best Buy where the service was advertised on DVD boxes. That's what made us try them the first time. We went to buy a DVD player and there was an offer for 1 month free. We had heard of Netflix from some friends of ours and so that coupled w/ the "Free time" made us decided to sign up.
I'm only guessing, but I'm sure some smaller states don't need a whole center to themselves. Texas has two and California has 3. I don't see one in Wyoming, Montana, or any of the Dakotas. Probably states in New England share a couple of centers.
The service is available in all areas of the US. If there's no distribution center in your state, they mail your discs from another one. When I first subscribed to Netflix in 2000, there was no distribution center in the state where I lived (Ohio) or where I went to college (Arizona). They used to mail my discs from Lansing, MI or San Jose, CA, respectively. It took longer, of course, but the service was certainly available.
Even if you have a center in your state they sometimes ship from other centers. Our center is approx. 1 to 2 hours away, but if they don't have "our" movie, it comes from somewhere in Ohio.
I found it pretty funny... Though never taking courses in business, I have a firm grasp of it...
My point, mojaam, was that Netflix revving up their distribution centers an extra 20% of the time will raise their labor costs just about as much, for a very marginal increase in service.
I never looked at Netflix as a service to get DVDs right away. If I wanted that, I'd go to Blockbuster (and pay a lot more for that instant gratification, with 1/3 of the selection). As it is, Netflix is setup as a service for patient people who like to watch DVDs at their leisure, and works perfectly as such.
And what good would it do them to be open on Saturdays? They'd get the incoming stuff, but by the time it was sorted, repackaged and labeled, it would be too late for it to get into the mail because even the post office doesn't work a full day on Saturday, and not at all on Sundays.
That's not true the post office is open 24/7 - overnight and Sundays they sort and ship mail (truck, plane, etc.) With the volume that Netflix has, I'm sure that if they brought them over on Saturday evening, we'd all get them Monday morning. However, if they don't check them in until Monday, then they've gained an extra couple of days in viewing (as does not being open on Saturdays) by the customer and this results in less product cycle turns = less shipping costs & less damage costs. <-- By opening on Saturday, they'd have to raise their prices to deal with the increases in increased viewing and shipping costs & damage costs. And so, they'd have to recalculate their complex avg. turns * costs - price = profit formula to include Saturday shipping, even if the Post Office isn't open then.
That's way more info, but figured I'd show my logic.
I surely wrote that I was a business major and that's the way I think of things. However, I'm also a busi lil beaver, since that's our mascot (appropriately so for a business college in New England, huh?)
The bulk mail facilities may be open 24/7, but the local stations certainly are not. I've lived an some very large cities and never seen a post office open on a Sunday. My sister in law the postal sorting supervisor does not work Sundays, and her facility in Phoenix is only open until 12 on Saturday.
But the point most people have made is perfectly valid - the cost of keeping the sorting facilities open is not one Netflix wants to pay. And let me just say, as the spouse of a Netflix employee, it's not just the dollar cost of keeping a facility open to mail a few more movies. It's the human cost of allowing employees to have a life outside of work, and of treating them with respect and paying them decently. People at Netflix take a lot of pride in having a great workplace. It's something that I didn't know back when I was just a customer. Sure, you can switch to Blockbuster, but you'd be supporting a system that just sucks. At Netflix, you're supporting a system that takes care of more than just the CEO and stockholders.
My question to you is what benefit do you hope to gain by having Netflix workers toiling away on weekends?
The post office has limited retail service on Saturdays and isn't (as far as I know) open for retail service on Sundays. (There was a time not so many decades ago when the post office was even closed on Saturdays. It's taking them time to catch up to our modern fast-paced 20th* century lifestyles).
Netflix "could" use the weekend to get out from under any backlog they have. The thing is, the numbers show that if there is a backlog after Friday's processing, it is very small.
Based on the rental histories of 573 customers and 110,000 rentals, the high volume days for incoming DVDs are Monday and Tuesday. By comparison, Friday's volume is 40% lighter than Monday's. Friday is used to finish up any unfinished processing earlier in the week.
The numbers (percentage of incoming DVDs by weekday) -------------------------------------------------------
Monday:
25%
Tuesday:
24%
Wednesday:
19%
Thursday:
16%
Friday:
15%
* (It's a sarcastic joke. I know we are in the 21th century now).
That's very interesting. That would suggest that the most common use case is for people to watch one to two movies during the week but to do most of their viewing on the weekends (starting Friday night).
Yes - the stats indicate that more DVDs are being dropped into mailboxes on Saturdays and Mondays than other days of the week. If it is true that most people in the country receive one-day mail service to their nearest distribution center, that results in spikes in processing volume for Netflix on Mondays and Tuesdays.
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July 19 2005, 14:10:46 UTC 6 years ago
But I think once Netflix becomes more popular, maybe they will have to start receiving and delivering on Saturdays to keep up with demand.
July 19 2005, 14:28:18 UTC 6 years ago
As for becoming more popular - I can't see how. Putting aside the TV ads, they have or had a deal w/ Best Buy where the service was advertised on DVD boxes. That's what made us try them the first time. We went to buy a DVD player and there was an offer for 1 month free. We had heard of Netflix from some friends of ours and so that coupled w/ the "Free time" made us decided to sign up.
July 19 2005, 18:58:31 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 15:13:17 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 15:27:10 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 17:05:32 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 17:09:01 UTC 6 years ago
;-)
Where do you get your list? My list only had Chicago.
Here's my list:
http://www.listology.com/netflix_tracke
July 19 2005, 15:42:58 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 19:24:04 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 19:30:44 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 14:23:52 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 14:36:24 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 15:16:00 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 17:04:02 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 17:32:34 UTC 6 years ago
My point, mojaam, was that Netflix revving up their distribution centers an extra 20% of the time will raise their labor costs just about as much, for a very marginal increase in service.
I never looked at Netflix as a service to get DVDs right away. If I wanted that, I'd go to Blockbuster (and pay a lot more for that instant gratification, with 1/3 of the selection). As it is, Netflix is setup as a service for patient people who like to watch DVDs at their leisure, and works perfectly as such.
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
July 19 2005, 16:46:30 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 17:03:26 UTC 6 years ago
That's way more info, but figured I'd show my logic.
I'm a busi
July 19 2005, 17:16:23 UTC 6 years ago
.... a busi lil beaver? :=
July 19 2005, 17:37:01 UTC 6 years ago
I surely wrote that I was a business major and that's the way I think of things. However, I'm also a busi lil beaver, since that's our mascot (appropriately so for a business college in New England, huh?)
July 19 2005, 17:40:07 UTC 6 years ago
:runs:
6 years ago
6 years ago
July 19 2005, 17:31:43 UTC 6 years ago
The bulk mail facilities may be open 24/7, but the local stations certainly are not. I've lived an some very large cities and never seen a post office open on a Sunday. My sister in law the postal sorting supervisor does not work Sundays, and her facility in Phoenix is only open until 12 on Saturday.
But the point most people have made is perfectly valid - the cost of keeping the sorting facilities open is not one Netflix wants to pay. And let me just say, as the spouse of a Netflix employee, it's not just the dollar cost of keeping a facility open to mail a few more movies. It's the human cost of allowing employees to have a life outside of work, and of treating them with respect and paying them decently. People at Netflix take a lot of pride in having a great workplace. It's something that I didn't know back when I was just a customer. Sure, you can switch to Blockbuster, but you'd be supporting a system that just sucks. At Netflix, you're supporting a system that takes care of more than just the CEO and stockholders.
July 19 2005, 18:32:41 UTC 6 years ago
I've been in my post office on Sundays using the automated machine and have been interrupted by workers emptying the machine.
July 19 2005, 19:59:39 UTC 6 years ago
The post office has limited retail service on Saturdays and isn't (as far as I know) open for retail service on Sundays. (There was a time not so many decades ago when the post office was even closed on Saturdays. It's taking them time to catch up to our modern fast-paced 20th* century lifestyles).
Netflix "could" use the weekend to get out from under any backlog they have. The thing is, the numbers show that if there is a backlog after Friday's processing, it is very small.
Based on the rental histories of 573 customers and 110,000 rentals, the high volume days for incoming DVDs are Monday and Tuesday. By comparison, Friday's volume is 40% lighter than Monday's. Friday is used to finish up any unfinished processing earlier in the week.
The numbers (percentage of incoming DVDs by weekday)
----------------------------------------
* (It's a sarcastic joke. I know we are in the 21th century now).
July 19 2005, 20:04:05 UTC 6 years ago
July 19 2005, 23:18:20 UTC 6 years ago