I've noticed this in other articles/media "trips" to warehouses before:
Forty-two people work here, nearly every one in a red Netflix T-shirt.
What is up with the shirts?
Inside a Netflix Warehouse
31–40 of 40 posts
Re: Inside a Netflix Warehouse
#32Interesting. I didn't expect Netflix to have a "fun" atmosphere like Zappos or anything, but it's funny to hear about a trendy web company with little, if any, character. I wonder why the employees are required to wear the red Netflix t-shirts. It's not like they need to look presentable for customers or anything...
I would imagine that working as some sort of engineer in the corporate headquarters is worlds apart from working in the warehouse sorting DVDs, and that you couldn't draw inferences about one from the other...
Re: Inside a Netflix Warehouse
#33Surprisingly manual process - at least on the incoming side. I was interested to know how many discs are stored at one warehouse, but that is probably too specific for them to disseminate freely.
I'm surprised too by the manual process described in the article.
I wonder why it itsn't more automated, they could photograph the disc to see if it matches the sleeve for example. It seems like a terrible job to manually check the discs.
Re: Inside a Netflix Warehouse
#34Surprisingly manual process - at least on the incoming side. I was interested to know how many discs are stored at one warehouse, but that is probably too specific for them to disseminate freely.
I'm surprised too by the manual process described in the article. I wonder why it itsn't more automated, they could photograph the disc to see if it matches the sleeve for example. It seems like a terrible job to manually check the discs.
How quick and accurate is image matching? They can recognise the sleeve quickly but not, it seems the discs. OCR-ing movie titles from discs would be near impossible with any degree of accuracy.
Is there not a unique code/barcode around the central hole on the back though? Or could they overprint a barcode?
Re: Inside a Netflix Warehouse
#35I loved this recent slideshow on Netflix culture: http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664
Also see the HN comments here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=740524
Re: Inside a Netflix Warehouse
#36"Its biggest secret remains the warehouses themselves -- for two reasons. No. 1, each holds several million DVDs, not to mention expensive mail-sorting gizmos and dry-board posted statistics on how many discs were recently returned damaged, placed in the wrong sleeve or scratched. And No. 2, Netflix has grown leery of what happens when customers learn the location of a warehouse -- they drop off DVDs at the door." Th…
> 4. Drop Off DVDs at the door - This is a bad thing, why?
Because their process is designed around 1000X as many DVDs coming in through a different entrance, probably with some "packaging" that they've optimized around.
DVDs at the door are an exception and exceptions are even more expensive in the physical world. And, that's ignoring the cost of dealing with folks who think that they can pick up new DVDs when they drop off their old ones.
Re: Inside a Netflix Warehouse
#37similar story about the netflix warehouse in Hartford, CT. http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-netflix-0722.ar...
Re: Inside a Netflix Warehouse
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
About marginal cost, it's not obvious to me that postage both ways plus sorting is more expensive than bandwidth plus royalties. Given that postage gets more expensive and bandwidth gets cheaper, streaming should be cheaper at some point if it isn't already.
> bandwidth plus royalties I think I've read that Netflix has an agreement with the studios where they pay per shipment rather than per DVD. So, having 1000 of a new DVD on hand costs little more than having only a few. The studios like it because it aligns Netflix's cost structure with their own (basically fixed), so agency costs are minimized. I'm sure that Netflix pays less for bandwidth than Amazon sells theirs f…
According to Mark Cuban, I am very wrong:
http://blogmaverick.com/2009/08/05/the-ultimate-movie-parado...
Re: Inside a Netflix Warehouse
#39OK, so where is this warehouse? I doubt that they have kept the location secret for this long. (Also, who cares where it is?)
If you want to know, then go to the post office, and follow unmarked trucks.
Re: Inside a Netflix Warehouse
#40I've noticed this in other articles/media "trips" to warehouses before: Forty-two people work here, nearly every one in a red Netflix T-shirt. What is up with the shirts?
What they probably did was hand out shirts to the employees to look snappy for the visiting dignatary. Most companies I've worked for try to do the same. Some require higher "dress levels" when visitors are coming (like the current one says "no shorts & flip flops; use business casual" only on days when important-enough outsiders come by.