Yesterday around 1pm the US Postal Service picked up my red Netflix envelope with Slumdog Millionaire inside, preaddressed for the PO Box of their Tacoma, WA warehouse.
This morning at 6:36 am, Netflix emailed me my shipment with Slumdog Millionaire was received; and the next dvd in my queue would be shipped as soon as possible.
As soon as possible was today at 12:47 pm. My new dvd will be here tomorrow.
Wow.
The Red Envelope
Today the Chicago Tribune posted a story about the magical, mystical Netflix shipping and receiving team for greater Chicagoland; and it’s quite fascinating:
How Netflix gets your movies to your mailbox so fast
Out of sight in Carol Stream, 42 people move 60,000 discs daily with quiet efficiency. But don’t drop off your flicks there.
By Christopher BorrelliTribune reporter
August 4, 2009
The Netflix warehouse in Carol Stream does not appear on any map. Your odds of finding it are slightly better than your odds of stumbling upon a rare insect in a field of weeds.
One could drive to Carol Stream, stop in a random office park, climb from one’s car and scream, “Reveal thyself, Netflix!” This is not advisable. But the temptation remains.
If you subscribe to the DVD-rental service, the Netflix warehouse, which you know must exist somewhere; which a P.O. Box on every Netflix envelope suggests does exist; which processes your Netflix queue with alarming efficiency; which you bet will be as magical as you imagined if you ever stumble on it, overrun with dancing Oompa Loompas in matching jumpsuits of Netflix red, is one of those mythical New Economy temples.
Like an Amazon warehouse. Or an Apple warehouse. One imagines miles of pop ephemera between its brick-and-mortar walls — one imagines that limitless building from “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” but with 15,000 copies of “ Confessions of a Shopaholic.”
The truth is stranger.
I hope Netflix decides to tackle our economy next; that way we’d be buzzing again in no time.
