Whatever I lose on opportunity cost (i.e. not watching as movies as I could), I’m probably making back in saved late fees on Netflix movies I get and which sit around for a month before I actually watch them. It’s not uncommon for me to cycle through movies B & C while movie A spends six weeks waiting in the wings for me to watch it. but when I DO get around to it, the movie is right there waiting for me.
Also, I like the fact that I can be more daring with my movie selections. If I pick a movie and it sucks eggs, I don’t feel any obligation to watch it just because I paid $3 for it. It’s out of the DVD player and back into the mail in a flash.
When we used to spend maybe $20/month or so renting stuff from the local Blockbuster, we’d automatically pay twice that at least in late fees. Those fees were killing us. We really suck at returning things on time. Netflix was a godsend, as far as what it costs per month. Now we get so many more movies and TV shows to watch from Netflix, I laugh every time I drive past Blockbuster. If you manage to run out of things to watch, you can always put your account on hold for a few months.
Yup, selection and convenience. We finally got a “real” video store in the local burg (before that it was gas stations), but the selection is pretty limited. Not many British TV shows or obscure stuff. We tend to stay away from the mainstream, and the local place . . . doesn’t. Yay Netflix!
Not only has Netflix spared me from the video rental places, it’s allowed me to cut expenses by canceling my cable. Any show that’s worth watch will come out on DVD eventually, I put it on my Netflix queue, and I can watch the whole series at my own pace without commercials. I do miss out on the “What’s going to happen next week?” water cooler talk, but the ease and saved money more than make up for that. I’m pretty sure I save money over traditional rental methods, too. I’ve had The Royal Tannenbaums sitting around my apartment for three weeks now. I’m going to watch it sooner or later, but my dithering isn’t costing me any extra dough. If I’d got the film from Blockbuster, I’d have had to return it by now to avoid late fees, and I’d probably never actually see the film.
Yeah, Netflix for me all the way. I can’t even imagine renting from Blockbuster, anymore.
Even the popular stuff it seems the brick and mortar places don’t have any more, particularly when it comes to TV shows on DVD. (Or if they have a show, they don’t have all the seasons.) But Netflix really pays for me because I always forget to take movies back and accrue massive, massive fines.
Blockbuster (IMHO) sucked as a brick & mortar. I don’t have any inclination to try them as an online business and assume I’m not the only one who feels that way.
I’m definitely there with you. One of the reasons I was so overjoyed when I first heard about Netflix was the craptastic Blockbuster in the town I was living in. There was no way you could get in and out of there with a movie in less than 30 minutes unless you showed up at very odd hours. Pretty much every time I went there (Saturdays, evenings after 5, etc) there would be 3-5 teenage employees out front smoking cigarettes, one pimply-faced nerd employee left running the one open check-out lane, and a line a mile long.
The first statement quoted explains the second. Blockbuster’s main selling point for their online system is that you can take the mailed movies into a brick-and-mortar store and exchange them right there, rather than having to wait a couple of days to mail out and back.
However, since a lot of people who like Netflix like it in part because they don’t have to go to a brick-and-mortar store, this selling point isn’t very good at taking customers away from Netflix. It may grab people who avoided Netflix because of the lack of a b-a-m store, but that’s not the same as cutting into Netflix’s business.
I will admit I did like it when Blockbuster was within walking distance; frequently on a Friday night I would call up and order take-out Chinese, walk to the shopping center next door where the BB and Chinese restaurant were and pick out a movie or two. By the time I was done with BB, the food would be ready and I’d head home for a pleasant night. After I moved, though, it was Netflix all the way.
I tried the online version for awhile. It sucked. Most of the movies they had listed as “available now” weren’t really available and the idea is you’re supposed to just put tons of stuff in your queue so they can pick what they feel like sending. The concept of sending you the movies you want in the order you put them in your queue was lost on them. Then the discs you did get were frequently cracked or broken and we got the wrong discs multiple times. Their shipping times were slower than Netflix even though both shipping centers were in San Jose, same zipcode.
It’s no surprise to me they can’t cut into Netflix’s business.
I suspect it was responsible for Netflix cutting their fees, so I’m all for it even if I’d never use it. When it started, the Netlfix stock price was affected, but I haven’t tracked sales figures since.
When I lived in NJ, all the video stores in our town were locally owned. They had a pretty good selection of obscure stuff, and I liked supporting my neighbors. When we moved here it was chains only. We hardly watched anything until we got Netflix.
Another good thing about Netflix. If you browse past a movie you never heard of, you can google it right there and get reviews. In a store you can read the box and try to guess if it is any good.
Some of their recommendations are fairly intelligent too.
Another nice thing about Netflix is our own Cafe Society. Quite often someone will reference some obscure movie I’ve never heard of, I doubt a local store would have it, and I’d never remember to look even if it did. With Netflix I just copy & paste the movie into Netflix, click, click and it’s added.
The last is the decider for me. My movie watching is mostly (not exclusively, of course) in a single niche - anime. It’s been a while since I last checked a rental place, but they really don’t stock what I’m usually interested in. Netflix does. (mostly)
ETA: As for Redbox, there’s only one nearby that I know about - and it’s all recent movies that you’d probably have to pay me to watch. And even then I’d be grousing. Also I don’t have a car, so that limits things, too - even though there are a number of rental places I can reach via the bus, the time factor is signifigant, I believe. As is the added cost for the bus fare.
Also, with Netflix you never feel guilty about renting your favorite movies multiple times. Even though I have a bad habit of holding onto movies for months at a time, I would bet I still save money with Netflix because I feel less of a desire to buy DVDs. If all I want to do is see that one scene with that guy about the thing, I can just pop it into my queue, get it in a few days, throw it back in the mail when I’m done and that’s one less thing cluttering up my tiny apartment.
Count me into the “Netflix Binge” crowd. Right now I’m actually up to 5 out at a time. This means I always have them around and the longer ship times (since I watch quite a few) doesn’t bother me.
I’ve been renting mini-series and documentaries lately. Just finished up From the Earth to the Moon and I’m halfway through Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. I think Forgotten Civilizations is the next documentary on my list. I usually just watch one or two episodes every night to wind down before bed.
Netflix can’t seem to figure out the disk order of Cosmos though. They sent me disk 3 & 4 simultaneously and I realized they were the same disk! So I call them, they send me a replacement disk three…that one was ALSO disk 4 mislabeled as Disk 3! Other than this double replacement I’ve had one more cracked and one more unplayable. Fortunately with 5 out at a time there’s always either one to watch or one delivered the next day.
Yeah, Netflix is the undisputed king of anime and foreign stuff generally. (Although if you happen to live near Berkeley, CA, Reel is perhaps the best brick-and-mortar video rental store on the planet.) The few times I haven’t been able to get something I wanted on Netflix, it was because it simply wasn’t available on DVDs in the US.
I don’t have netflix, but I do have the Canadian equivalent, zip.ca I’d say that it pays off for me because I use it mostly to see TV show box sets that would be hard or impossible to find for rent at a regular rental location in my city. Also, since I’m a non-driver, the convenience of using the post instead of busing out to the local blockbuster is an attraction.
I also use the ‘sometimes on, sometimes off’ method described by a few other posters on this thread - particularly, I tend to rent when it’s colder, and stay off the billing radar during the summer months, because I don’t feel that much like staying in my apartment and watching videos when it’s hot.
As with anything, mileage will vary. If your relatives aren’t getting very much out of netflix, then they probably shouldn’t stay in. But thanks for asking the question.
We love Netfilx at our house. Though we only have the two at a time and sometimes it doesn’t work out the best. We’ve watched a lot of movies and now we’re onto HBO shows. The best part is I don’t feel bad when we get a show that we don’t like after a few minutes and can just mail it off the next day.
The next time Iris is on maternaty leave we’ll probably push it up to 3-4 at a time since she likes to hold the baby and watch TV. Last time she had to go to Blockbuster.