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Wal-Mart Enters NetFlix's Business
wcbrown writes "AP reports that Wal-Mart is entering into the online DVD rental arena, currently dominated by Netflix. Wal-Mart is starting out with 13,000 titles, six distribution centers, and competitive pricing. With a seriously tremendous infrastructure and expansive will, Wal-Mart stands poised to overtake Netflix. To say the least, that's not going to be good for business."
This isn't necessarily bad for NetFlix. First, it "validates" the market, and gives NetFlix a bunch of free PR (all the articles about the Walmart entering the fray will compare/contrast with NetFlix), including making tens of millions of consumers more aware of this new sort of rental scheme that they just don't grok yet. Second, it makes NetFlix a take-over target for any other company wanting to join in the competition (perhaps even BlockBuster, if their home-grown offering falters). Then again, maybe NetFlix will get blown out of the water.
Let's hope this spreads to asda, a company in the uk that wal mart owns. I've been wanting a serivce like netflix over here!
Quick Jeff Bezos, patent DVD rentals and save us from Walmart!
Oh boy! Now I can watch the entire Jersey Trilogy without the elaborate strings of curses and insults! Thanks Walmart. We may even be able to get a family-friendly "Pulp Fiction" available for rent soon. Junior will love it.
Last week my local Walmar had a large vending machine that dispensed the DVD that you wanted to rent. and the machine would accept the returns also.
All I needed was my credit card/ debit card.
Maybe they are looking to expand in both online rental and vending style?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
To say the least, that's not going to be good for business
Competition is good for the consumer.
"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." - Jack Nicholson
Given that NetFlix has been pushing pop-under ads to my browser, I've chosen to avoid being a customer of theirs. So, as long as Wal-Mart doesn't start doing the same sort of thing, this sounds like a great idea.
I wonder if they'll have a similar "frequent renters get lower priority" scheme to what NetFlix has.
Walmart announced this service 6 months ago, Oh, wait. Not news, Just expanding their service... Of course Considering that walmart tends to bury the competition... and that their "free" trial is 30 days. Buh-by netflix.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
Well as we have seen Walmart has a long and unbroken track record of removing/banning/censoring things too non-consertative/too non-christian/too non-'patrotic'/too 'contreversial' for their perceived vanilla brain dead store-goers. It will remain to be seen what they actually make available.
I really don't mean this to be a troll... but it occurs to me that Wal-mart's core customer group are not exactly likely to own DVD players.
Wal-mart's greatest move (from a financial gain POV) was to move into middling-to-small towns (this means towns with 4000 people or more, or county seats) and take over the businesses downtown, the mom-and-pop stores, by slashing prices. (Whether you like that tactic is irrelevant, it was enormously successful.)
Well, how much are you going to be able to slash prices on an online DVD rental? It's not like Netflix and Blockbuster are higher-priced than the market will bear.
They can try it... but I suspect it won't be a roaring success.
Zaphod B
When duplication is outlawed, only outlaws will have
That when I go to rent a movie, it's usually on a spur of the moment thing. It's like I ask my wife "what would you like to do tonight" and she might say I don't know...wanna rent a movie?
So then we go down to the rental place and look around, not really sure what we want and pick something up and go home THAT NIGHT and watch a movie.
With renting a movie over the net and having it mailed to you isn't quite what we're looking for. We want something we can see that night, not two days from then...because the way we live two days from then we might be doing something else that comes up etc etc. We live by the seat of our pants and never really plan out little things like movie watching in advance.
At least, that's how we play it. Is there really that much need for this out there? Just curious.
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
I have always felt of things like NetFlix, and even the Tivo, as a "poor man's video on demand."
You pick the movies you want, and some time, a few days later they are there to watch at your leisure, taking as long as you want, with pause, rewind FF.
Everything you want from video on demand except the ability to pick a movie right now and watch it right now.
Which turns out to be not so important after all. And it's a lot cheaper than putting in all those servers and 7 megabits to every home of highly reliable bandwidth.
Another example of the old adage that you should never underestimate the bandwidth of a stationwagon full of magtapes, except this time it's a postal van full of DVDs.
I'm not *too* worried about this. I think Netflix customers are probably somewhat saavier than your standard Wal*Mart customer. Granted, Wal*Mart has the advantage of being able to pour money into the program (a la Microsoft's Ultimate TV) and the advantage of brick 'n' mortar stores to push the product, but if they play the same censoring games as they do with their music, I don't see them taking off. Hell, even Blockbuster is beginning to see the original-aspect-ration light.
If Netflix embarks on an even semi-intelligent ad campaign, I think they have a fighting chance.
-d
Gee, just what I always wanted! A censored DVD rental company! Sigh. I have lost complete and total respect for Wal-Mart over the years. First they started flexing their muscles to censor the video game industry and made it plain that any video game they didn't like wouldn't be sold by Wal-Mart, thus making game companies cave and self-edit their games. Then they pulled some men's magazines off their shelves that had less female skin than most women's magazines these days. Now they want to start renting out DVDs, which I'm quite sure are censored? Heh, good luck.
:( In the meantime, I'll stick to Target, at least they seem to let consumers decide for theirselves, instead of deciding for the consumers what's right and what's not.
It's a shame they're the largest employer in Pennsylvania.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
this usually means i have to wait a couple of days? WHen you and your spouse/bf/gf have that spur of the moment movie itch, this won't help... unless they can burn the dvd as you wait in the store. . now that would be good
These services are great. But there is so little worth seeing. I barely watch TV anymore for the same reason.
Unless Wal-Mart can do something a lot better than Netflix, I'd be reluctant to switch.
Wal-Mart has been in the news recently for covering up Cosmopolitan magazine. Are they going to push movie suppliers for reedited versions of films, the way Blockbuster has done?
I know that most people won't look at it this way, and Wal-Mart is an 800-lb gorilla that will probably squash Netflix. But I can't imagine Wal-Mart's politics not getting in the way of their ability to do a good job in this business.
With Walmart's track record in "mature" movies and video games, I have to wonder whether they will carry unrated and NC-17 movies in their original versions, or employ a Blockbuster type policy where the studio must make movies fit "Rated R" or below. I've been pretty happy with Netflix, and I naturally distrust a company with shameless business practices like Walmart. Search google for "Walmart Sweatshops" if you're curious.
More competition, more power to the consumer. If you think I'm kidding see what intel offers today compared to when AMD wasn't around and ofcourse the price. Do you even think that their processors would be around the $400 mark if there was no AMD?
-- everyones not everybody and neither is everybody like everyone.
Is there a walmart in NYC? We got a lot of people here ya' know. Come to think of it, I didn't see one in san francisco.
-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
How exactly is this bad for business? Is it bad for business like Canon coming out with copiers was bad for Xerox business? You know, where it drove the exhorbitant price of copiers down to where most of us have them built into our 300 dollar printer? Yeah.. I see how bad that has been for Xerox.
.50c, netflix can A) price to match, B) add a benefit that makes their slightly higher-than-the-otherguy price worth it, C) go out of business. Either way, its good for the consumer, and thats pretty much the bottom line.
Its not "bad" for business, it is just business. It is competition. If walmart undercuts NetFlix by
I tend to not shop Amazon, beause I dont like thier policies, and i can usually find something at close to the same price. (And, I can usually get brick and mortar stores to match Amazon's price to get my sale.) I suspect the same thing will happen here. A lot of people DONT LIKE Wal-Mart.. and wont rent from them. But anything that kills BLockbuster and 48Hours is good, imho. I still think the ridiculously high price that they charge for DVD's will come down as people find it cheaper to rent them enough to get tired of them.
(Okay.. so its not so ridiculous anymore, but why does it seem the more successful the film in the theaters, the cheaper it is to get, but it costs three times that for something that is slightly more obscure? The costs of production of the DVD's should be about the same, shouldnt they?)
maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
To say the least, that's not going to be good for business
Um, yeah, maybe not for Netflix. But I thought competition was good?
rooooar
When I went to Wal-Marts DVD rental site, it had the look-and-feel of NetFlix. It doesn't have all of the fancy way to rate the movies, but it def. has the feel of NetFlix. I wonder how they are able to copy the site so blatantly without recourse.
Totally Life!
ALL replies
I think at least one thing wal-mart has going against it is the worry that they could try to inject their social mores into which DVDs they carry.
If they do not do this, that's fine, but if you're going to limit your selection so you don't carry 'immoral' stuff it's going to hurt you. Not carrying stuff you disagree with isn't a problem if you're the big superstore people go to for convenience, but once they reach the online arena, well, if you're going to bother renting movies online then most likely you're going to be the kind of person who actually thinks "Kite" is kind of neat. There's a reason that people buy music from amazon.com before they'll buy it from Walmart.com, and yes, Marilyn Manson probably has something to do with it.
Then again, maybe Wal-mart's gotten a bit more flexible about that as of late.. i found our local wal-mart carrying "the boondock saints" last week. Given, we're in a college town, but that's still pretty surprising.
I heard Blockbuster for awhile censored their tapes. Is this true, and have they stopped doing it with the move to DVD?
If Walmart proceedes to start swallowing bits of everything, and succeeds in them all, we'll have something like Microsoft again :/
:p
Personally, I have never seen a Walmart in my entire life. They only have K'mart down here in Australia
Founder of Mirror Moon - Tsukihime Game Trans
Rent DVD porn. I'm serious, the porn market on the internet already makes insane amounts of money. All you need to do is start up a NetFlix service that rents out DVD porn.
:-D
Both NetFlix and the new Wal-Mart service will not carry such titles.
And if anyone out there knows of a service like this already, please, let me know
Once my mom finds out about this, I'm going to have to tell her what a DVD player is and how to use one of those, too.
"Want in one hand and spit in the other and see which one fills up first." - My Dad
That's not going to be good for anybody
Banaaaana!
Wlamart has food, clothing, gasoline, and domestic services all in one handy area..
;)
I guess as soon as they offer housing and, then the dream of corporate feudalism will be complete.
will be better off for it.
OH NOES!!! IT APPEARS YUO DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY FOR DIS HERE PIZZA! WAHT EVER ARE YOU GOING TO DO!?!?
This is not news. Walmart's service has been going since before I signed up myself. While /. was linking to walmart's first $200 PC, anyone browsing the DVD section would see a "Rent" link, which would tell you about this service.
In fact, I concacted Netflix, and the response was quite fair...
Netflix has several distribution facilities, while Walmart has one, which means most of the US will have a nice long wait to get their titles. Netflix has a much larger library as well. Why would you use Walmart's service? Save just over a buck, only so you can have a service many times more crappy...
Saying Walmart is going to kill Netflix is like saying Slashdot is going to kill CNN...
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
At this point you say it has the same "look-and-feel" of NetFlix. Having never been to a NetFlix, please, give more detail as to what is the same. For with the amount of information in your post I can't tell if you mean it has what looks like a NetFlix logo, but with WalMart in it, or if it just gives off the same psychic 'vibes' or if titles are simply organized into the same catagory. Please, when you say somebody is copying somebody else, give at least some examples of what is copied, otherwise your post, while perhaps true and noteworthy, doesn't have enough information in it to back it up and so won't give any information to people who don't already agree with you. (Those who disagree can say "no it isn't" and have contributed just as much as you, and those with no opinion have no information to judge their opinion on.)
Little Brother, watching the watchers
...and now there are many. Something like this was inevitable given the growth of the on-line DVD rental industry. You had the trailblazer, then a few specialists started showing up, and now the big boys jump into the fray. It's how almost all new markets progress.
Laugh at stupidity: mod idiots +1 Funny.
This could work for WalMart. As DVD players get cheaper, the number of households owning DVD players will go up. Walmart can sell the cheap DVD players AND rent out the DVDs.
Why rent a DVD, then have to wait for it???? Go to your locally owned, operated, mom and pop video store and check out an indie flick, or a new release even. Support your local stores and help your local economy. Wal-mart employs one of my parents, but my town's local economy is shrinking, and this town could one day dry and blow away. I think this is a common thing all over the U.S.
In short, SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES.
Thank you
/Troll
/end Troll
Walmarts were typically found in smaller towns where they can crush competitors easily. Then they started moving into medium size towns and crushed the competition again (Kmart, Montgomery Wards, etc...).
Having stated this, I do not think that Walmarts typical, in store, customers would rent dvds online. Walmart may be able to steal all of Netflicks clientel. I, however find this doubtful.
Most 'net renters are "early adoptors" and renting dvds online is still in its infancy. I do not think that Walmart can attract these customers since these customers realize how evil Walmart is and would most likely die if their friends found out they use Walmart services.
Unless I hear some damned glowing reviews of how good the service is in my area, I know that there is NO way I'll touch this with a 20-foot pole. I worked at Wal-Mart for eight months and based on the human detritus and mediocrities they hire, and how pathetically little they train and oversee them, I wouldn't trust ANYONE on their end to EVER get anything I ordered right. And if there any problems, what then? Customer service? A fucking joke.
I hope this fails miserably, or at least makes Netflix a more popular choice. I don't care if I'd be paying more, I KNOW that the chances of me getting any kind of quality service from Wal-Mart is slim at best. What kind of selection do you think they'll have anyway? They won't sell anything uncensored.
To say the least, that's not going to be good for business
As a Wal-mart stockholder with no stock in NetFlix, I think this will be very good for business.
I've already had an account with them an canceled. It works just fine, but I don't like subscription services.
they could give the customer a player as part of a one-year 20-rental deal. DVD hasn't been fancy-ass modern tech for years now.
sulli
RTFJ.
My mother is not able to get around anymore, and netflix has been an excellent service for her. She is the kind of account that Netflix (or Wal-Mart) don't want, as she gets movies constantly. Of course they would rather you sit on a couple, three movies all month.
If you are stuck at home, this is great news. And the fact that wal-Mart can do it in a couple days is even better.
I doubt WalMart will carry anything with either nudity or controversy. I mean they just pulled Cosmo off their shelves because it was too tittilating. Being so 'family oriented' eliminates a *huge* proportion of the films out there.
I think NetFlix can survive simply on the fact that they can carry a wider selection of films...
"To say the least, that's not going to be good for business"
How exactly? Walmart has to compete, therefore service is better and/or price is lower. Benefit: Consumer. Netflix has a large competitor, therefore service gets better and/or price is lowered. Benefit: Consumer. Somebody'll probably win. So what? The competition is where the good stuff happens.
"If Walmart/Microsoft/Intel/*AA joins the party, then it'll automatically become a bad thing."
I object to this I am not fat and I always shop at Walmart simple they are cheaper...However why would I need them for an on line service. The service is bad enough in the store. And yes you are right it is full of large folks wearing lycra!
Just now realized NetFlix, and the WalMart thing are Online only, I could have gone to each site in the amount of time it took to write the post. Still, details would have been nice. But my apologies for not first reading the story.
Little Brother, watching the watchers
can't NetFlix use the publicity that walmart brings and the mainstream acceptance-ness to grow their business even larger. its the kind of news that will help them promote themselves. if they redouble their current efforts now, they know the business, they should be able to stay ahead for some time to come.
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
One STORE to rule them all,
One STORE to find them,
One STORE to take them all,
And in the Darkness bind them.
In Arkansas* where shadows lie.
(*HQ of WalMart)
It has the same color stars, same layout of the picture of the DVD with it's rating and title. It has very similar graphics, sidebar, wait descriptions, and pop-up answers. The overall feel is that of NetFlix. I prefer NetFlix because it doesn't have the huge, annoying Wal-Mart top-menu. Also, Wal-Mart doesn't offer the "movie-geek" (that's what I call it) subscription plan of 8 DVDs out at a time for $40 a month.
Totally Life!
ALL replies
carry such exotic fare as the non-rated version of "Embrace of the Vampire". So what good is the service? Seriously, Wal-Mart will heavily sensor the movies they carry. I say screw-em.
Do really dense people warp space more than others?
yes, richard's big and tall in Indianapolis.
dick.
As a business decision, it probably makes sense for Walmart to get into this. It's a simple (well, pseudo-simple) profit equation.
As a comment on technology, though, Walmart's efforts in building this arm of business seems like investing heavily in railroads at the turn of the century. Or keeping with and investing in physical music distribution despite the growing capabilities of online/digital distribution. More power to them, I suppose, though I hope they don't screw things up for others, as has seemingly happened with old-school business models in the music industry.
They have a great selection, including, among other things, "speciality" items, such as documentaries and concerts. For example, if I'm interested in "The Rights of Autumn," the College Football Documentary, I doubt Blockbuster would have that in stock. With netflix, I can grab discs 1 through 3 (with my account -- you get more with more expensive accounts). Watch those as I have time, and send them back in time to get the rest of the discs.
Michael C. Hollinger
Why does Walmart want to go into the rental business anyway? To make more money? Probably, but the problem is as with any monoply, if we rely on them, and if they go down, we'll have to find somewhere else to rent our vids. And by the time that happens, competitors would have already been squashed, so we have no places to rent our pr0n out for a while :(
:p
I think all companies should just stick to one main service and specialise in them. That way, if one business goes down, everything else doesn't go down either.
Kinda like Linux
Founder of Mirror Moon - Tsukihime Game Trans
We all know how they fark up the music they sell there.
Kind of like how you fucked up the spelling of "fuck"? Was your post censored by Wal-Mart?
To be honest, I think Netflix has already saturated the market for this. As has been identified by others, the true geeks, rent and rip the DVD, or find the torrent, or KaZaa or iMesh it.
The market to watch is when someone (like a Wal-Mart) puts thier money into the technology to develop a streaming technology or a download and play type of busniess model. Of course what that model is, I can't say (or I'd be rich!)
I think the weak link in the chain is the hardware. If I could watch movies without having to actually get a DVD or pry my kids away from the DVD player to watch a movie, it would be more appealing.
Also, there is nothing (in movie rental land) worse than getting your NetFlix rental disc after waiting 2 months and seeing that it appears to have been run over in a gravel pit. (Just return it, we'll put you back on the list).
Lastly, our stupid television media (techno-morons) had this story last night and said Wal-Mart was going to now compete directly with Blockbuster for the video rental market. No mention of NetFlix whatsoever. Shows an interesting perspective on what the true perception of the "masses" are about what technology exists.
Dave
Forget NetFlix and Walmart!!! Support your local videostores, or indie startups like
Greencine that give you other choices besides MPAA-approved Hollywood pablum!
Netflix used to try really hard to please customers, now they've gotten so big that they no longer seem to care.
Back when NetFlix's only distribution house was in California turn around to the east coast was not that much different, sometimes better. They've taken 4 days advantage by adding more distribution houses and pissed it away with internal bottlenecks.
Their database quality has also suffered recently. You used to be able to get full information about what each DVD offered. Some movies I'd like to see again if they've got director commentary. This info used to be easier to come by, now it's hit or miss. Both WalMart and Netflix insist on breaking up special feature DVDs from the main disc which drives me nuts.
If WallyMart can get them off their rear ends, I'm all for it.
that walmart has to enter the fray. Who needs compition. If walmart does a good job netflix will either (a) provide better business (b) become cheaper (c) go out of business.
Didnt i see an article that older customers at netflix get screwed on new releases?
"All I can tell the "lesser of two evils" folks is that if they keep voting for evil, they'll keep getting evil."-Lp.org
It looks like they don't treat 2 disc sets as seperate rentals. For example the Disney Miyazaki releases are on two discs, on Netflix they treat the Bonus disc as a 2nd rental. Perhaps Walmart do too but their website seems to suggest otherwise.
Also something I noticed that's totally unscientific, but perhaps gives some indication as to the stock levels of Walmart compared to Netflix: Spirited Away on Netflix is shipping now, whereas for Walmart it's classed as "Very Long Wait". Can't read into that as it's the only movie I looked at though!
Wanna read? Look here, here, and here..
I know they're from the same web site but Google will find you more examples.
Not good for the consumer? Rubbish. You act as though aggressive competition guarantees an irrevocable market dominance. It doesn't! As soon as your theoretical future-walmart doesn't meet the consumer's desire for quality+low prices+convenience (something it currently does quite well, mind you) another business can rise up to meet that need.
Give the consumer due credit -- when a company takes it's customer base for granted and acts like a "dinosaur" it loses market share to smaller, more nimble companies that give the customer what they want. The business history books are full of examples (see Sears & Roebuck, K-Mark, IBM, etc.)
Result? Problem solved, unless you simply don't believe that capitalism works.
According to this article in Slate, Wal-Mart, with $244 billion in revenues last year, represents nearly 2.5 percent of the U.S. economy. Worldwide, they employ 1.38 million.
Anyone notice the "sponsored links" bar to the right of the article? They're all for online rental services.
Michael C. Hollinger
In general, I support local businesses over corporations, but that presumes they are delivering similar products. In this case, the corporate service is so much better that I have moved on. It's a shame. My town has GREAT video stores, but they still don't hold a candle to Netflix.
Similarly, I no longer see the point of independent booksellers. Megastores and Amazon deliver so much better product that even if they aren't nicer people they get most of my business.
In the long run, something else has to emerge to hold together the local community besides retail. For the most part, local retail has become a buggy whip.
mt
oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
I am amazed at how much obscure stuff the Walmart DVD rental service has. They have Anime stuff I cant rent anywhere else. Really, if you like anime you should check it out.
Now I feel guilty, I actually dont care that Walmart uses slave labor in third world countires because I want these cartoons so bad!
I was getting these DVDs from Walmart about 6 months ago. This is not new news.
Tim Smith - Ramblings from Nerd Land
If you start that up, I'll start up a DVD cleaning and sterilization service and place it next door to yours. You'll need it.
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
There is nothing wrong with holding a standard of decency. Are you going to yell at them for not selling porn too? Get off your crooked high horse and realize that some people LIKE it this way. I see nothing wrong with what they're doing. I wish MORE companies would stand up against the trash that gets marketed today.
I'm somewhat suprised that the parrent wasn't moderated as a troll, at least once. You see a "... has a long and unbroken track record of removing/banning/censoring things too non-consertative ... for their ... brain dead store-goers.". That is blatently inflamitory in language. I would say that what they're doing is "... has a long and strong track record of making sure what they sell stands up to their corporate standards of decency.".
And how do you know they won't rent the "unbasterdized" (to go along with your language) versions for those who want them? How do you know that you won't have to specifically ASK for the edited versions?
Hooray for Walmart. I see them as a great company, and I think that this move will be beneficial for consumers in the end. I'm sorry if I can't seem them for the evil conlogmerate that many of you /.ers seem to.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
...is Wal-Mart obligated to carry certain products?
There are many, many other evils--REAL evils, without hyperbole, that we could speak of when referring to Wal-Mart, but what is wrong with them refusing to carry something or display it in the open? If they were actively using their market force to force something upon someone, that's one thing, but if a company takes it upon themselves to censor something so that they can sell it in Wal-Mart under current policies, that's not Wal-Mart's evil.
We don't complain that Texaco is wrong for not carrying prescription drugs; They just don't cater to that market. I don't see the problem with Wal-Mart refusing to carry items that they find offensive: They just don't cater to that market.
When I tried Walmart dvd rentals a few months back the selection seemed about the same as NetFlix, but the quantity wasn't there. Just about every title I wanted to rent was a 'long wait', whereas on NetFlix very few titles have any wait whatsoever.
Walmart needs to get a greater quantity of titles before they steal significant market from NetFlix. I would also like to see Walmart enable returns/check-ins at stores (stores could bulk-main discs back to distribution sites).
And I've been saying this for a while now. They need to start renting console games. Why not? It's not like they would have to change much around to do it. They would ship in the same packaging, and the fact that most games would require an extended rental time, means they would ship fewer movies per customer, while still getting the same monthly fees.
Raging in an online forum won't do anything for the world around you. To see change, you must take action.
Those smaller companies love to hand business to Wal-Mart by failing to compete. Consider the "mom and pop" store that closes at 5:00. Along comes the Wal-Mart staying open past 10:00, attracting the customers the other store could not be bothered to stay open and serve
No doubt! Add to that high prices, and just not having a "local commitment" even though they make their money there.
I like Loews if I need a buttload of stuff.. wood, paint, etc. But right up the street from me is a little hardware store called Heimbach Bros. And it is in fact two brothers.. age indeterminate.. but at least 60's, who own, and run the place. Apparently alone. If you walk in that door, someone is there to help you before the door closes. If you are just looking, say "just looking" and they dissapear. If you need something they dont have in stock, he will have it to you in a day or two (even hard to find stuff.) Thats where the bulk of my hardware money goes.. because I like the service. I like the fact that they bend over backwards just as hard to sell me a 12 cent bolt as they do a 300 dollar stove. THat is something Wal-mart cant compete with, at least for me. But Radio Shack is the other way around.. the greasy overly-perfumed salesmen, the blaring stereo displays, and people trying to shove techno-babble (in some cases complete bullshit babble) down my throat to get a sale on something that isnt a good deal at half the price.. they dont get my money. Unless they have something I simply cannot find anywhere else.
So there you have it.. I dont love walmart.. but they sure beat Rad shack for me.
Maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
On the other hand, Netflix lets you rent a movie and then keep it as long as you like. So a great movie you can watch a few times. Or, perhaps if you're really busy you can just keep a movie a few weeks until you're ready to watch it. And I don't have to go anywhere or remember to take a movie back - I go home and there's a movie in the mail, which I can just leave at the mailbox at work when I'm done.
Also of course, the chances are that the movies I want to watch are not even going to be at a local store. Netflix has a pretty good selection so I can find some stuff that I probably would not otherwise run across.
Perhaps if I lived anywhere near a really good rental place things would be different. But I don't, so I'm glad Netflix is around. And for my mom (who I also bought a subscription for) it's nice not to have to drive an hour to the nearest city just to rent a movie.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
there were always 3-4 movies laying around the house in addition to our own collection. When your scenario came up, we had 3-4 movies plus our collection to choose from.
Finish one and send it off.
Of course this was back when you could turn around a movie with NetFlix in about 4 days.
I hope it doesn't hurt Netflix. I'm a customer and I like Netflix and I despise Walmart.
Like someone else said in this thread, Walmart's entry into this only validates online rentals.
While some people are driven by spontaneity and instant gratification, which makes them poor candidates for customers, other people can enjoy relatively low rental costs and no bother shopping for your rental. Postage is even pre-paid. It's such an easy service to use and the selection is HUGE. I can rent stuff no video rental store would have on DVD.
Seems to me we have played this game before but here we go:
censor - to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable
Used in a sentence:
Walmart uses their huge market strength to force the creation of censored versions of cd's. This censorship is often against the will of the artist but is a necessity if the label doesn't want to lose its largest distributor.
What about R-Rated movies? This is from a store that recently removed Cosmo and Redbook from their store shelves.
To say the least, that's not going to be good for business.
It'll be great for business, and for consumers. Introducing competition into the market will force both NetFlix and Walmart to have lower prices and better services than if either one of them had 100% market share. Funny, you don't hear anyone whine when another OS company enters the market...
Wal-Mart is one of the places that LIKES to carry the fullscreen version of a film, and thinks it is their responsiblity to censor for you. These things may make Wal-Marts offerings a lot less appealing to a lot of people, like my self. I will keep my NetFlix, thank you.
He's 9, so not young in the sense we have to change a diaper. But when we rent movies, he's a good kid and he usually wants to rent a game and knows what game he wants etc etc.
As for movies, we buy the movies he want's to see...not all the time mind you, but the big ones that he wants to watch. And he will...over and over and over and over again. Usually Spongebob videos.
But now I see what nitch Netflix provides! Never thought of some of the ways people use it.
But like I said, that was only my situation. But I've got more food for thought now and I may give them a try now!
Thanks!
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
Isn't it great news to see giant retailers that have already expanded to kill most local markets now expanding to try to do the same to online markets. I was fine with Walmart until they went to SuperWalmarts and HyperWalmarts. They killed off smaller local retailers, local grocery stores, local gas stations, local banks.. and now they have to attack the media rental business? As a consumer how do I benefit from having a single business control everything?
:)
Not to say I never buy from Walmart but I make an effort to buy equally from other retailers also. Even if they can't compete with Walmart on a price basis I've found many Mom & Pop places have a lot better service and can offer you things that aren't offered by the likes of Walmart.
In this regard I suggest Greencine for online rentals. They have a good selection and if you want something they don't have they will get it for you. They respond quickly and friendly to all questions and suggestions. Overall I like them a lot.
I do buy cheap movies from Walmarts. They now offer VHS movies for $4 and DVD's for $6. Not a bad price at all. I'd rather buy at that price than bother renting. Walmart still has some issues with very limited offerings though.. finding anime there really is impossible.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
I tried Walmart's 1 month free DVD rental service and it sucks compared with Netflix. The titles are no where near as available as they are on Netflix. Trying to rent just about any decent movie resulted in a "short wait". The same movies were readily available on Netflix.
In most small towns that a Wal-Mart is dropped on, the vibrant downtown area dries up and becomes a shell of its former self with only a few niche shops and perhaps one or two restaurants that typically go out of business as well, since nobody has money to buy from them anymore.
There are some EXTREMELY rare cases where that is not the case, but that is typically due to other mitigating factors that simply aren't available in most small towns. Things like Colleges and Art Academies or tourist attractions.
If you drove to 200 or so small towns that Wal-Mart moved into, check the City Records one to two years before Wal-Mart moved in to see how many businesses were registered and paying taxes and then look at the same records one, two, three and five years later. Most ALL of the time you see the number of businesses drop away.
This erodes the tax base since many of those business owners will either lose everything and become a VERY underpaid Wal-Mart employee or will pack up and skip town.
All in all the net effect is that many community leaders, that may have sponsored local events, as many small town shopkeepers and business associations do, will disappear. This causes an abrupt ending to many local events and eventually destroys the heart and the soul of those small towns.
Wal-Mart is a community destroying corporate monster that knows no bounds, sells cheap merchandise from overseas manufacturers, denigrates its employees and does what it can to destroy ALL competition. (Like it is attempting to do with Meijer's here in Michigan. I know that because I had overheard a Wal-Mart location scout chatting away on his cell phone regarding a new Meijer's store.)
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
I use FilmCaddy.com - they allow 4 movies out at once and charge $19.95/month.
Their selection is a little worse than NetFlix, but I can still find hundreds of titles that I want to rent.
Honestly, I don't feel too badly about them killing Netflix as I'm getting tired of the Netflix pop-up banner ads. We're not talking about a 100 year old family establishment...Netflix is just another corporation. If people don't care when Wal*Mart destroys their downtown communities I doubt that they'll care when a two year old mail order firm bites the dust.
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
I recently joined netflix after finding out that the version of The Piano Teacher we had rented from Hollywood video had been edited. I don't think that any place that rents video's should only make available to it's customers the versions of films that have been edited like this. I think Walmart will fall into this catagor just like Hollywood Video / Blockbuster.
I am so creative, look at my cry for attention in my sig.
"They pay their employees shit"
No, they pay their employees what the work is actually worth.
"as well as busting unions and various other unscrupulous practices"
There is nothing unscrupulous about protecting workers by not forcing them to join unions (this is hardly "union busting").
"The result is uneven distribution of wealth, and a weaker local economy (b/c all the money is going elsewhere)."
No, it is not. The money is also going to the employees, and also to local charitable efforts and contributions.
"Small businesses, on the other hand, in general pay their employees better, and the owners themselves are local, so basically all of their profit is going back into the local economy."
This is a wild and unfounded assumption, destroyed as soon as the local pharmacy owner spends his profits on a cottage "up north" or orders a $1200 TV set from "Sharper Image".
"But, shopping at walmart damages the community, which in turn hurts the individual "
No, it does not in any way.
"and therefore has no reason to stop shopping there."
Yes, there is no reason to stop shopping there.
I currently subscribe to Netflix, and at the rate they are either lost or stolen while in route back to the Netflix warehouse, I wouldn't want to be paying that for each one! Netflix has yet to charge me for those and state they won't unless it becomes frequent.
Anyway, I'll be sticking to Netflix...
I live to gib...
the plex lives!
long live "american flagg"
howard chaykin you visionary!
-- it's ridiculous how many people misspell ridiculous... (damn, damn, damn...)
I've been a happy Netflix customer for the past few months, but I nevertheless still think Walmart's announcement is a Good Thing. Competition has a way of focusing one's attention. In this case, I think Netflix will be forced to continue to innovate and differentiate their service from Walmart's.
For instance, Netflix's movie recommendation system could be vastly improved. To me, this feature, along with the catalog searching feature, is one of the best things about Netflix--no more standing around at Blockbuster trying to find something to watch.
It's also very likely that Netflix will have to lower their prices to match Walmart's. If not, they'll have to justify higher prices by providing better service, more selection, etc.
Too bad I saw it before the gang at Netflix!
Sam Walton
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
I tried the Wal-Mart service earlier in the year, and unless they drastically can improve their delivery times, Netflix doesn't have anything to worry about for quite a while. I had used Netflix for about 2 years, and generally was decently satisfied with their service, although their constant changing of rates was annoying and off putting. As an example, if I rented a DVD from NetFlix that had immediate availability, I would recieve the DVD approximately 2 days later. Not a bad turn around. Contrast that to Wal-Mart, which first, must have a drastically smaller inventory (or not as friendly of a reservation system to new buyers as Netflix) because almost all DVD's had a long wait. On movies that were available now, the EARLIEST I ever recieved a DVD was 5 days after I had ordered. Now I realize that proximity to distribution centers probobly greatly affects transit time, but for myself the inventory of Netflix coupled with quicker deliver time made me switch back.
Seriously people, if BLOCKBUSTER, who rents movies for a living, can't make inroads into netflix's customer base, what makes you think Wal-Mart will?
Netflix started first, they have the word of mouth to become the next e-bay. It doesn't matter what names try to expand into their business, as soon as they turn profitable, they have proven their business model. Price competition doesn't matter if the turnaround time sucks, or if the selection is of censored movies, or if the customer support is crap. Raise your hand if you really want to purchase products from Mal-Mart*.
As I have seen mentioned, Netflix's whole concept is validated by the slow rush to the market by more and more brick and mortar stores. They have advertising agreements with Best Buy, And I think I saw an ad on Yahoo, so they're already started.
Go netflix.
hmmmm?
One reason I won't be switching to Wal-Mart's service is the total lack of any gay-themed movies. And, I don't expect they will attempt to reach this market. NetFlix did some cleaning a year ago and removed all the softcore stuff, but left behind the hard-to-find gay-themed movies, some of which are quite good. "Metrosexuality" was great... short films series... none to be found at Wal-Mart. I admit, I'm gay so my judgement on this is slanted, but at the same time, isn't Wal-Mart's? If they judge this kind of movie wrong to offer, what else are they keeping from the public? Remember, Wal-Mart is the same company that refuses to sell certain games for PC / PS2, etc and even some movies due to content. Hell... the Drudge Report said the other day that Wal-Mart was going to start covering up some women's magazines due to obscene content! Hey, the word "SEX" was on a cover with Jennifer Anniston - I've been OBSCENED!!! Thank goodness Wal-Mart is around to protect us all. Praise be to Sam.
I'm just pointing out that even though Wal*Mart has a lousy selection in their video department they are still the number one retailer of DVD's in the country. The fact that NetFlix has a bigger selection than Wal*Mart means nothing to most consumers...it's all about convenience and price.
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
The fact that they sell those items you list in no way revokes the fact that walmart has infact done removing, banning, and censoring. That in no way proves me wrong. You would have to instead prove walmart has *never* done those things.
What is really different is the number of distribution centers: Wal-Mart will have 6, NetFlix has 18, and is opening more this year. Looking at Wal-Mart's locations, I would only get 2-day service from them, while I get overnight service from NetFlix because they have a distribution center in my city. This means that I would get half as many movies under WalMart's $18.87 3-movie plan as I do under NetFlix's $19.99 3-movie plan. That's not exactly a bargain if you ask me.
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
Plenty of bad ratings at epinions.com as well
Oh, and by the way I bought Pulp Fiction Special(collectors?) edition from Wal-Mart--completley undedited. Some people need to chill.
I pulled a jack move to cop this sig
I use NetFlix, and enjoy their service. Here is to Wal-Mart driving down the prices a little. I love living in a free market.
Disclaimer: 20 million other posts are probably say the same thing, but I had to get my $0.02 in.
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein
look like philanthropists. When Nike abandons a plant because of safety concerns, Wal-Mart negotiates a rent decrease and moves in...
I have been a netflix fan for a long time now, and Wal-Mart would have to pay ME to buy ANYTHING from them...
Just check out www.corpwatch.org and search on WalMart, there's plenty to read...
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I signed up today. The first movie I choose (Waiting for Goofman) is listed as "Very long wait", which means more than 30 days.
I think I won't be staying after the 30 day trial period.
you've already been handling ass pennies on a daily basis ;)
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur
Hey if Walmart isn't like netflix that is giving new subscribers priority they'll have my account.
I dropped netflix after reading that article post a while back about netflix. Before that I was wondering why things slowed down with them...
Hard, though, to have sympathy for a company that nicknamed their product "Mosaic Killer", AKA Mozilla.
Microsoft may have fscked a number of companies, but anyone entering a market where people are already giving away their product should not be surprised when somebody else comes in and gives away their product.
Java is the blue pill
Choose the red pill
I grew up in a small town, as did many of my friends. In nearly every town, a Wal*Mart has moved in and crushed all the local businesses. I know, capitalism, best for the consumer, etc. and all that. But it is turning every place in the US into a McTown, all with exactly the same things in them.
I'm currently a NetFlix subscriber, but I churn 20 movies a month. They lose money big time on me. I'm going to move to Wal*Mart, and if they don't try to throttle me somehow, I'll be more than happy to have them lose money on me.
That's probably because you're a new Netflix customer. You are prioritized for popular titles. Wait around a year or so. I canceled my Netflix membership after two years partially because I was never able to get the popular titles I wanted.
'Deliverance' and 'Hee-Haw's Greatest Moments'
I dropped my subscription to NetFlix sometime last year and replaced it with GreenCine, even though they were slightly more expensive and took longer to ship to me. Why? Selection.
I liked getting anime DVDs from Netflix, but the way they kept buying only the first two or three DVDs of a six- or eight-disc series annoyed the frick out of me. I found GreenCine after a short search at Yahoo, and the site promised a greater selection of independent and anime rentals -- and they were absolutely right.
My point is, the real advantage of the online rental market should be greater selection of eclectic titles. Have you ever shopped for movies at Wal-Mart? Mainstream stuff all the way. Their CD selection is even worse. I started buying books and CDs from Amazon.com not for the prices, but because their selection was that much better, even if I lost the advantage of immediate gratification.
If people want to rent mainstream videos, then they'll always do it at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, where they're promised "guaranteed in stock" even if they only keep it for two nights. Immediacy is more important than "keep it as long as you like" in most consumers' minds; if it weren't, we wouldn't have movie channels on cable TV at all.
So kudos to Wal-Mart for entering a new arena (for them), and may NetFlix be driven to excel even more because of it. But until they both realize the real advantages of what they're doing and offer a wider and more complete selection, I'll happily ignore them both.
I doubt it was a typo.
Perhaps Wal-Mart will surpass Netflix in total sales, perhaps by many times. However, I see these two companies not competing directly.
Wal-Mart has never been anything but a mass market company, with lowest-common-denominator sensibilities. In any category, *especially* movies and music, they sell a relatively short list of only the most popular, mass market items. Michael Jackson? Sure. The latest college radio, big city hipster fave? Forget it, even if they're selling in the millions.
Netflix, OTOH, has always catered to film buffs. They'll probably lose share to Wal-mart in the most popular releases, but will continue to grow elsewhere. So, if you want "Dumb and Dumber IV," go to Wal-Mart, but if you want the Cannes winners, indie greats, art films or classics, you're more likely to find them at Netflix.
"Economists now credit the company's Everyday Low Prices with contributing to Everyday Low Inflation..."
... has charged past Nestle's Purina as the world's top-selling brand. Great Value bleach outsells Clorox in some stores."
"...more than one-eighth of U.S. productivity growth between 1995 and 1999 could be explained 'by only two syllables: Wal-Mart.'"
"With little fanfare and no advertising, Wal-Mart's Ol' Roy dog food
"Wal-Mart is the world's biggest grocer"
"Well, what about Microsoft? Its margins are--can this be right?--44%, and it's sitting on $38 billion in cash. Mr. Sam would not approve. Log on to walmart.com and you'll find $199 computers powered by a fledgling Windows competitor, Lindows. "
"Wal-Mart's turnover is so rapid that 70% of its merchandise is rung up at the register before the company has paid for it."
"Wal-Mart will open roughly a store a day this year."
I don't know whether to cheer them on or cower in fear. This company single-handedly affects inflation, of all things. Holy shit.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
That "walmart only, propietary" deal happend to me with a couple of my small refillable propane tanks. I got two from walmart, turns out they put a "walmart_only_ thread on the filler valve, you are forced to get filler-ups/exchanges only at walmart then, unlike my other ones that I can take anyplace handy.
I didn't mind walmart when sam walton was still kicking, it seemed like they at least made an effort to have "made in USA" stuff in abundance, and didn't have weird polices like this propane deal (and what they will probably do with DVDs-good call there), but now,since he's died and who knows who is running it as an economic division of the chinese peoples liberation army, I've about almost completely removed them from sucking on my wallet. Once in a great while I get stuck, and have no recourse but to go in there, and every time I see aisle after aisle of lost homes, lost jobs, lost equity, lost cars, basically a lot of lost hopes and dreams disgusied as cheap trinkets, like what were used to purchase manhattan island. Trinkets, ohhh shiny and cheap.
They are that-cheap. Cheap as in price, cheap as in quality, but very expensive with a bigger look at when once those dollars leave the shores of the US and cease acting as an economic force multiplier.
Will Wal-Mart employ illegal child labor to handle this service, like they do with their clothing? Oh boy, sign me up!
I've tried the Walmart trial twice. It sometimes takes them over a week to turnaround a disk, compared to Netflix's 2-3 day turnaround. Based on this, I'd say Walmart are not good value for money.
Da Blog
Da Blog
I will switch to Walmart if the service is comparible for one reason: I hate pop-ups, pop-unders and spam and Netflix engages in all three. I will be glad to switch from a company that engages in such low life advertising, even if they do provide good service.
so I can suitably reprogram my deviant brain. ... oh wait... I bought my copies of the matrix and die-hard from Walmart, false alert.
Nobody should be thinking for themselves and making informed consumer purchases, corporations should do this for us. Choice is for pinko commie capitalism terrorists who want to corrupt our holy-culture with reprobent and criminal infidel thoughts.
Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
Da Blog
...if I absolutely, positively, have to have what I need and can't find it elsewhere.
Otherwise I'm supporting abuse of children, abuse of elderly people, and the demise of small business.
Unfortunately, the trailer park masses all love Wal-Mart and don't see it for what it is.
http://www.walmartwatch.com
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...but as soon as Wal-Mart threatens it you cry foul?
I am absolutely fed up with WalMart, "Redneck Sears", they were somewhat respectable when Sam was in charge. They at least sold Made in USA stuff. Then it went to where we can get it reasonably else it's foreign. Now it is probably hard to find anything in that store from USA. Also, here in Tallahassee, in two instances they closed one store and opened one about a mile away. Then they pay rent on that building to keep it vacant or put such restrictions on it that no one can use it. We have TWO (!) shopping centers here that are nearly empty because of this, then it drives out those other small strip shops because there is no magnet store. I wonder if anti trust laws can be applied to real estate. After all they are monopolizing a resource. And now they want to rent me my DVDs, maybe even sanitized. Unfortunately, all of my co workers just sing Wal Mart praises. Sorry Wal Mart, you get no dollars from me! Screw 'em.
What is so unfair about Wal-Mart moving into the online DVD rental business?
Maybe now we will see some "innovations" in Netflix's offerings?
Slipping Away...
I tried their DVD service for a month late last winter. I've used Netflix for a year or so, and thought it worth a try.
What a disapointment. The UI is terrible, making it awkward to browse titles. They had none of Netflix's 5-star rating functionality. I've found that to be one of the best features, since it makes decent recommendations to me based on my preferences (much like Tivo), and it also lets you view highly rated users. At Walmart you're on your own.
They also had terrible stocking problems, although presumably they will fix that. Lots of "long wait" movies, compared to Netflix where that's quite rare.
Plus the movies took longer to go round trip. In Chicago, the nearest center is in Minnesota, and I get 4-6 day turnaround. Walmart was consistantly several days longer. This varies according to your distance from distribution centers, but friends in other places also have gotten snappy turnaround from Netflix.
Anyway, give it a try for the trial period, but also try Netflix. Walmart has a long way to go to catch up.
I will never rent/buy/steal/accept anything free from Walfart.
I will never park my car in their parking lot.
I avoid letting their advertising graze my eyeballs.
Walfart is evil.
Walfart is the retail incarnation of M$.
If Walfart drives Netflix out of business, I will never rent a DVD online again.
If I were starving and Walfart had the last box of jelly donuts on the planet, . . .
Given Walmart's "High moral" tastes, I really doubt Netflix and Blockbuster have much to worry about. Walmart will probably never stock anything it considers too "racy or provacative".
Before you can say if capitalism works, you need to say what you think it's supposed to be achieving.
Unless, of course, you think simply existing and smashing alternatives means it's working.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Given Wal-Mart's clientele, I'm assuming they don't carry Deliverance .
Good riddance. I've been pissed at them since they discontinued the pay-per-rental plan, crazy me, don't want to pay $20 to rent 1 DVD a month. Wal Mart will surely not be so narrow-minded in their offerings.
My Netflix turnaround is 3-4 days. If I mail back a DVD before the Saturday morning mail pickup (nice to live .5 mile from a post office), I can have a new DVD in my mailbox by Tuesday. If I mail it from work on Monday morning, I will have a DVD in my mailbox by Wed or Thu.
I found this to be very odd. Here was this big store, and yet they had not one single thing I needed. Groceries? They can't beat Kroger in price or variety or coupon redemption. Entertainment? I can find what I need online, cheaper. Clothes? You got to be kidding.
I agree. I dont shop wallyworld much either.. unless its something I _know_ they carry, at a better price than the competitors and I need it _now_. (Leap product christmas shopping comes to mind..).
However, if they are having a sale on those one-off brand business casual slacks, I'll go buy three pairs. I have to wear em for work. I _only_ wear em for work. So why spend what they want at a "real" store when i'm going to wreck them crawling around under peoples desks anyway?
But I dont really buy much there.. but it totally depends on what kind of town you live in. Wal-mart is useless in say, NYC.. but out in burbzilla.. where you can end up driving forty miles to hit four different stores.. it works. And its attractive to a lot of people.
Maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
There's another alternative: P2P style netflix. Check out mozo.
Basic idea is that arround you -- your dorm, co-workers, etc.-- there are thousands of DVDs. If you pool them into groups and share amonst yourselves you'll never need Blockbuster.
Statistically, it works: average DVD owner buys 15 a year, rents 30. With these numbers, the average person has access to thousands of DVDs around them already.
And yeah, I wrote this code for this site, so I'm biased..
Looking at the Wal-Mart distro centers, I'm 2 days away from each of the closest ones. So I'm losing out if I switch.
Though I wonder if WallyWorld will do the same Bait and Switch that NetFlix does.
*Carlos: Exit Stage Right*
"Geeks, Where would you be without them?"
"Got Linux?"
To truely appreciate Wallmart you must see the stats on this article:, 1640,37760 ,FF.html
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0
Here's a good stat:
All-time one-day sales record (Nov. 23, 2001): $1.25 billion
With money like that backing up your competition, netflix should worry.
They are anti-porn like you. The following is what they stand for, from a quote from the article linked to above. You obviously stand for the same things.
Someday, I hope you wind up working in the kind of outsourcing operation described below. You like great companies? So go to the Third World and admire WalMart from the bottom up.
"The work is literally sickening, since thereâ(TM)s no health and safety enforcement. Workers have constant headaches and nausea from paint-dust hanging in the air; the indoor temperature tops 100 degrees; protective clothing is a joke; repetitive stress disorders are rampant; and thereâ(TM)s no training on the health hazards of handling the plastics, glue, paint thinners, and other solvents in which these workers are immersed every day."
Tech Public Policy stuff
In a sense, Walmart generates its huge profits by driving its employees' wages unsustainably low. We the taxpayer then pick up the social cost of Walmart's workshop profiteering by providing these bankrupt wage slaves with a federal tax credit of just over $4000 annually (and other benefits, such as food stamps). Instead of doing the honorable thing and raising the minimum wage, we provide massive billions of dollars of corporate welfare to Walmart and enable it to post increased profits.
Da Blog
I wonder if WALMART is going to censor the versions they rent?
F F. html
http://www.diynet.com/DIY/post/1,2021,5_259640,
I clicked around and found some terms of service which have this stipulation:
You may cancel the service anytime. If you choose to cancel you will have 7 days to return the DVDs you have rented. For each DVD not returned, a $17.88 fee will be charged to your credit card.
So that sounds a bit better than having to pay for any DVDs stolen by the mailman or honestly "lost" or whatever. I'm *I* am financially responsible for the warehouse folks and USPS folks, forget it...
Netflix for Games
;-)
Let me know how that works out for you.
Black holes are where the Matrix raised SIGFPE
so they can play it anytime with the same quality, all on a 80min CDR.
;-)
Aaah yes, the good life.
Black holes are where the Matrix raised SIGFPE
I am a Netflix subscriber and am familiar with their prices/selection/service. I thought I'd check out the Walmart page to see how much cheaper they were.
Guess what I found out? For the plan I'm on, they aren't cheaper at all. Walmart offers 3 packages, the cheapest being $15.54/month for 2 movies. Netflix offers 2 movies at a time for only $13.99/month. Now at the standard plan (3 movies), Walmart is $18.76 whereas Netflix is $19.99. To say that this $1.23 is going to quash Netflix is somewhat ridiculous. Add to that the fact that Netflix is still cheaper in the lower category and it becomes even more ridiculous.
No, they pay their employees what the work is actually worth.
No, they force their employees to "finish their work" but wont give them overtime pay if that work takes more than 40 hours per week, by making them go back to work after clocking out, editing time slips, etc. And they've sent home salaried employees on slow days and docked their pay as if they were hourly.
There is nothing unscrupulous about protecting workers by not forcing them to join unions (this is hardly "union busting").
Somehow I don't think that keeping you from even having the option to join a union is "protecting".
No, it is not. The money is also going to the employees, and also to local charitable efforts and contributions.
More money stays within the community with Mom & Pops than with Wal-Mart. The owners of the Mom & Pop will be far more likely to spend their profits in the same town, as opposed to the remote chance that Sam Waltons heirs will drop by and spend some money.
"But, shopping at walmart damages the community, which in turn hurts the individual "
No, it does not in any way.
You are false, denied, shot down. Wal-Mart cheats employees on their pay, works them harder, has crappier customer service, reduces the total number of available jobs and sucks money out of a community that would otherwise stay there.
You'll be even more likely to find indie, art films, and classics at greencine.
May I ask someone knowledgable on the subject what can be "evil" about a department store, I have personally been to shops that are overpriced, with bad service or crappy goods but never one that is as morally black as I am told wal-mart is, come on! It's just a frigging retailer!
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
Correct me if I'm wrong, but most of Netscape's initial employees were the students who worked on Mosaic. Not so much killing a free competitor, but one upping their previous effort. I think you read to much into "killer". This history is also why they continued to offer a free version.
?
This is old old old news. Walmart started renting dvd's back in November of last year. I know because at the time I owned Netflix shares and it was a big hub bub which people quickly got over when they realized Walmart offering sucked. I bought the shares at around 6 and sold at around 11. Now look where they are... 22.
I've also been a happy Netflix subscriber since 2000. I know Walmart cannot compete with the Netflix process and the fact that Netflix has huge market share.
Ricky Silk
kung foo ezine let me waste your time.
Yes, WalMart will be moving into NetFlix's domain. However, WalMart will not completely replace NetFlix until they start spamming like NetFlix does.
So I say, until that day happens, "Go WalMart GO!"
Boycott NetFlix.
www.eFax.com are spammers
More and more products aren't made in USA anymore. They are made directly in China with no distributors. Check on the tags, it says "Made in China for walmart."
You are not forced to buy at walmart and when people will realise that it hurts their local jobs, it will be too late. Do yourself a favor, get in your car, drive your lazy ass to your LOCAL video store (not blockbuster) and help save a local job instead of funding the walton's retirement fund.
Ok, you might pay 50 cents more, but you're giving those folks a job after all. Getting cheap goods is a double-edged sword. Besides, you get what you pay for at walmart. I'm not going to jugde the quality of some products, you be the judge...
-- Leeeter than leet
It's the whole latin word order thing again, isn't it? Mozilla was a "killer mosaic", not a "mosaic killer". Note that the creator or Mosaic was the founder of Netscape.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I get my movies from the library reserved via their website...you insensitive clod!!
--Somewhere there is a village missing an idiot.
They stand over then with guns? Right.....
Are you trolling or just being obtuse? Its call the gun of "if you leave don't bother comming back".
They won't stop you from joining a union and giving dues to them. No one will.
Sure they can. Wont do you much good trying to found a union when you don't have a job anymore because you've been fired.
"More money stays within the community with Mom & Pops than with Wal-Mart."
No more, no less than Wal-Mart.
"The owners of the Mom & Pop will be far more likely to spend their profits in the same town,"
Maybe, maybe not.
Its not rocket science, Chimpo. Is the owner of Mom & Pop Shumwidgits going to go out of his way to not spend any money in his hometown of Jerkwater USA? Probably not. Is a Wal-Mart heir likely to drive by Jerkwater USA and spend any cash there? No. Lets see, what's the word I'm looking for here....oh yeah: DUH!
No, they pay their employees a fair wage.
Fair my ass. If you like living below the poverty line, more power to you. Most people however, do not.
Wal*Mart beats them all.
If you like waiting in line for 10 minutes before talking to some girl working at the counter who then has to call over a manager, which takes another 30 minutes, then sure. You can take a poll but I think you've find that you're still in the minority here.
The real question for me (I log about 50,000 driving miles annually as a nature photographer) is whether I can check out a DVD from the Walmart in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and return in four days later to the Walmart in Missoula, Montana... Listening?
So quit your job, pack your bags, and move on out to snow country!
Better late than never... A reply to a query I sent Wal-Mart about this:
Dear Mr. Dingus,
Thank you for contacting us at Walmart.com. Your comments and questions are very important to us as we strive to meet your needs.
We are writing you regarding DVDs that could potentially be lost in the mail. On occasion, the post office can misplace mail during transit.
If this were to ever happen to a DVD that you are awaiting receipt of or have shipped to us, you will not be held responsible. The $17.88 charge only applies to DVDs that customers damage, lose, or choose to keep after a DVD subscription has been cancelled. We hope this answers any questions you may have.
If we may be of further assistance, please email us at help@walmart.com, or call us at 1-800-966-6546. We're here to serve you from 7:00 AM EST
to 2:00 AM EST, 7 days a week!
Sincerely,
Billy Hutto
Customer Service at Walmart.com
I have been a Netflix subscriber for a few months, and I just signed up for the free trial at Walmart and started moving selections from one list to another.
Here's a selection of the movies that were NOT available from Walmart when I tried to populate over:
Anything that wasn't in print as of this month, including about half the Bond films.
The Matrix (!)
Being John Malchovich (!)
Alien, Aliens, many Disney kid's titles, Scooby-Doo and some other Cartoon Network titles, NO Doctor Who at all, only the first 4 out of a couple dozen available Farscape discs, Willow, Goodwill Hunting, old stuff like Buck Privates, All About Eve, Mad Max.
At that point I gave up. I got about 150 movies moved over, and figured I'd keep both subs going for a while to finish off the stuff that Netflix had before moving, but there are too many. I'd have to rent'n'rip as fast as possible for a year with Netflix just to get the stuff that Walmart doesn't have. I'll just stick with Netflix.
I've been doing Netflix for a few months and I love it. I love the website because I can search for an actor or director or a title or anything and gain access to pro reviews, customer ratings, etc. And it has actually started to make decent recommendations based on my rental history and ratings. And I love queueing up the movies and knowing that I have several months worth of viewing pleasure awaiting me.
The only possible better scenario that I can see would be if amazon, via imdb.com, got into the rental business. Then they have *the* definitive online movie information source, complete with customer reviews, and the ultimate opportunity to cross-market tons of merchandise via their other online departments.
This is exactly what the internet is good for, and I am really jazzed to see what happens when the competition heats up.
That sounds good to me I like the idea of a one stop shop being Walmart.
Is walmart goin to have an online sight to order or will they figure out some way to do that in the store.