Today, Toby and I canceled our Netflix subscription because they are joining forces with Walmart. We talked about canceling before we heard this because we already spend enough on cable but in the end we still found some quality in using Netflix. But the news about Walmart sealed the deal.
I freakin’ hate WalMart. For a plethora of reasons. Mostly the strange odor on aisle 7, right next to the toothpaste.
Few hate walmart more than me.
But, as far as I know, Netflix is netflix, walmart is walmart. Its a fixed-length partnership agreement, not a buyout or investment—and I don’t see how my payments to netflix will have any economic impact on walmart.
If it does, then thats a different story.
sidenote: One of my close friend’s dads, somehow, is an economist for the neocons now, and has been speaking/writing books/advocating walmart for a variety of reasons.
My friend and I, for the sake of our friendship, can’t speak of wmart around each other. I’m seriously dreading the restraint I’m going to have to put on myself the next time I visit his family. (note: my friend is rather left leaning, as are his parents. the walmart stuff just came out of left field )
Jon, I think the details are sort of foggy for a reason. I also think they’re not announcing it all over the place for that same reason. We only got wind of it in Florida and they were like DUDE WALMART AND NETFLIX YAY!. It’s not really been a big deal up here. I am wondering why. that can mean one of two things, A). You’re right, it’s not a big deal. or B). It is and they don’t want people to cancel their subscription because they are in fact in bed with the spawn of Satan.
This is what I was told:
WM had their own “netflix” type service, but they were losing money – so
now all of WM’s subscribers will be given the option of transferring to
Netflix at their WM rates, and netflix has a banner at the top of their
site telling people that they can buy their dvd’s at WM. Basically WM
couldn’t compete with Netflix, and sold or traded their subscribers to
Netflix.
So are we to assume that Walmart won’t eventually pull the reigns tighter and not allow “bad” movies to be rented? All we need is one really irate Walmart customer writing a letter because his/her daughter rented the unrated version of 9 1/2 Weeks and the censorship turd could hit the fan.
Mihow…you are right on! I can see it happening already…hopefully Netflix will have some balls and actually stand up for what made them sucessful.
(Please do not kill me Mihow) There was a time when I did some work for the dreaded W and I can say for the richest company in the land they are one of the cheapest known to mankind…there is a great article from Fortune a few years back showing how many durable goods manufacturers have set up Bentonville AR offices specifically to deal with them (not like there is ANYTHING else in that fucking place…what a hellhole).
I have heard thousands of stories where buyers from the company will walk in and lowball a prospective vendor…when the vendor laughs they pretty much threaten to create a “store label” brand of that product if they do not comply. (and for those who do not believe me take a look at the best selling brand of batteries…one of the top 3 sellers is a WalMart brand).
They are in the midst of a major new venture…small, urban based supermarkets (less than 10K square feet) meaning they are going to be going after the corner bodegas very soon. (Imagine a D’Agostino’s with WalMart prices…in other words Oh Fuck).
This book is a great read…
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1580086683/qid=1117573122/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/103-6546884-2437465?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I would never hate you for that, silly. I worked for KFC; The Walmart for people who like chicken.
my beau calls Wal-mart, “evil-mart” – I call it “Wally-fart”
WalMart does all that sketchy stuff with movie/music/media sales because they are the nations #1 retailer on those commodities (and, overall, but thats not the point).
If WalMart tells a record company ‘tone this down or we won’t carry it’, the record company tones it down—or they risk losing shelf space in stores that account for something like 50% of their sales.
WalMart, right now, is bringing 100k subscribers to netflix. Netflix has 30x that. WalMart’s rentals wasn’t growing. Netflix was skyrocketing.
Walmart is in no position to threaten netflix , and i’d say its the opposite—NetFlix is to dvds what walmart is to consumer goods (except netflix carries softcore porn).
What I would/could be worried about is in the future WalMart buying Netflix. I can really only see that happening though if Netflix starts to bore the people that started it, and they want to move on. But in the meantime, i don’t see that happening—Its wildly profitable, and the founder is pretty committed to consumer choice in terms of content. There are a bunch of his quotes relating to that all over the web.
I think that Netflix is still an excellent service. Yes, Wal-Mart is a terrible company… but this is an example of the little guy winning. We should embrace Netflix’s success and not punish them for associating with Wal-Mart. No one thought that Netflix would have lasted this long – everyone projected that Amazon and Wal-Mart would almost immediately put Netflix out of business because they could afford to undercut them on overhead. Netflix proved them wrong… and for that, they should be applauded. Regardless, I still think they are in some serious trouble in a couple of years when video over the internet becomes more widespread – in the meantime, Netflix will keep me as a loyal subscriber.