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As a Netflix member, rent as many of these top hits as you want for one low monthly fee!
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One of the most common questions people ask us here at DVD Direct 4 Less is:
Where does Netflix ship its DVDs from?
By this, we think people really mean to ask, "Hey, how long will it take me to get my DVDs? Renting DVDs by mail sounds great, but it's of no value whatsoever if I have to sit home and wait a week for my DVD's to arrive."
It's a good question... we're pleased to say that Netflix now delivers DVDs fast!
Shipping delays across the USA may have been "business as usual" when Netflix was just getting started and they only had one distribution center (near their homebase in Los Gatos, California). But in 2002, Netflix began a very aggressive expansion plan to build regional distribution centers across the country. Their ultimate goal was to provide 75 percent of Netflix members with generally overnight delivery by the end of 2003.
Toward that end, Netflix opened one or two new regional shipping centers every couple of months throughout that year.
Distribution facilities opened in or near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Newark, New Jersey and Phoenix, Arizona in February, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Portland, Oregon in March, St. Louis, Missouri and Chicago, Illinois in May, Cleveland, Ohio in October and Rochester, New York and Greensboro, North Carolina in December, 2003.
January, 2004 saw a new Netflix distribution center opening its doors in Lakeland, Florida. This facility serves more than 3.5 million residents in the central Florida communities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando and Daytona Beach.
Yet another new shipping center opened late in March of 2004. This one, located in Kansas City, serves more than three million residents across Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and the Oklahoma panhandle. In May, Louisville, Kentucky was the location selected for the next Netflix distribution site. The center serves almost three million residents in Kentucky, Indiana and parts of Ohio.
In June, 2004 Las Vegas, Nevada was selected as the site of another new Netflix shipping center. This one is designed to ship to an area of over 700,000 households in Nevada and parts of Arizona.
Three more Netflix shipping locations opened in September, 2004. These are located in Pittsburgh, Baton Rouge and Columbia, SC. They serve more than five million households in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, South Carolina and Mississippi.
A Netflix distribution center opened in November, 2004 in Honolulu, Hawaii, greatly reducing the turnaround time for island residents, who no longer have to wait for DVD's to arrive from the mainland. (Expect one-day delivery in the Honolulu area and most of the islands and two-day delivery to Guam.)
And the latest shipping centers for Netflix opened up in Panama City, Florida, Omaha, Nebraska and Cedar Rapids, Iowa during the Summer of 2005.
There are currently 36 Netflix distribution centers in the USA; they are located in the following metroplitan areas:
Atlanta, GA (Duluth)
Baton Rouge, LA
Boston, MA (Worcester)
Cedar Rapids, IA
Chicago, IL
Cleveland, OH
Columbia, SC
Dallas, TX (Coppell)
Denver, CO
Des Moines, IA
Detroit, MI (Lansing)
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Greensboro, NC
Honolulu, HI
Houston, TX
Kansas City, MO
Lakeland, FL
Las Vegas, NV
Los Angeles, CA (Santa Ana)
Louisville, KY
Minneapolis, MN
New York, NY (Flushing)
Newark, NJ (New Brunswick)
Omaha, NE
Panama City, FL
Philadelphia, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
Phoenix, AZ (Tempe)
Portland, OR (Salem)
Portland, ME
Rochester, NY
Saint Louis, MO
San Jose, CA
Seattle, WA (Tacoma)
Washington, DC (Gaithersburg, MD)
White Plains, NY
Please note: while every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this list, new shipping centers are still being added from time to time and occasionally Netflix will actually close a location or two. Since they generally don't send out press releases to announce the closing of a distribution center, we rely on information from our site visitors for that information. Please let us know if you hear of any changes or if your distribution center is not on this list.
These local distribution centers reinforce the leadership position Netflix has in online rentals and have helped to replicate regionally the success the company has experienced in the San Francisco Bay area, the site of their very first distribution facility.
More than seven percent of households in the Bay area are Netflix subscribers and each has experienced generally next-day service for the last five years. With the addition of these new shipping center locations, Netflix has met and exceeded the nationwide goal it established in 2003. In fact, nearly 90 percent of Netflix members throughout the USA currently receive next-day service!
These shipping centers are incredibly effcient. Most are no more than 8,000 square feet, yet each location processes and ships a daily average volume of between 5,000 and 30,000 discs. This is made possible - in large part - by the proprietary software Netflix uses to track and ship its inventory of over five million DVDs.
The cities in which Netflix has chosen to place each of its distribution centers are strategically located so that most of the country is within a U.S. mail delivery zone of only a couple of days. If you live in or near one of these cities... or in the states of Texas, New York, Nebraska, Florida, Hawaii, Connecticut, California, Oregon, Kentucky, Louisiana, Pennyslvania, Ohio, Virginia, Washington, New Jersey, Michigan, Iowa, Arizona, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Maine, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina or Georgia... the chances are very good that you'll be receiving your DVD's just a day after Netflix sends them out!
That has been the case here at the DVD Direct 4 Less offices in New York City, where we have rarely had to wait more than two days for our movies to arrive. Most arrive in just a day! (We've also noticed that it almost never takes more than a day for Netflix to receive DVDs we've sent back.) Your mileage may vary, of course, but the odds are good that you'll get your DVDs more quickly with Netflix than with any other online rental firm.
(In addition to providing service throughout the continental U.S., Netflix also provides speedy delivery to Alaska, Hawaii, and all U.S. territories, possessions, military bases and embassies throughout the world.)
Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO and co-founder says, "Our ability to deliver DVDs faster is having an extremely positive impact on the overall customer experience, particularly among new customers, and gives Netflix a major competitive advantage. We are thrilled with the success of our regional expansion efforts and so are our customers."
"The Netflix shipping centers help us deliver an outstanding home-entertainment experience," says Hastings. "Netflix customers who already were passionate about our services rave about the one-day and two-day turnaround these centers provide."
Hastings says, "As competition heats up over the coming year, our ability to deliver the movies our customers want in a fast efficient manner will become increasingly important. We have set a high bar for the competition in terms of our value, selection and convenience. By aggressively opening more regional facilities we are pushing that bar even higher."
There are indeed a few other on line DVD rental services out there, including a lot of "mom and pop" shops, but none of them have the selection or vast distribution network that Netflix has. Blockbuster® and Wal-Mart, however, both entered into the online DVD rental game. Wal-Mart set up shop in June, 2003 and maintained fewer shipping locations, but considerably undercut Netflix on the price for monthly subscriptions. All this is moot, however, as they pulled out of the business less than two years later and handed all of their customers over to Netflix in a promotional arrangement.
Blockbuster launched their online DVD rental service in August of 2004 and is going after Netflix customers with a lower subscription rate and monthly plans that include coupons for in-store DVD rentals, a distinct advantage. We were initially quite skeptical about Blockbuster's ability to pull this off, but they've shown themselves to be a worthy competitor with a large selection of DVDs, low prices and an expanding list of their own regional distribution centers.
The New York Times reported that Netflix CEO Hastings does not feel threatened by the increased competition. As quoted in the Times, Hastings says, "Whenever a competitor says that next year they'll have a better offering, to me that's a sign of weakness, because you're telling competitors what you're going to do, and you don't have the service to offer consumers."
Netflix was actually issued a patent by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office in June of 2003. The patent (No. 6584450) covers the company's subscription rental service and extends to the method by which they ship DVDs, maintain inventory and communicate with customers. It's unknown when - or if - they will seek to shut down competitors who have essentially copied their business model and who may be infringing upon this patent.
You can rent as many DVDs as you want, for just $17.99 a month, and have up to three movies out at a time. Create an online list of movies you want to see and the DVDs will not only be delivered fast, but also free (since Netflix pays the postage both ways). Keep the movies as long as you like - there are no due dates or late fees. After you return a movie in its postage-paid mailer, Netflix will automatically send you the next title on your list!
Click here now to start your two week free trial of the Netflix DVD rental service.
 
Tips For Managing Your Netflix Queue
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