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Netflix: Oompa Loompas Delivering Your DVDs

by Truemorist | August 7, 2009 at 11:13 am

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Ever wonder what goes on in a Netflix warehouse? Well, netizen, wonder no more! a brave Chicago Tribune reporter managed to step through the looking glass and into the magical, mysterious world of a Netflix distribution center.

So, we've got:

Anonymous, nondescript locale
Tons of automated hardware
Workers who do hourly calisthenics
A genetically-modified, multitongued envelope-licking buffalo*

After a period of pretty-pleasing Netflix to let me poke around its clandestine Chicago-area hub, and see what wonders await and how its ubiquitous red-enveloped packages are processed, I was given an address and a time to arrive and asked not to blab about it. There are 58 Netflix warehouses nationwide, serving 10.6 million subscribers, and only one for greater Chicago; it opened in 2003, Netflix's 19th warehouse.

It's not all automated- each distribution center must be staffed with eagle-eyed humans to catch all the end-user errors...

Swasey, who drove in from Columbus, Ohio, where there is an even larger hub, pointed to a photocopy taped to the wall -- a picture of Disc 4 of "Rescue Me" Season 4 alongside a sleeve that promised Disc 4 of "Rescue Me" Season 3. It's a kind of Netflix perp walk. Some diligent associate caught the mistake before it shipped. "To me, I see it as a goose-bump moment," Swasey said.

So there you have it. Until the all-online, all-the-time day of streaming rental content arrives, we're still gonna need to stick DVDs in the mail.

(* There's no buffalo. I made that up. Sorry)

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