Netflix Is Ripe for a Takedown

Merchandising matters.  If you don't display your wares in an attractive manner, customers will be less likely to buy them.  And if the customer can't even find what she is looking for in your store, she'll get frustrated and go to a competitor.  This is a pretty basic principle of retailing, established centuries before the internet, but it applies to internet retailers as validly as bricks-and-mortar retailers.  Netflix would do well to pay attention.

When I go to Netflix to add a DVD to my queue, the first place I usually look is under New Arrivals. I want to see that new film that I may have missed at the theater, for example, Ironman 2 or Get Him To the Greek.  But a couple days ago, here's what I found under New Arrivals at Netflix:

Movies

Friday (released 1995)
Proof of Life (released 2000)
Black Sheep (released 1996)
Space Cowboys (released 2000)
Scorpion King (released 2002)
Driven (released 2001)
Tales from the Hood (released 1995)

Television

Psych, Season 1 (there are currently five seasons)
Eureka, Season 1 (there are currently four seasons)
Married With Children, Season 1 (multiple seasons, long since off the air)
Monk, Season 1 (multiple seasons, now off the air)

What is going on here?  No movies more recent than 2002, and stale episodes of television shows, some of which are now off the air?

Netflix and I have very different views of what is meant by "new arrivals."  For me, and I suspect for many other customers, it means a recently-released film.  But the tech-geeks at Netflix think it means something that you can now "watch instantly," without waiting for the disk to arrive in the mail.  Netflix has gone all-in on streaming films and TV from the internet directly to your computer, or your smartphone (yeah, I really dig watching Avatar on that 2 inch by 3.5 inch screen), or gaming console.  In fact, Netflix is so committed to this new delivery system that it no longer cares about customers that don't have their TV hooked up to the internet, and who prefer to watch DVDs the old-fashioned way, like, on DVD.  Maybe these customers have slower internet connections, for example, DSL.  Or maybe they have an older TV that isn't internet-ready. Or maybe they just don't want to string a big fat cable from the office where their computer is, to the family room or the bedroom where they watch TV.

I'm sure Netflix has some research showing that 90% of all households now stream movies directly from the internet to their HDTV, but I doubt that's the case.  For example, about 13% of the American population is 65 or older.  They are less likely to be streaming video directly to their smartphones. Not to mention lower-income families that may not be able to afford broadband internet and the latest web-enabled television.  But maybe the folks at Netflix only asked their friends and colleagues, 20-something geeks who are early adopters, constantly texting away at their smartphones, and not even close to representative of the American public. 

It seems to me that Netflix is dangerously out of touch with their customers.  They are certainly dangerously out of touch with me.  Do I have to walk into a Blockbuster, write down the titles of the new releases, and then go online at Netflix and type in the names of those films just to find them and add them to my queue?  Well, unless I'm really interested in The Scorpion King  or Tales From the Hood, I guess I do.  And it isn't just me.   I bet there are millions of households just like my own, that are finding Netflix to be suddenly very difficult and unfriendly. 

Netflix is ripe for a take-down, because when so many customers are unhappy with their experience, we are primed and ready to jump to a competitor.  Check out Blockbuster.com, for example.  The pricing is competitive with Netflix, and you can actually find films and TV pretty easily.  Unfortunately, Blockbuster is in bankruptcy right now, and may not survive. How many people are going to want to commit to a competitor that is circling the drain?

So, if there are any really wealthy folks out there reading this, maybe some venture capitalists, let's talk.  I need about $50 million, and I can put together a helluva online DVD-rental company that will blow Netflix away.  Netflix is practically begging for it!