Starflix inventory issue (revived from deleted "SPONSORED" thread)
Earlier today in a thread here on [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]StarFlix[/rfdlink] DVD rentals I had posted some of my observations on their inventory claims. It was a "SPONSORED" thread, with 3 pages of comments accumulated. By this afternoon the thread had disappeared (old links returned "no permission" warnings). I contacted the RDF folks, and was told "the advertiser has control over the thread. Their preference was to have it removed and so we have done that". I'm reposting my comments here.
======== Original Post ======== I did a fair bit of checking on [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] during a trial at the end of 2004, much of which should still be of interest (full writeup here).
30,000 titles - At the time they were advertising 23,000 (or 16,000) titles "stocked". This would have put them second only to [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=218]ZIP[/rfdlink] and seemed improbable, and at a minimum I assumed it was a "virtual inventory" operation, with a certain core inventory and other titles being ordered as required by customer's choices. As it turned out, I found less than 9000 active inventory items (ones that would be returned by their site's search engine), and the situation seems to be similar now. As a simple supporting test, entering the letter "e" in their "Quick Find" search comes back with around 8600 titles (308 pages x 28 titles/page) - this search seems to include the name and description fields, so it is likely returning almost everything.
Of the nearly 700 non-Criterion titles I use for the percentages on the inventory chart on my website, [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] appears to have just under half. This puts it in the ballpark of the DVDHype/DVDflix/Canflix group, which are 5-10000 title companies. I have a "Missing" list of my titles that aren't at [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] - you can check for yourself that they don't show up on their site, including such common titles as "Apollo 13", "Shakespeare In Love", "Speed", "Shakespeare In Love", etc. And even of the 9000 titles that seem to show up on the site, there was no availability indicators (at least then), so some level of "virtual inventory" in the Canflix fashion might be occurring (Canflix has stock on around 7000 of the 20,000+ titles they list).
The [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] FAQ reads "We have virtually every DVD available for rental in Canada, more than 30,000 titles", but this would seem to have no basis in reality.
3 Warehouses - [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] is based in Montreal, where their main distribution centre is presumably located. When I did my trial, my return envelopes were destined to a Vancouver address which turns out to belong to Video-One, a video wholesaler. I assumed they have some sort of arrangement with them, but whether the discs are just opened/scanned/credited to the customer before being returned to [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] in Montreal, or if some discs are actually stored in the Vancouver and Toronto locations, I couldn't say (during my trial they actually indicated plans for two more cities, but this apparently never materialized). Note that [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=218]ZIP[/rfdlink], with 30,000 members, only recently opened a third warehouse (and they are full warehouse operations). [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] is probably an order of magnitude smaller, and even with 5-10000 titles it would seem hard to believe they are doing enough volume to spread their stock in three locations without an excessive amount of cross-shipping. My guess is that many (if not all) shipments originate in Montreal, and perhaps are expedited to the Vancouver and Toronto locations for delivery to Canada Post. If so, this would be similar to what VHQ used to do in Toronto, or [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=218]ZIP[/rfdlink] before multiple warehouses. Certainly anything that speeds up delivery times is good, but where the discs originate, how they travel, and where returns are actually checked in would be important, as opposed to the case where [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] actually had full warehouse operations in Vancouver and Toronto.
I raised these points with [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] during my trial, and you can read the email correspondence here. It ranged from hilarious ("StarFlix is the largest Canadian DVD Rental company based on location metrics", whatever that might mean) to obnoxious ("we feel that your extrapolation techniques are questionable and your reasoning is strongly based on opinion"), but never addressed the actual size of their inventory, etc. Perhaps the [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] representative here would like to comment?
======== Original Post ======== I did a fair bit of checking on [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] during a trial at the end of 2004, much of which should still be of interest (full writeup here).
30,000 titles - At the time they were advertising 23,000 (or 16,000) titles "stocked". This would have put them second only to [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=218]ZIP[/rfdlink] and seemed improbable, and at a minimum I assumed it was a "virtual inventory" operation, with a certain core inventory and other titles being ordered as required by customer's choices. As it turned out, I found less than 9000 active inventory items (ones that would be returned by their site's search engine), and the situation seems to be similar now. As a simple supporting test, entering the letter "e" in their "Quick Find" search comes back with around 8600 titles (308 pages x 28 titles/page) - this search seems to include the name and description fields, so it is likely returning almost everything.
Of the nearly 700 non-Criterion titles I use for the percentages on the inventory chart on my website, [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] appears to have just under half. This puts it in the ballpark of the DVDHype/DVDflix/Canflix group, which are 5-10000 title companies. I have a "Missing" list of my titles that aren't at [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] - you can check for yourself that they don't show up on their site, including such common titles as "Apollo 13", "Shakespeare In Love", "Speed", "Shakespeare In Love", etc. And even of the 9000 titles that seem to show up on the site, there was no availability indicators (at least then), so some level of "virtual inventory" in the Canflix fashion might be occurring (Canflix has stock on around 7000 of the 20,000+ titles they list).
The [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] FAQ reads "We have virtually every DVD available for rental in Canada, more than 30,000 titles", but this would seem to have no basis in reality.
3 Warehouses - [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] is based in Montreal, where their main distribution centre is presumably located. When I did my trial, my return envelopes were destined to a Vancouver address which turns out to belong to Video-One, a video wholesaler. I assumed they have some sort of arrangement with them, but whether the discs are just opened/scanned/credited to the customer before being returned to [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] in Montreal, or if some discs are actually stored in the Vancouver and Toronto locations, I couldn't say (during my trial they actually indicated plans for two more cities, but this apparently never materialized). Note that [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=218]ZIP[/rfdlink], with 30,000 members, only recently opened a third warehouse (and they are full warehouse operations). [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] is probably an order of magnitude smaller, and even with 5-10000 titles it would seem hard to believe they are doing enough volume to spread their stock in three locations without an excessive amount of cross-shipping. My guess is that many (if not all) shipments originate in Montreal, and perhaps are expedited to the Vancouver and Toronto locations for delivery to Canada Post. If so, this would be similar to what VHQ used to do in Toronto, or [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=218]ZIP[/rfdlink] before multiple warehouses. Certainly anything that speeds up delivery times is good, but where the discs originate, how they travel, and where returns are actually checked in would be important, as opposed to the case where [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] actually had full warehouse operations in Vancouver and Toronto.
I raised these points with [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] during my trial, and you can read the email correspondence here. It ranged from hilarious ("StarFlix is the largest Canadian DVD Rental company based on location metrics", whatever that might mean) to obnoxious ("we feel that your extrapolation techniques are questionable and your reasoning is strongly based on opinion"), but never addressed the actual size of their inventory, etc. Perhaps the [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=358]Starflix[/rfdlink] representative here would like to comment?