It was a sad day when our local, independently owned video store had to close because it could no longer compete with the big boys. The owners were recommending Kozmo.com and Netflix.com for those of us that really didn't want to go to Blockbuster.

We first tried Kozmo.com which for a while worked out pretty good. They always had the new releases available and we got the movie within an hour but their library selection wasn't that good. Then the minimum order went up. Then they were gone.

I wasn't quite on board with the pay the same every month whether you order 1 or 10 movies that is required with Netflix so off we went to Blockbuster. Three big problems there. First was that the staff (except for 1, maybe 2) were clueless when it came to movies or even ringing up a sale! Another biggie was that the presentation of their library titles was so poor that you were too exhausted after looking through one row to go on. Finally, they never had what you wanted!

We had friends that had been using Netflix for over a year and constantly raved about them. Through one of the reward sites that I frequent there was a deal for 2 weeks free so I signed up. Within 3 days I had my 3 movies. We've staggered the return of the movies so that we always have something new in the house to watch. We've been signed up for just a month now and we have gotten 9 movies. For $20 per month, that's a fabulous deal! Plus the return postage is prepaid. We keep our cue at between 20 and 30 movies and move them around if we change our mind about what order we want to get them in.

I saw another review where the person thought that it took a long time to get the movies. I think that they come out of California so it may take a while to get to certain parts of the country. I'm in Seattle and if I drop a movie into the mail box on a Saturday, the next one is in my mailbox on Thursday. Perhaps for people that don't live close staggering the returns so that you always have a movie available like I do would be a good idea.

Their selection is incredible! 10,000 DVD's (only DVD's though, no VHS). Anything you could possibly want is there. I'm not that crazy about their browsing functions and the way they display their new releases. If you know what you're looking for it's a snap but I haven't mastered (if it's possible) the browsing thing yet. Rating movies is supposed to help them recommend movies that you might like. I've rated 600 movies and the system still can't really recommend very well. What I usually do is visit imdb.com (Internet Movie Database) which has great visuals and searching and reminds you of what's out there that is new. I went through imdb one day continually saying, "oh yeah, I forgot about that movie", wrote them all down and then just did a search on Netflix and added the movies to my cue.

I think they're going to stick around too. They've been out there a while and don't look to be hurting like other internet based businesses. I think there are enough of us out there that just can't take the inadequacies of the Blockbusters and the Hollywood Videos that Netflix.com is the movie rental way to go.

Recommended: Yes