The Winners Effect

When I was a teenager, for reasons I will explore in a separate post, almost every week I went shopping at Canadian discount retailer, Winners.

Shopping at Winners felt like playing a lottery, because the inventory changed with time, and also varied by location. Every time I walked into a store, I felt a thrill; would I find something interesting, at a really good price?

The challenge was part of the product, similar to how the queue is essential to the process of buying streetwear; the long wait in line is a feature, not a bug.

When I read comments that Netflix has a quantity vs. quality problem, it reminds me of the Winners experience; specifically, sorting through Netflix now, there’s a vast quantity of stuff, and some shows that resonate with me a lot.

Netflix’s “problem” is not one of quality (The Sandman, Mo, Kotaro Lives Alone, are salient amongst many others—let’s not forget when Squid Game took over the world, and the many people including myself that happily watch Bling Empire, Selling Sunset, and Love Is Blind), but one of discovery; it’s pretty challenging to find the pieces of content we like.

Of course, this challenge is a part of the product as well—discovering the gems that nobody has found yet. The more people who opt in to this challenge, the more people will return to Netflix. In a time when we’re saturated with blockbusters and derivatives, Netflix is where people will find unexpected, and delightful, low- and mid-budget shows.

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