I'm not entirely sure how I pictured Netflix's shipping centers, but it definitely wasn't like this: A Chicago Tribune reporter describes his visit to one, including the "few things about the building that suggested it was not a meth lab."

Its location is top secret and its building disguised; its employees are mostly female, and unusually old; its atmosphere is silent, and its decor depressing ("a hasty mismatch of promotional posters taped to its walls like college dorm decor — a poster for Atonement alongside a poster for the direct-to-video Dr. Dolittle: Tail to the Chief.") Workers start at 3am, and do calisthenics throughout the day, presumably to help circulation, and to distract them from the fact that their customers are insane. That's why the center's address cannot be divulged, ever—people would apparently endlessly insist on dropping their DVDs off there, like it's a Blockbuster—and why the workers' near-mechanized jobs sound bearably interesting:

Customers stuff things into the envelopes. Scribbled movie reviews, complaints, pictures of dogs and kids.

How charming! Full account at [The Chicago Tribune]