Not verified, but likely, the news that today Blockbuster will announce bankruptcy. The end of the brick and mortar video store. The rise of digital and on demand. Buy the DVD at Target or Walmart or rent it inside the home. And while Netflix has been successfully transitioning itself to digital, Blockbuster found itself too late to the game. Once the leader and now looking like a footnote in history. Is it Chapter 7 or 13, I haven't heard. But with Blockbuster already closing stores, the end is near.
Is this a precursor to other brick and mortar stores where digital replaces hard copy. Should Game Stop be worried? Is Barnes & Noble on its last legs? The rise of new technology does not necessarily harbor the end of another. For B&N, it is the rise of the Nook. Being on top doesn't mean staying on top. The leader must continue to innovate and adapt or like Blockbuster, they will eventually fail.
Cable companies are facing the same threat from digital leading to cord cutting of cable and phone in the home. The same learnings apply. Innovate, adapt, or else.
Blockbuster died because it was a dinosaur. It came to the new delivery methods and rental paradigms too late, and it was always fighting an uphill battle against people's memories of standing in line, paying huge late fees, and other ways Blockbuster squandered customer goodwill.
ReplyDeleteBasically, Blockbuster stopped innovating and had built up such a large base of dissatisfied customers that people were reluctant to go back once they'd escaped Blockbuster's orbit.
Blockbuster's death is not so much a tale of the death of Brick & Mortar, but a tale of a company that got complacent, stopped innovating, and forgot that its biggest asset was its customers.