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Reviewed by Stephen Christopher for Readers' Favorite
Have you ever wondered why there’s only one Blockbuster Video store left in the whole world, when there used to be thousands? It’s because of DVDs and then Netflix, right? Turns out, it’s not. In Alan Payne's book Built to Fail: The Inside Story of Blockbuster's Inevitable Bust, the author takes you on Blockbuster's journey from inception to downfall, through five CEOs and decades of bad decisions. Along the way, you’ll find out about the incredible opportunities that they let slide, the rise and rise of competitors like Redbox and, of course, Netflix, and how selling things vs. renting things isn’t and never will be the same thing.
I absolutely loved the history lesson of the movie industry from theaters to VHS tapes to DVDs to streaming. I was captivated from the opening paragraph. Have you heard of Video Central? You haven’t? That’s no surprise, really, as they only had 35 stores, but they were the ones who invented the 5-day video rental concept. It’s these little tidbits of insider information that make Built to Fail the best book to reveal the Blockbuster story. Alan Payne is the perfect person to tell this story, as he worked for Blockbuster for 25 years as a franchise manager of 60 stores across Alaska and Texas. His stores had over 700 happy employees and were making considerable profit—the polar opposite of the company stores. I read this book with my mouth open, aghast at poor decision after poor decision. Who knows, if only one of the five CEOs had actually taken any of Alan Payne’s advice, Blockbuster might have become bigger than Netflix. Read this book and see if you agree.
