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Built to Fail: The Inside Story of Blockbuster's Inevitable Bust
How does an iconic brand die?
For more than two decades, Blockbuster was America’s favorite way to watch movies. Millions of customers visited more than eight thousand stores around the globe every week, providing more data about movie audiences than anyone in history had ever owned.
If any company should have predicted the disruptive forces coming down the pike, it was Blockbuster. But as new threats emerged, none of its five CEOs had answers, and the company collapsed long before its time.
Built to Fail tells the complete inside story of Blockbuster’s meteoric rise and catastrophic fall. Beneath the surface of explosive growth lay a shaky foundation of financial difficulty, tunnel vision, and missed opportunities.
Written by Alan Payne, the man who built the longest-lasting Blockbuster franchise chain in the country, Built to Fail is a cautionary tale for today’s disruptive marketplace, explaining why Blockbuster was a broken company long before Netflix ever streamed a single movie.
For more than two decades, Blockbuster was America’s favorite way to watch movies. Millions of customers visited more than eight thousand stores around the globe every week, providing more data about movie audiences than anyone in history had ever owned.
If any company should have predicted the disruptive forces coming down the pike, it was Blockbuster. But as new threats emerged, none of its five CEOs had answers, and the company collapsed long before its time.
Built to Fail tells the complete inside story of Blockbuster’s meteoric rise and catastrophic fall. Beneath the surface of explosive growth lay a shaky foundation of financial difficulty, tunnel vision, and missed opportunities.
Written by Alan Payne, the man who built the longest-lasting Blockbuster franchise chain in the country, Built to Fail is a cautionary tale for today’s disruptive marketplace, explaining why Blockbuster was a broken company long before Netflix ever streamed a single movie.
- GenresNonfictionBusiness
270 pages, Hardcover
First published February 17, 2021
97 people are currently reading
1879 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
April 13, 2021
From start to finish this book was a wild ride. Not only did it discuss the birth of Blockbuster and its inevitable downfall - it also discussed the video rental industry as a whole. Like many the nostalgia factor is high when thinking back to the days when going to the video store was the highlight of your weekend. Alan Payne has an inside view of Blockbuster - he managed a video rental competitor for years before become a franchisee owner of multiple blockbusters. In fact - he owned the last remaining blockbusters in 2018. He chronicles the failures of the company, the big misses, and all the ways in which they could have adapted and evolved. They had an opportunity to buy Netflix in it's infancy and laughed it out of the board room, they had opportunities to merge with Redbox and get in on the action but didn't act until it was years too late, they ended late fees which was horrible for keeping their stock on the shelves. So many horrible decisions sealed their fate. Utterly fascinating.
May 12, 2023
Quick thoughts! I know this is a super niche read, but I love reading that behind the scenes of certain businesses/companies. I read a book about the story of Instagram last year, and it ended up being one of my favorite books of the year!
This was a fairly quick read, and honestly really interesting. The author was one of the most successful franchisees of blockbuster, and had some great inside knowledge. It was definitely a little redundant at times but for what it was, I thought it was really interesting!
This was a fairly quick read, and honestly really interesting. The author was one of the most successful franchisees of blockbuster, and had some great inside knowledge. It was definitely a little redundant at times but for what it was, I thought it was really interesting!
March 24, 2021
4 Remembering When Stars
* * * * A Netflix Review Of The Last Blockbuster Film
There is something to be said for shared experiences. I am of the "Older Generation" and when VCRs happened, I felt for all the kids that would lose the experience of going to the huge movie theaters to see an epic film. To this day, I still feel like we have lost that communal experience of seeing something for the first time, shared in the dark, watching a story unfold, and be stunned by what we experienced.
I saw this documentary on the last Blockbuster and thought of my feelings about movie theater viewing so I clicked and dug in. The Last Blockbuster is about how the company and rental videos came about, how Blockbuster took over all of the mom and pop stores, and then the reason why it came to the end it has.
Throughout the entire film, there are people who talk about working at one, the feeling of going as a family and picking out the video for the weekend, and also how people went on date nights searching together and getting to know one another through that task.
This film feels personal and the way it is done touches on any memories you may have from when you experienced Blockbuster yourself. We all did. At its core are interviews with Kevin Smith, and many others who were all part of this unique place.
At this time, there is only one left, in Bend, OR. The film is good, a bit long but it would be a huge conversation starter amongst friends and family.
For more Reviews, Free E-books and Giveaways
* * * * A Netflix Review Of The Last Blockbuster Film
There is something to be said for shared experiences. I am of the "Older Generation" and when VCRs happened, I felt for all the kids that would lose the experience of going to the huge movie theaters to see an epic film. To this day, I still feel like we have lost that communal experience of seeing something for the first time, shared in the dark, watching a story unfold, and be stunned by what we experienced.
I saw this documentary on the last Blockbuster and thought of my feelings about movie theater viewing so I clicked and dug in. The Last Blockbuster is about how the company and rental videos came about, how Blockbuster took over all of the mom and pop stores, and then the reason why it came to the end it has.
Throughout the entire film, there are people who talk about working at one, the feeling of going as a family and picking out the video for the weekend, and also how people went on date nights searching together and getting to know one another through that task.
This film feels personal and the way it is done touches on any memories you may have from when you experienced Blockbuster yourself. We all did. At its core are interviews with Kevin Smith, and many others who were all part of this unique place.
At this time, there is only one left, in Bend, OR. The film is good, a bit long but it would be a huge conversation starter amongst friends and family.
For more Reviews, Free E-books and Giveaways
January 13, 2023
I worked at Blockbuster during my senior year of high school, which is probably the only reason why this book appealed to me.
It was a chore getting through, as it was laborious and not well-written.
The author, a former Blockbuster franchisee, seems to hold a pretty big grudge against the entirety of Blockbuster Corporate and it comes across loud and clear in his writing. Too loud and clear, as a matter of fact, in his constant use of italics and exclamation points.
He also repeats himself over and over. And over and over. Talk about a dead horse; the poor thing was mutilated by the end of this.
In a nutshell: none of the bigwigs running Blockbuster Corporation knew what they were doing. The author had all the answers to keep Blockbuster successful, but nobody would listen to him. The end.
It was a chore getting through, as it was laborious and not well-written.
The author, a former Blockbuster franchisee, seems to hold a pretty big grudge against the entirety of Blockbuster Corporate and it comes across loud and clear in his writing. Too loud and clear, as a matter of fact, in his constant use of italics and exclamation points.
He also repeats himself over and over. And over and over. Talk about a dead horse; the poor thing was mutilated by the end of this.
In a nutshell: none of the bigwigs running Blockbuster Corporation knew what they were doing. The author had all the answers to keep Blockbuster successful, but nobody would listen to him. The end.
May 4, 2024
A very interesting story from a fascinating point of view, but poorly written. Opinions and facts were all repeated multiple times, sometimes in back to back paragraphs, the book probably would have been 50 pages shorter if it was less redundant. The timeline was also confusing sometimes, frequently jumping forwards and backwards between years without a lot of explanation.
March 14, 2021
The book provided me with a somewhat-outside view of Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation, Blockbuster Inc. and Blockbuster L.L.C., which were all the company names that operated Blockbuster stores and the brand.
It provided me with a lot of information that I did not know and it was insightful.
It provided me with a lot of information that I did not know and it was insightful.
June 21, 2021
I worked for Border Entertainment/Blockbuster Video in Alaska the 1990s and 2000s. We went from one store to 17 stores during that time. Alan Payne was my boss’s boss and a wonderful, visionary leader for the company. I had no idea he was also a fantastic researcher and writer! He has a Malcolm Gladwell-esque kind of writing by taking a complicated, rather dry subject and turning it into a story I didn’t want to put down. Payne does a great job of intertwining first person narrative, history, complicated personalities, and how to run a business into one great package. Anyone would enjoy and could learn from this quick read.
March 31, 2021
Great read! Both entertaining and educational, Built to Fail is thoroughly researched and informative, but also full of personal anecdotes that bring the whole story to life.
November 21, 2021
I grew up in the heyday of the video rental store boom. Much of my love for film can be attributed to hours spent browsing the shelves of local rental joints. I always considered Blockbuster Video to be the gold-standard of the business, and was shocked to see them essentially bankrupt by the time I was 25 years old. The conventional wisdom has always held that Blockbuster was killed by Netflix and streaming-in-general. But here in "Built to Fail", author and former employee Alan Payne lays out a case that Blockbuster was on the path to self-destruction long before the internet finished it off.
One thing that must be said right up front is that "Built to Fail" is very much a tell-all memoir. Payne, a former high-level Blockbuster manager, does not mince words when it comes to the company's former leadership and catastrophically short-sighted business plans. As such, the tone can sometimes slide into a bit of "sour grapes".
That being said, Payne lays out a compelling case as to why Blockbuster failed and what could have been done to prevent that demise. My eyes usually glaze over when reading corporate-speak and business-related statistics, but Payne makes it remarkably compelling. From the company's relentless (to a fault) growth mindset to its inability to take advantage of customer demographics to a string of (in Payne's view) incompetent CEOs, the whole book weaves a narrative that makes logical sense and is entertaining to boot.
So, if you ever want to read the real story of Blockbuster Video's failings, I'd highly suggest starting here. Sure, you probably have to take a few things with a grain of salt, but Payne expertly proves that the story is so much more than "Blockbuster vs. Netflix". You'll also learn more about corporate/retail management than you ever dreamed would be present here--and in a way that will make you feel like you understand it all!
One thing that must be said right up front is that "Built to Fail" is very much a tell-all memoir. Payne, a former high-level Blockbuster manager, does not mince words when it comes to the company's former leadership and catastrophically short-sighted business plans. As such, the tone can sometimes slide into a bit of "sour grapes".
That being said, Payne lays out a compelling case as to why Blockbuster failed and what could have been done to prevent that demise. My eyes usually glaze over when reading corporate-speak and business-related statistics, but Payne makes it remarkably compelling. From the company's relentless (to a fault) growth mindset to its inability to take advantage of customer demographics to a string of (in Payne's view) incompetent CEOs, the whole book weaves a narrative that makes logical sense and is entertaining to boot.
So, if you ever want to read the real story of Blockbuster Video's failings, I'd highly suggest starting here. Sure, you probably have to take a few things with a grain of salt, but Payne expertly proves that the story is so much more than "Blockbuster vs. Netflix". You'll also learn more about corporate/retail management than you ever dreamed would be present here--and in a way that will make you feel like you understand it all!
January 29, 2023
Alan Payne (himself a former Blockbuster franchise owner) has a written a fascinating post-mortem of the rise and fall of the video rental giant. He provides plenty of evidence to support his central thesis - that Blockbuster’s focus on opening thousands of stores in quick succession prevented its managers from also developing strategies that would allow the individual stores to experience growth themselves. There are also lots of tidbits on the strategies for running a successful store. Who knew the importance of late fees? Payne also shares surprising anecdotes about how Blockbuster’s myopic focus on growth prevented it from acknowledging the threats posed by new technologies and new competitors, all of which ultimately contributed to the corporation’s downfall. A prime example - early on, BB passed up an opportunity to purchase a fledgling Netflix.
The only real complaint I have is the repetitive nature of some material - by the third chapter, a reader will have been bludgeoned to death by the central thesis stated above. But that’s a minor complaint. All in all, this book provides a fascinating look at the broth and death of a cultural milestone, as seen through the eyes of a direct participant.
The only real complaint I have is the repetitive nature of some material - by the third chapter, a reader will have been bludgeoned to death by the central thesis stated above. But that’s a minor complaint. All in all, this book provides a fascinating look at the broth and death of a cultural milestone, as seen through the eyes of a direct participant.
January 2, 2025
Looking for a hit of nostalgia, instead, I was marvellously entertained by a deeply thoughtful analysis of Blockbuster's business model from the perspective of one of its most profitable franchisees. This vacuum-packed analysis is what you'd optimistically hope for as the result of an MBA study, but from 30 years of lived experience in media sales. It's an outstanding, unique business analysis, which I am stunned isn't more highly regarded, as it dispels many misconceptions and brings to light some thousand-foot drop, thoroughly avoidable scaling and franchising mistakes.
October 11, 2021
A great read about the rise and fall of Blockbuster! Loved it.
July 28, 2022
good albeit a bit repetitive
This is an excellent and interesting book about a subject many of us can find fascinating. My only complaint is the author often repeats the same reasons why Blockbuster failed: Netflix, Redbox, lack of inventory, and no longer charging late fees. He must mention the same thing two dozen time! But I still recommend the book.
This is an excellent and interesting book about a subject many of us can find fascinating. My only complaint is the author often repeats the same reasons why Blockbuster failed: Netflix, Redbox, lack of inventory, and no longer charging late fees. He must mention the same thing two dozen time! But I still recommend the book.
October 31, 2024
Built to Fail: The Inside Story of Blockbuster’s Inevitable Bust by Alan Payne talks about one of the biggest corporate collapse in American history. After having read the book, I honestly don’t think the author could have come up with a better title for the book. While Enron was caught doing financial magic tricks to impress Wall Street and shareholders, they were also exposed as a highly toxic working environment with very poor management. Blockbuster will be shown to be guilty of the latter. Guilty in the most incomprehensible way ever. This book was written by not someone from the outside looking in, but rather someone on the inside. Someone who has actually spent a decade and more on actually running Blockbuster stores as a franchisee and witnessed firsthand at how bad and disillusioned management really got every step of the way. Warning: Built to Fail will cause your blood pressure to rise. It will cause you at times to laugh uncontrollably at how ridiculous it all got. Most of all, it will cause you to just stare in disbelief at how many chances Blockbuster got at altering its future for the better, but yet fumbled it all away. Ladies and gentlemen, similar to a natural disaster, Blockbuster’s downfall is something you can’t keep your eyes away from once you start looking.
The answer spoke to what DVD was. It was a commodity, a concept that a long line of Blockbuster executives never grasped, believing instead that DVDs in their stores were somehow worth more. - Author
There’s always two sides to a story, but even if half of what the author is claiming in the book is true, it’s still absolutely astonishing. For many like myself, I had no clue on how Blockbuster itself was actually formed from the beginning. Worse, people like myself had no clue on how Blockbuster was actually run, not only as a corporate business but from the franchisee’s point of view as well. This book changed all that. It goes over how literally, from the very beginning, the company was built to fail. All the original owner wanted to do was grow, grow and grow. They did this by simply opening up as many stores as possible. However, they paid hardly any attention to how they were actually run. They got away with this model for a few years, mainly due to how immature the video rental business was in the mid 80s. Blockbuster literally won because they were able to open hundreds to thousands of stores and eventually forced everyone else to close down. However, once this was achieved, they literally sat on their laurels and arrogantly paid no attention to competitors. They had one goal and one goal only: to open even more stores.
In one of the most notable collapse in the history of American business, Blockbuster had deteriorated from a company generating more cash than it could spend to one that was opening more stores than it could pay for–in just three years. - Author
As the author stated, when people are normally asked of what they believe drove Blockbuster to deathbed and most of the time the answer given would be due to Netflix streaming. However, Alan goes to prove that Blockbuster was doomed way before Netflix even got started nor years before they started streaming movies over the Internet. They literally had no business model other than to build more stores. With incompetent CEO’s and upper management over the years taking over, the problem exacerbated until the company was in a death spiral. The author also goes to show that Blockbuster had many chances to alter its course in history. It was interesting to learn that Netflix had actually both offered to sell itself to Blockbuster during the early 2000s along with actually offering them a lifeline years later by buying them out as well once the situation was reversed. This along with a ton of other useful information on how Blockbuster slowly imploded will shock you to the core. Blockbuster’s demise did leave a lasting imprint though for the entire corporate world: how not to run a company for the long term.
“I don’t need damn systems to tell me we have too many tapes in the stores. Just go in on Saturday night. If the damn things aren’t rented, then obviously you have too damn many of them!” - Wayne Huizenga – Chairman and CEO 1987 to 1994
Built to Fail was so hard to put down once I got started. As someone who enjoyed Blockbuster in those days, it’s sad yet very insightful to learn just why things happened the way they did. Like, why exactly were the new releases nowhere to be found in my store? Why did I start seeing all kinds of weird items like dolls and trinkets one would usually find for sale in tourists shops appearing all over a video rental store? Why exactly did I see employees with a clipboard on Saturday night manually counting the shelf inventory of movies? Why did renting older movies cost the same or more as new releases? While we all know Blockbuster failed, the reasons for why it did may not be the reasons you may be thinking of, and it’s all told here in Built to Fail. It would be fun to see maybe a two or three episode mini television series on this whole saga, and it would be a most bittersweet ending if it got produced as a Netflix Original.
The answer spoke to what DVD was. It was a commodity, a concept that a long line of Blockbuster executives never grasped, believing instead that DVDs in their stores were somehow worth more. - Author
There’s always two sides to a story, but even if half of what the author is claiming in the book is true, it’s still absolutely astonishing. For many like myself, I had no clue on how Blockbuster itself was actually formed from the beginning. Worse, people like myself had no clue on how Blockbuster was actually run, not only as a corporate business but from the franchisee’s point of view as well. This book changed all that. It goes over how literally, from the very beginning, the company was built to fail. All the original owner wanted to do was grow, grow and grow. They did this by simply opening up as many stores as possible. However, they paid hardly any attention to how they were actually run. They got away with this model for a few years, mainly due to how immature the video rental business was in the mid 80s. Blockbuster literally won because they were able to open hundreds to thousands of stores and eventually forced everyone else to close down. However, once this was achieved, they literally sat on their laurels and arrogantly paid no attention to competitors. They had one goal and one goal only: to open even more stores.
In one of the most notable collapse in the history of American business, Blockbuster had deteriorated from a company generating more cash than it could spend to one that was opening more stores than it could pay for–in just three years. - Author
As the author stated, when people are normally asked of what they believe drove Blockbuster to deathbed and most of the time the answer given would be due to Netflix streaming. However, Alan goes to prove that Blockbuster was doomed way before Netflix even got started nor years before they started streaming movies over the Internet. They literally had no business model other than to build more stores. With incompetent CEO’s and upper management over the years taking over, the problem exacerbated until the company was in a death spiral. The author also goes to show that Blockbuster had many chances to alter its course in history. It was interesting to learn that Netflix had actually both offered to sell itself to Blockbuster during the early 2000s along with actually offering them a lifeline years later by buying them out as well once the situation was reversed. This along with a ton of other useful information on how Blockbuster slowly imploded will shock you to the core. Blockbuster’s demise did leave a lasting imprint though for the entire corporate world: how not to run a company for the long term.
“I don’t need damn systems to tell me we have too many tapes in the stores. Just go in on Saturday night. If the damn things aren’t rented, then obviously you have too damn many of them!” - Wayne Huizenga – Chairman and CEO 1987 to 1994
Built to Fail was so hard to put down once I got started. As someone who enjoyed Blockbuster in those days, it’s sad yet very insightful to learn just why things happened the way they did. Like, why exactly were the new releases nowhere to be found in my store? Why did I start seeing all kinds of weird items like dolls and trinkets one would usually find for sale in tourists shops appearing all over a video rental store? Why exactly did I see employees with a clipboard on Saturday night manually counting the shelf inventory of movies? Why did renting older movies cost the same or more as new releases? While we all know Blockbuster failed, the reasons for why it did may not be the reasons you may be thinking of, and it’s all told here in Built to Fail. It would be fun to see maybe a two or three episode mini television series on this whole saga, and it would be a most bittersweet ending if it got produced as a Netflix Original.
March 15, 2021
An interesting look at some recent business history.
August 17, 2022
Came off preachy, whiney, and a bit too holier than thou for me.
January 22, 2024
3.5 Stars, rounded up.
----------
Everyone knows why Blockbuster failed: Netflix.
Alan Payne, [insert relevant biography and why he's the most important person to answer the question) would like to refute that popular misconception. In his view, the real answers are:
1. hubris (their strategy, build more stores, at the beginning worked too well, but a differetn strategy was needed when the market changed)
2. they weren't retailers. BB leadership didnt understand the business they were in
3. HEre's how Alan Payne did it, and if BB had just listened to him, they wouldn't have crashed and burned. It's not Netflix that killed BB, it's BB not listening to Alan Payne that killed BB.
The Good:
It offers a different critique: instead of merely saying "Netflix killed Blockbuster," the author (a Blockbuster franchisee who ran a successful and profitable chain of stores while corporate languished), argues that Blockbuster killed itself.
One, success is a poor teacher.
"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose."
- Bill Gates
Blockbuster's success led to hubris. It succeeded (wildly) by building stores so it never learned to operate as a retailer. When it started out, there was a vacuum in video rental market. The huge consumer demand (novelty of watching a movie at home, the price difference between what the studio was charging for a VHS (($65?)) vs what consumers were willing to pay, etc), the fact that most of Blockbuster's competitors were under-capitalized mom-and-pop operators ... They rapidly built up to meet that demand, but at the expense of learning how to operate as retailers. And as the market matured, their answer was to continue building more stores. Liabilities, fixed costs, changing market and technologies (DVD, not Neetflix yet).
Two:
Incuriousity.
"Be curious, not judgmental."
- Ted Lasso
Incurious about its own inventory, its customers viewing habits, competitors, or new technology.
CEOs: Huizenga (seed of destruction), Antiocco (celebrity ceo); culture of "if the idea didn't originate here, we're not interested".
Three: Lack of understanding of retail or video rental business
"Retail is detail."
-
Gimmicky answers to problems that seduced Wall Street, instead of retail fundamentals. Other stuff BB did wrong.
And the book's biggest weakness. Because most of it is, "If only BB had listened to me, the author, it would still be here today." Now, his resume, and the performance of his franchise stores when compared to corporate, does seem impressive, but he's not exactly impartial.
I wish he'd gone into more details, especially his different strategies. The most interesting thing was a brief, one or two paragraphs at the end when he talked about his ad campaigns in El Paso, about BB being the community's DVD collection.
----------
Everyone knows why Blockbuster failed: Netflix.
Alan Payne, [insert relevant biography and why he's the most important person to answer the question) would like to refute that popular misconception. In his view, the real answers are:
1. hubris (their strategy, build more stores, at the beginning worked too well, but a differetn strategy was needed when the market changed)
2. they weren't retailers. BB leadership didnt understand the business they were in
3. HEre's how Alan Payne did it, and if BB had just listened to him, they wouldn't have crashed and burned. It's not Netflix that killed BB, it's BB not listening to Alan Payne that killed BB.
The Good:
It offers a different critique: instead of merely saying "Netflix killed Blockbuster," the author (a Blockbuster franchisee who ran a successful and profitable chain of stores while corporate languished), argues that Blockbuster killed itself.
One, success is a poor teacher.
"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose."
- Bill Gates
Blockbuster's success led to hubris. It succeeded (wildly) by building stores so it never learned to operate as a retailer. When it started out, there was a vacuum in video rental market. The huge consumer demand (novelty of watching a movie at home, the price difference between what the studio was charging for a VHS (($65?)) vs what consumers were willing to pay, etc), the fact that most of Blockbuster's competitors were under-capitalized mom-and-pop operators ... They rapidly built up to meet that demand, but at the expense of learning how to operate as retailers. And as the market matured, their answer was to continue building more stores. Liabilities, fixed costs, changing market and technologies (DVD, not Neetflix yet).
Two:
Incuriousity.
"Be curious, not judgmental."
- Ted Lasso
Incurious about its own inventory, its customers viewing habits, competitors, or new technology.
CEOs: Huizenga (seed of destruction), Antiocco (celebrity ceo); culture of "if the idea didn't originate here, we're not interested".
Three: Lack of understanding of retail or video rental business
"Retail is detail."
-
Gimmicky answers to problems that seduced Wall Street, instead of retail fundamentals. Other stuff BB did wrong.
And the book's biggest weakness. Because most of it is, "If only BB had listened to me, the author, it would still be here today." Now, his resume, and the performance of his franchise stores when compared to corporate, does seem impressive, but he's not exactly impartial.
I wish he'd gone into more details, especially his different strategies. The most interesting thing was a brief, one or two paragraphs at the end when he talked about his ad campaigns in El Paso, about BB being the community's DVD collection.
June 17, 2024
Built to Fail is the story of what led to Blockbuster's eventual failure. Many like to harken back to the story where they were offered to buy out Netflix and decided to skip on the deal. According to Alan Payne, that was only a symptom of the overall problem. Their overall lack of intellectual curiosity and an inability to truly understand the market, and thus the customer, led Blockbuster down a path there was no coming back from.
Payne was a Blockbuster franchise owner and successfully kept his stores open the longest and had the best numbers. But when he tried to share that with corporate and help them understand what the customer wanted, all of his words fell on deaf ears. All Blockbuster wanted to do was open more stores. Hollywood Video opens up across the street? RedBox opening kiosks in all of the grocery stores? Netflix and their DVD by mail business? Nah, the customer wants to walk into a physical store and pick up the latest blockbuster movie. That will never change.
While I really enjoyed this book, there's a certain pain (no pun intended) to Payne's writing. He often repeats his points throughout the book to an extent where it felt that he couldn't trust the reader. Perhaps this is due in part to him having to repeatedly try to get his points across to corporate and them not wanting to listen to him. Although he did talk to a number of people in the industry when researching this book, I would have liked a few more interviews and direct quotes. That could have added an extra flavor of authority that I felt was missing.
Regardless, there's something very prescient about his explanations for why Blockbuster failed. With all of the layoffs happening in the tech industry because too many companies wanted to grow rapidly, it feels like the same thing continues to happen. Is Blockbuster an example of what not to do in business? Or is it only the beginning of a long line of failures that will continue to plague the industry?
If you're a millennial and want to know what happened to Blockbuster, check this one out. Or if you're younger and don't know what a Blockbuster is, then also read this.
Payne was a Blockbuster franchise owner and successfully kept his stores open the longest and had the best numbers. But when he tried to share that with corporate and help them understand what the customer wanted, all of his words fell on deaf ears. All Blockbuster wanted to do was open more stores. Hollywood Video opens up across the street? RedBox opening kiosks in all of the grocery stores? Netflix and their DVD by mail business? Nah, the customer wants to walk into a physical store and pick up the latest blockbuster movie. That will never change.
While I really enjoyed this book, there's a certain pain (no pun intended) to Payne's writing. He often repeats his points throughout the book to an extent where it felt that he couldn't trust the reader. Perhaps this is due in part to him having to repeatedly try to get his points across to corporate and them not wanting to listen to him. Although he did talk to a number of people in the industry when researching this book, I would have liked a few more interviews and direct quotes. That could have added an extra flavor of authority that I felt was missing.
Regardless, there's something very prescient about his explanations for why Blockbuster failed. With all of the layoffs happening in the tech industry because too many companies wanted to grow rapidly, it feels like the same thing continues to happen. Is Blockbuster an example of what not to do in business? Or is it only the beginning of a long line of failures that will continue to plague the industry?
If you're a millennial and want to know what happened to Blockbuster, check this one out. Or if you're younger and don't know what a Blockbuster is, then also read this.
March 7, 2024
This was an absolutely fascinating read. I'm not going to go into details in this review, because there's a lot to learn and truthfully, I'm still absorbing a good deal of it.
But when I saw this book pop up in recommendations, I felt it was my duty to give it a shot. I was one of those kids for whom the big box chain video rental stores were the only options. Even when an independent video rental WAS in whatever area I lived in at the time, my legal guardians only ever frequented Family Video, Hollywood Video, and of course, Blockbuster Video. I have many fond memories of that aspect of my childhood, but the fact remains I was a child and not entirely aware of all of the issues surrounding Blockbuster and other big chains, much less their inside issues.
Having watched a couple of documentaries now about video stores where many people expressed frustration about the Blockbuster chain, this book showed up at the right time for my already-piqued curiosity to want to latch on. Now, having read it, I feel like this was necessary. I feel like a lot of people who had similar experiences to me as a kid probably ought to consider giving this book a read. Yes, you can still have your nostalgia (I certainly do,) but I find this fascinating and especially helpful as a point of consideration. Not just for how Blockbuster crashed and burned so drastically, but also for consideration in regards to running a business.
But when I saw this book pop up in recommendations, I felt it was my duty to give it a shot. I was one of those kids for whom the big box chain video rental stores were the only options. Even when an independent video rental WAS in whatever area I lived in at the time, my legal guardians only ever frequented Family Video, Hollywood Video, and of course, Blockbuster Video. I have many fond memories of that aspect of my childhood, but the fact remains I was a child and not entirely aware of all of the issues surrounding Blockbuster and other big chains, much less their inside issues.
Having watched a couple of documentaries now about video stores where many people expressed frustration about the Blockbuster chain, this book showed up at the right time for my already-piqued curiosity to want to latch on. Now, having read it, I feel like this was necessary. I feel like a lot of people who had similar experiences to me as a kid probably ought to consider giving this book a read. Yes, you can still have your nostalgia (I certainly do,) but I find this fascinating and especially helpful as a point of consideration. Not just for how Blockbuster crashed and burned so drastically, but also for consideration in regards to running a business.
June 27, 2021
It can be said that there are many ways to succeed in business and only a handful of ways to fail: neglecting your customers, lack of understanding of unit economics, lack of differentiation. Over its decades of existence Blockbuster was guilty of all of these.
Alan Payne does an excellent job tracing the history of Blockbuster and outlining how it’s eventual demise was borne of many self-inflicted wounds caused by years of management neglect and ill-conceived decisions, which can be traced to its founding years and obsession with growing revenue by opening stores. This obsession eventually straddled the company with a tremendous fixed costs, little cash reserves and left it ill prepared for the changes happening in the industry by eventual usurpers Redbox and Netflix (companies it could have partnered with or acquired controlling stakes in which would have been worth hundreds of millions if not billions today).
The book provides a great look into how the home video industry operated from its nascent beginnings owing to the Betamax and subsequent mispricing of VHS tapes by the major Hollywood Studios. It also gives insight into the broader entertainment industry as a whole and how they have struggled to adapt to changing times and the understand the economics of their businesses.
Alan Payne does an excellent job tracing the history of Blockbuster and outlining how it’s eventual demise was borne of many self-inflicted wounds caused by years of management neglect and ill-conceived decisions, which can be traced to its founding years and obsession with growing revenue by opening stores. This obsession eventually straddled the company with a tremendous fixed costs, little cash reserves and left it ill prepared for the changes happening in the industry by eventual usurpers Redbox and Netflix (companies it could have partnered with or acquired controlling stakes in which would have been worth hundreds of millions if not billions today).
The book provides a great look into how the home video industry operated from its nascent beginnings owing to the Betamax and subsequent mispricing of VHS tapes by the major Hollywood Studios. It also gives insight into the broader entertainment industry as a whole and how they have struggled to adapt to changing times and the understand the economics of their businesses.
October 16, 2023
When I picked up my copy of Built to Fail: The Inside Story of Blockbuster’s Inevitable Bust, I was fully expecting to read a bunch of facts and statistics that I had already been presented in the documentaries about Blockbuster's fall. I didn’t expect to be shaking my head page after page, business decision after business decision. Of course, we all know how the story ends, but you can start connecting the dots of Blockbuster’s fall from the very beginning.
The author, Alan Payne, was able to dig into the business decisions of multiple Blockbuster administrations through first-hand knowledge and connections. Payne operated several successful Blockbuster locations, some of which were the last remaining locations in the 2010s. Payne also shed some light on Blockbuster’s competition from his time operating rental locations outside the Blockbuster chain. The author presented well-researched information in an easy-to-read and digestible style. However, it's clear that Payne has some bitterness towards certain Blockbuster executives and their lack of interest in his input. Despite multiple attempts to present his model for running a successful Blockbuster location, Payne realized that the decision-makers were only interested in their business methods, ultimately leading to the company's failure.
Overall, I really enjoyed Built to Fail: The Inside Story of Blockbuster’s Inevitable Bust. What stood out to me was Payne’s skill in presenting Blockbuster’s mistakes, from inventory management to customer profiling and marketing decisions. Each chapter demonstrated how a series of small decisions made over decades can ultimately lead to a company's downfall.
The author, Alan Payne, was able to dig into the business decisions of multiple Blockbuster administrations through first-hand knowledge and connections. Payne operated several successful Blockbuster locations, some of which were the last remaining locations in the 2010s. Payne also shed some light on Blockbuster’s competition from his time operating rental locations outside the Blockbuster chain. The author presented well-researched information in an easy-to-read and digestible style. However, it's clear that Payne has some bitterness towards certain Blockbuster executives and their lack of interest in his input. Despite multiple attempts to present his model for running a successful Blockbuster location, Payne realized that the decision-makers were only interested in their business methods, ultimately leading to the company's failure.
Overall, I really enjoyed Built to Fail: The Inside Story of Blockbuster’s Inevitable Bust. What stood out to me was Payne’s skill in presenting Blockbuster’s mistakes, from inventory management to customer profiling and marketing decisions. Each chapter demonstrated how a series of small decisions made over decades can ultimately lead to a company's downfall.
August 8, 2025
Fully detailed explanation of Blockbuster’s failure to adapt and succeed
Thank you for writing this book! As a visitor to Store 1 back in the day, I enjoyed going to Blockbuster and renting movies at various locations. However, the lack of business sense, especially in marketing and data utilization, was evident to customers as the years passed. Antiquated registers, oppressive (and sometimes erroneous) systems that attributed rentals to incorrect accounts - as well as the late fees that seemed to incite downright hatred for customers as displayed by employee behavior and attitudes - diminished any goodwill. I migrated to Hollywood Video and never looked back. So many missed opportunities by Blockbuster due to poor attitudes and a total lack of willingness to learn. It is just too bad they took your successful stores down with them.
Thank you for writing this book! As a visitor to Store 1 back in the day, I enjoyed going to Blockbuster and renting movies at various locations. However, the lack of business sense, especially in marketing and data utilization, was evident to customers as the years passed. Antiquated registers, oppressive (and sometimes erroneous) systems that attributed rentals to incorrect accounts - as well as the late fees that seemed to incite downright hatred for customers as displayed by employee behavior and attitudes - diminished any goodwill. I migrated to Hollywood Video and never looked back. So many missed opportunities by Blockbuster due to poor attitudes and a total lack of willingness to learn. It is just too bad they took your successful stores down with them.
June 12, 2021
What resonated the most for me while reading 'Built to Fail,' was that I, too, had worked for two companies that were built, it seems to me, on foundations of hubris: one, mismanaged to death, and, the other, making some strides to improve but, perhaps, at a too-little-too-late pace. Payne's insights were a revelation as to how such a powerhouse company, like the two I worked for, can get caught up in its own narcissism to defeat itself.
More than anything else, Payne's history of Blockbuster uncovers how a nostalgia of how we THINK we remember things of our past aren't always as they seem NOW - he, certainly, removes the emerald -colored glasses and shows us what 'Oz' truly looked like.
'Built to Fail': A recommended read, for sure!
More than anything else, Payne's history of Blockbuster uncovers how a nostalgia of how we THINK we remember things of our past aren't always as they seem NOW - he, certainly, removes the emerald -colored glasses and shows us what 'Oz' truly looked like.
'Built to Fail': A recommended read, for sure!
February 25, 2022
Worked at the Block from 2005-2009 (store 12218 baby), this book was a delightful indulgence down memory lane of all the asinine and desperate business decisions we had to endure from corporate during the final years. I still occasionally have nightmares where I'm endlessly explaining the reasoning of the "$1.25 restocking fee" until I can take no more and stab one of those yellow lock protectors into my eye sockets.
This book might possibly be a little too inside baseball for some if you have no knowledge of the industry from that time period, but it's very well written and researched. Might also possibly be construed as a tad too one-sided, but all of Alan Payne's harsh criticisms are backed up with raw data and, most importantly, common sense.
This book might possibly be a little too inside baseball for some if you have no knowledge of the industry from that time period, but it's very well written and researched. Might also possibly be construed as a tad too one-sided, but all of Alan Payne's harsh criticisms are backed up with raw data and, most importantly, common sense.
June 24, 2023
It was an interesting read about the "inside" of Blockbuster. I actually agreed with a lot of what Payne was saying. It sounded like a lot of the problems that Blockbuster faced could have been avoided if people were listening to each other.
The only thing that rubbed be the wrong way was at the end of the book. Payne talked about what made his Border Entertainment company successful. I was with him till he mentioned something about an excellent benefits package to his management staff. I guess it's a good thing that Blockbuster closed down, because I'm sure in this day and age people would have been getting upset over the fact that the managers were the ones that were getting all the benefits.
The only thing that rubbed be the wrong way was at the end of the book. Payne talked about what made his Border Entertainment company successful. I was with him till he mentioned something about an excellent benefits package to his management staff. I guess it's a good thing that Blockbuster closed down, because I'm sure in this day and age people would have been getting upset over the fact that the managers were the ones that were getting all the benefits.
May 26, 2023
This book was interesting, and the insider's perspective helped to make it even more so, but there is SO. MUCH. REPETITION! The author constantly restates the same things over and over, often recapping events that we just read about. Without all the repetition, this book could easily have been shorter by 50 pages or so. I also spotted some poor phrasing and typos here and there. This book really could have used a couple more passes by a good editor. All that said, it's still a quick and easy read, and I recommend it if you're interested in this topic. Just be aware going in that you'll be seeing much of the information and opinions restated many times before you reach the last page.
June 28, 2024
Well written account by a former franchisee about how out of touch this growth focused company got blindsided by Hollywood Video, Netflix and the Redbox. If only Huizenga and Antioco could have paid attention to what Mr. Payne was saying. He had a great understanding of how to succeed, but wealthy guys are sometimes so smug that they might as well be wearing earplugs when someone presents solutions worth trying. Huizenga has a waste management company and a car sales business and Antioco, like many out of touch CEOS, got his golden parachute for his money losing, stupid ideas, which drove a once great company to bankruptcy.
March 17, 2022
Payne is a former franchisee who's justifiably irked by the multitude of executive blunders that torpedo'd Blockbuster. Even before Netflix started streaming, Blockbuster was failing as a business, and this book lays out all the reason why. They could have been a contenda!
I give it two stars because the book is exceedingly dry and not especially well written. It's very inside baseball. It would have been nice to read this if it had been cowritten with someone able to make it into more of a gripping personality based tale.
I give it two stars because the book is exceedingly dry and not especially well written. It's very inside baseball. It would have been nice to read this if it had been cowritten with someone able to make it into more of a gripping personality based tale.
January 17, 2026
3.5 stars. Alan Payne knew the topic well enough to be able to explain how the business was, well, built to fail way before Netflix was a thing. I feel like the first half of the book felt longer for me to read, but the 2000's became faster paced.
As someone who was born in 1995, and had enough memories at Blockbuster, I sort of wish he explained more about the 'pointless side quests' like video games, that Blockbuster went into. Also, on a side note, I don't know how public libraries offering rentals for free affected Blockbuster.
As someone who was born in 1995, and had enough memories at Blockbuster, I sort of wish he explained more about the 'pointless side quests' like video games, that Blockbuster went into. Also, on a side note, I don't know how public libraries offering rentals for free affected Blockbuster.
July 5, 2023
Interesting case study about the failure of Blockbuster written by an insider. The reason for Blockbuster's downfall were manifold - and contrary to popular opinion not (only) caused by the competition with Netflix. One flaw stands out: the inability of management to listen. Their inability to understand the rental video market exacerbated this problem. The author does a good job of describing the history of Blockbuster and analysing its decline.
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