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NOT BEING A BLOCKBUSTER

ByTedJanusz

id a typical Friday night used to mean driving to your neighborhood Blockbuster


store to get a copy of the latest movie release before they were all rented? And
then did you watch the film within 48 hours to avoid a dreaded late fee?
In 2004, Blockbuster had 60,000 employees in 9,000

stores and appeared invincible. At one point, a new


Blockbuster opened every 24 hours.

Arrogance and lgnorance


Afterbeingfined an outrageous late fee of$40 on a copy
of the movie 'Apollo 13," Blockbuster customer Reed
Hastings decided to act. Inl997,he co-founded Netflix,
which would eventually stream movies online, and
Blockbuster's days began to be numbered. (Ironically,

nearly 15 million views.

or United Airlines, a chilling future reality may be rn


store for us.
Why would someone want to go through the time
and effort to travel to a mal1 or other shopping destination only to deal with customer service as pitiful as
what Reed Hastings or Dave Carroll experienced, when
the1, q2n 6.6.. just about anlthing painlesslywith just a
few clicks on Amazon or other retail websites? Online
sales are expected to grow to more than $400 billion by
2018. That is nearly a half-trillion dollars of goods and
services that consumers will no longer need to drive
(and park) to get.
Retail consultant Howard Davidowitz predicts that
up to 50 percent of America's shopping malls will faii
within 15 to 20 years. He expects that only upscale

The experience was a costly public relations and


financial nightmare for the airline. According to the
London Tlmes online, "\ /ithin four days of the song
going online, the gathering ofthe thunderclouds of
bad pR caused United Airlines' stock price to plunge
by 10 percent, costing shareholders $180 million. This

shopping centers with anchors such as Neiman Marcus


and Saks Fifth Avenue will make the cut.
Malls that depend on anchors such as J.C. Penney
and Sears, which are quickly ciosing stores, are most
r,.r.rlnerable. "Middle-1eve1 stores in middle-1eve1 mal1s
are going to be extinct because they don't make sense,"

would have bought Carroll more than 51,000 replacement guitars."

claims Davidowitz. "That's why we haven't built

Blockbuster passed on the chance to purchase Hastings'


company for $40 million in 2000.)

Another example of disregard for the customer


experience involved Dave Carroll and his band, Sons of
Maxwell. During a trip, the band's United Airlines plane
stopped for a layover at Chicago's O'Hare airport. While
the plane sat on the tarmac, one ofthe other passengers
looked out the window and exclaimed, "They're throwing
guitars out there!"
Carroll's $3,500 Taylor guitar was badly damaged.
He persisted with the airline for nine months to right
the situation, then in desperation, created a song and
video about his experience and posted his story on
YouTube. His "United Breaks Guitars" video now has

TED JANUSZ is
a professional
speaker on the topic
of "social media

for baby boomers,"


author, and marketing
consultant. He is the
author of the Socral
Media Marketing
Guide for Parking

Professionals, which
is a free publication

for lPl members and


can be downloaded
from parking.org/
socialmediaguide.
He can be
reached at teIr?;
j

;i;*sp;es*::i*ii*;':*.

*rn
14

or 614.440.7487.

Shifting into Park


Maybe you don't need to concern yourself with a social
media backlash because you and your employees treat
your parking patrons with respect. And maybe you are
not threatened by the rapid rate ofchange in the parking
industry as in the technology industry.
At least for the foreseeable future, consumers will
need to use their cars to transport themselves to work,
school, and to shop. When they do, they will need to
park those cars somewhere. But, as with Blockbuster

INTERNATTONAL pARKtNG tNSTtTU-E

lRnntr

ZOtS

major

enclosed mall since 2006."

At the time of its opening in 1989, Columbus City


Center was Central Ohio's largest and most upscale
shopping mall, but it was demolished in 2010. Fortunately, the parking garage adjacent to the ma1l found
new use as a place to store the cars of employees who
work dou.ntown. Other parking garages that support
shopping centers may in the future not be as fortunate.
How might your parking facility be affected by the
growth of online commerce and the potential decline of
the brick-and-mortar shopping facilities that surround
it? How can you avoid becoming a Blockbuster? O

o
I

o
E
!)

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