NOT BEING A BLOCKBUSTERByTedJanusz

In 2004, Blockbuster had 60,000 employees in 9,000stores and appeared invincible. At one point, a newBlockbuster opened every 24 hours.

Arrogance and lgnoranceAfterbeingfined an outrageous late fee of$40 on a copyof the movie 'Apollo 13," Blockbuster customer ReedHastings decided to act. Inl997,he co-founded Netflix,which would eventually stream movies online, andBlockbuster's days began to be numbered. (Ironically,Blockbuster passed on the chance to purchase Hastings'company for $40 million in 2000.)

Another example of disregard for the customerexperience involved Dave Carroll and his band, Sons ofMaxwell. During a trip, the band's United Airlines planestopped for a layover at Chicago's O'Hare airport. Whilethe plane sat on the tarmac, one ofthe other passengerslooked out the window and exclaimed, "They're throwingguitars out there!"

Carroll's $3,500 Taylor guitar was badly damaged.He persisted with the airline for nine months to rightthe situation, then in desperation, created a song andvideo about his experience and posted his story onYouTube. His "United Breaks Guitars" video now hasnearly 15 million views.

The experience was a costly public relations andfinancial nightmare for the airline. According to theLondon Tlmes online, "\ /ithin four days of the songgoing online, the gathering ofthe thunderclouds ofbad pR caused United Airlines' stock price to plungeby 10 percent, costing shareholders $180 million. Thiswould have bought Carroll more than 51,000 replace-ment guitars."

Shifting into ParkMaybe you don't need to concern yourself with a socialmedia backlash because you and your employees treatyour parking patrons with respect. And maybe you arenot threatened by the rapid rate ofchange in the parkingindustry as in the technology industry.

At least for the foreseeable future, consumers willneed to use their cars to transport themselves to work,school, and to shop. When they do, they will need topark those cars somewhere. But, as with Blockbuster

id a typical Friday night used to mean driving to your neighborhood Blockbusterstore to get a copy of the latest movie release before they were all rented? Andthen did you watch the film within 48 hours to avoid a dreaded late fee?

TED JANUSZ isa professional

speaker on the topicof "social media

for baby boomers,"author, and marketing

consultant. He is theauthor of the Socral

Media MarketingGuide for Parking

Professionals, whichis a free publication

for lPl members andcan be downloaded

from parking.org/socialmediaguide.

He can bereached at teIr?;

j ;i;*sp;es*::i*ii*;':*.*rn or 614.440.7487.

or United Airlines, a chilling future reality may be rnstore for us.

Why would someone want to go through the timeand effort to travel to a mal1 or other shopping desti-nation only to deal with customer service as pitiful aswhat Reed Hastings or Dave Carroll experienced, whenthe1, q2n 6.6.. just about anlthing painlesslywith just afew clicks on Amazon or other retail websites? Onlinesales are expected to grow to more than $400 billion by2018. That is nearly a half-trillion dollars of goods andservices that consumers will no longer need to drive(and park) to get.

Retail consultant Howard Davidowitz predicts thatup to 50 percent of America's shopping malls will faiiwithin 15 to 20 years. He expects that only upscaleshopping centers with anchors such as Neiman Marcusand Saks Fifth Avenue will make the cut.

Malls that depend on anchors such as J.C. Penneyand Sears, which are quickly ciosing stores, are mostr,.r.rlnerable. "Middle-1eve1 stores in middle-1eve1 mal1sare going to be extinct because they don't make sense,"claims Davidowitz. "That's why we haven't built a majorenclosed mall since 2006."

At the time of its opening in 1989, Columbus CityCenter was Central Ohio's largest and most upscaleshopping mall, but it was demolished in 2010. Fortu-nately, the parking garage adjacent to the ma1l foundnew use as a place to store the cars of employees whowork dou.ntown. Other parking garages that supportshopping centers may in the future not be as fortunate.

How might your parking facility be affected by thegrowth of online commerce and the potential decline ofthe brick-and-mortar shopping facilities that surroundit? How can you avoid becoming a Blockbuster? O

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14 INTERNATTONAL pARKtNG tNSTtTU-E lRnntr ZOtS