Change is good

News today that Blockbuster USA is filing for bankruptcy.

Set up in 1985 Blockbuster was valued at $8.4bn by 1994 with store numbers peaking at nearly 7000, yet less than 20 years later it is bust

Best Years are a soft toy wholesaler specialising in knitted and crochet toys and have never yet been hired as retail consultants but even we could have predicted Blockbuster's demise.

In an economic climate which suited the "stay in with a film" mentality Blockbuster managed to lose customers with their exorbitant late charges and grubby stores. Their business model had been tried and tested why should they change it?

When Netflix started offering a postal service they scorned it and did not see it as a threat. They even had the chance to buy it at its early stages but declined.

As Netflix grew Blockbuster stopped looking at what the customer wanted and started to concentrate on stopping Netflix. All its energy was focused on the negative task of hating Netflix rather than concentrating on the more positive task of loving its customers

Change happens. Technology advances. Customers requirements move. You can either ignore it or embrace it.

Two years ago Best Years sold traditional soft toys but the recession and the collapse of the pound against the dollar forced us to re-evaluate our business. Now we sell knitted and crochet toys with an emphasis on fair trade. It was an uncomfortable journey but definitely worth it

We are also quite happy to offer business advice to huge retail brands if you pay us enough! Just give us a call on 01327 262189

Normal retailers who want to buy our toys are warmly invited to use the same telephone number