A recent essay from the MIT Press reminded me of the sad decline of Blockbuster, which I saw begin as SVP of the company (I was unceremoniously fired along with much of the old guard before the true destruction began).

Anybody old enough to remember knows that visiting a Blockbuster store to rent a new release often ended in disappointment, as there were never enough new titles to meet demand.

Yet few people left empty-handed; rather, they found another title, often an older movie, whether recommended by a fellow customer or store staffer. In this way, Blockbuster wasn’t a video retailer as much as a geophysical recommendation engine for video content.

And the engine was robust, as the chain registered over one million rentals every day and all of them were keyed to specific customers thanks to their membership.

It also represented an amazing opportunity: What if Blockbuster used that data, combined with a helpful and pleasant retail experience, to consistently give people movies that they were most likely to enjoy?

Think Apple store only stocked with videos.

It could have built and grown its customer engagement into relationships that it could have migrated online, doing what Netflix would take years to figure out…years before it would get around to trying.

Instead, the great minds in charge decided that Blockbuster needed to wring every last cent from anybody who dared visit their stores, and hired a team of convenience store retailers to do the exploiting.

Customer service got worse, not better. CDs, laserdiscs, and any other media that could be rented or sold were piled on shelves. Plush toys and rows of candy were arrayed in front of the check-out counters, set at just the right height so little kids couldn’t avoid them.

Sales declined and stores got junkier as the need to generate revenue got more desperate. Profits cratered. By the time there were alternatives online to visiting a Blockbuster store, the chain was already on life support.

Blockbuster wasn’t put out of business by digital distribution. Though the story is far more complex, I will always maintain that they pretty much did it to themselves.

The MIT story captures the soul of that missed opportunity of social experience, much of which emerged in Blockbuster stores organically, and about which I’m surprised more people haven’t commented.

We’ll never know if embracing it would have led to any sustainable success, but I believe we could had a shot at it.

And would it have been fun to try.