Circuit City Closing! Woo-Hoo! Going out of Business Deals!

I worked at a CC in Florida and that's exactly what they did in that store. All the people that were making the most on commision were laid off and the people that made less got to keep their job. That's a pretty lousy decision from a company.

Personally, I'm glad the company is gone. They fired me. :D I just don't like to see so many people lose their jobs in this economy...
 
I'm not sure you can blame CC's collapse in 2009 on their practices in the 1980's.

As for their prices, I usually find them to be at least equal to, and often lower than, Best Buy's. The salespeople in the CC in my town certainly seemed knowledgable enough -- they always were able to answer my questions at least as well as salespeople at Best Buy.
 
chapelgrovefilms said:
I'm not sure you can blame CC's collapse in 2009 on their practices in the 1980's.
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I don't blame what they did in the 80s and 90s for putting them out of business now, but since I was in management there, I did see the game plans and long term goals. They were in denial about how the business was evolving. After I left, I still had several colleagues working for them and they began to flounder quite a few years ago.

Their basic business plan was doomed to fail, they made stupid company and real estate acquisitions that didn't make sense strategically and they focused on a customer ethos that really has gone out of style, especially in the age of the Internet. The first time I ever surfed the Internet was in my ACE department at one of my stores, back when it was a Mosaic browser.

Also, in that business, if you compete on price, you are doomed to fail, there will always be someone selling it cheaper than you are. You have to add value and increase the customer's perception of their experience in order for them to buy from you instead of your competitors. But time has proven that American consumers, regardless of what they say, predominantly only care about the lowest price and most of the products now are commodities. Back in the day, a new CD player was a big deal, not everyone carried CD players. Nowdays, you can get anything, anywhere so what would make customers buy from you instead of the place that is 2% cheaper?

Not saying that there weren't some good salespeople and managers working for them, there were and it is sad but that business is definitely survival of the fittest. For anyone who worked in management for them, most of us are surprised that they survived this long frankly.


Dan
 
In any event, that's 30,000 people who probably aren't going to be going to many movies or renting/buying as many DVD's. And it's one major corporation that isn't going to be shelling out bucks to have TV commercials or training videos made.
 
chapelgrovefilms said:
In any event, that's 30,000 people who probably aren't going to be going to many movies or renting/buying as many DVD's. And it's one major corporation that isn't going to be shelling out bucks to have TV commercials or training videos made.
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You might be surprised. I've known people out of work who do nothing but sit at home watching movies all day. :)

Sad day though. That's a lot of layoffs.

MAH
 
Tom Marshall said:
A bad business might deserve to fail, but 30,000 people don't deserve to lose their jobs.
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Yeah, but everything is cyclical. OK, Circuit City is going OB, but so did Korvette's, Caldors, Nobody Beats the Wiz, Comp USA and countless other chain stores. Old stores die out, new ones pop up. Circuit City peeps can take their skillset and go work elsewhere.

There's life after CC, Puredrifing being one example. :Drogar-Evil(DBG):

EDIT: Back in the 80's, Circuit City TV spots had that old skool computer animated graphic with the electric plug. Roots! It's on youtube somewhere.
 
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Deepfocus88 said:
There's life after CC, Puredrifing being one example..
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I left CC when I turned 30, I decided that I had enough of retail hell and working holidays and weekends. But I do have to say, being a video, audio, then store manager for them taught me a lot about people and how to run a $25 million dollar a year business. It was a great learning experience and I did work with a lot of cool people, a few of which I am still in touch with today, 20 years later. Overall, it was a good chapter of my life, had a lot of good times, made some good money as well. But glad I got out, the whole corporate ladder thing is a soul draining, rat on a treadmill grind.

I do think someone will join the retail landscape to take their place eventually. The market probably won't stay open only to BB too long.

Dan
 
I shop online because when I go to a big box store I will pay more...but that's not all.

I will also have to deal with someone who probably 90% of the time simply has no clue what they are talking about.

They will then badger me to buy an extended service plan for my purchase at exorbitant prices or try to sell me insanely overpriced accessories (I once found the EXACT cable I needed from Newegg for $45 while Best Buy was selling it for $110). Best Buy now makes you SIGN a form declining the service plan on computers...wtf?

Next up, you'll be offered a credit card at exorbitant interest rates. (although interest-free offers are sometimes available)

If you've survived all this you can proceed to checkout where you will be hassled to join some sort of rewards program and perhaps offered some magazine subscriptions.

If you make it through that you may now proceed to be treated like a criminal by the door security man who will check your receipt and search your bags. No matter you just spent $1000, you are not a valued customer- you are a suspect.

Phew. You made it.

God forbid you find when you get home that the item will need returned. Expect to pay up to 20% in restocking fees.

All of the above is why I don't shop at big box stores.

Their primary profits are service plans, credit, and overpriced accessories. I know this because corporate flat out tells their employees this.

At some stores they will actually refuse to sell you an item without the service plan. This has been documented around the web by those who've experienced it.
 
libneon said:
At some stores they will actually refuse to sell you an item without the service plan. This has been documented around the web by those who've experienced it.
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Totally illegal in the U.S.

No big chains can do this or they would be shut down instantly by the local district attorney office. Not saying that this has never happened, I am sure it has, but it had to have been in a very isolated cases by idiots running the store that let this happen. If you are consumer and let a retailer get away with this, whether you buy the item or not, you are dumber than the idiots trying to get away with it. My first phone call after leaving the store would be to the local DA. If a store was systematically doing this, it would be really easy to catch them and prosecute them. When I was managing stores, this was training 101 for the staff, that you cannot require anyone to buy any extended warranty under any circumstances nor can you ever bait and switch a customer.

Dan
 
TBH, Circuit City just kinda sucked. They did NOTHING better than any other store, but a lot of things worse. They've been on there way out for a long time, the bad economy just sped that up IMO. I agree with Rick Meyer :)

As for the earlier comment(s) on supporting the local community and paying higher to go into a store, etc. and being price whores - nah. The world is changing and the way things are done are changing. Just like the shift to digital music and iPods, digital software distribution, etc.

Sure, some businesses will lose, but others will flourish. It's the way the world works.

Retail stores like CC or CompUSA are no longer neccessary. Huge warehouse stores like Fry's and Walmart are the future, and they will have a market. Why? Because they can price closer to online stores, but offer all the perks of a retail store. It doesn't matter if they don't have a lot of local retail competition - their competition in price will be the online stores, and that is enough. And there will be PLENTY of online retailers to go around.

This cuts out the middle man - retail. It was necessary then, not so much now. Things shift. And this really is a GOOD shift, things are better this way - content creators like it better, and so do consumers. It's just we've spent our whole lives being used to the neccessary evil that is retail. Software stores and stores stocking CD music will fade away as everything goes digital. Cell phone companies will switch and become wireless data companies as everything goes skype-based over WiMax type connections.

Yes, people will lose their jobs along the way, but it's not tragic - it's everyday life in a capatilism. The only thing tragic about this is the TIMING with the economy, but that is a seperate issue than CC going under - IMO.

Where these jobs are lost, more will be found:

- Delivery services (FedEX, UPS, etc. will continually expand as online shopping becomes dominate)
- Web Designers for online retailers
- Construction workers to build giant retail stores (and employees in these new businesses)

And of course, jobs in other industries all together that keep popping up as others disappear. It's the ebb and flow.

I do feel bad for those who lost their job (regardless of reason, store, etc.) at this time with the economy, as it is very difficult to find a job. That's the tragic part.

But that aside, I'm with Batutta - time to grab some great deals!
 
they sell electronics though. CC went out of their way to not make a sell in many cases.
I was there to buy a rear projection HDTV to game on in my studio one day. Dude tried to sell me a 80 dollar componant cable for it and I pased. He became insulting, asking why in the world I'd buy an HD tv and not wire it componant. With no need to explain, I did explain it would just be fed by a composite Xbox so my clients and I could get comfortably numb and throw grenades at one another. Dude went on a tangent on how I didnt understand signal flow. I finally just agreed it was not best to buy a tv there without a cable so I split and went to Best Buy for a tv.
Even then they won't just ring up a product. You have to say no to 5 different flavors of spam just to make a purchase.
At the risk of sounding old, back in my day, customers were appriciated and catered to, not pressured, houded and chased away.

simply put, if I wanted fries with that, I would have ordered em with my burger.
 
grinner said:
they sell electronics though. CC went out of their way to not make a sell in many cases.
I was there to buy a rear projection HDTV to game on in my studio one day. Dude tried to sell me a 80 dollar componant cable for it and I pased. He became insulting, asking why in the world I'd buy an HD tv and not wire it componant. With no need to explain, I did explain it would just be fed by a composite Xbox so my clients and I could get comfortably numb and throw grenades at one another. Dude went on a tangent on how I didnt understand signal flow. I finally just agreed it was not best to buy a tv there without a cable so I split and went to Best Buy for a tv.
Even then they won't just ring up a product. You have to say no to 5 different flavors of spam just to make a purchase.
At the risk of sounding old, back in my day, customers were appriciated and catered to, not pressured, houded and chased away.

simply put, if I wanted fries with that, I would have ordered em with my burger.
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The original Xbox supported Component and allowed you to get HD from it. Even on a crappy TV 480P would have been much better than composite. Considering you were getting a new HDTV and many games were 1080i.... He was right. :)

Shouldn't cost $80 though. A cheap cable would have done the job.

Of course, if you just didn't want one.... that's another story. Still, why buy a new HDTV and not use the Xbox in HD??

Now I sound like him. :)
 
BWAHAHA! Revenge is a dish best served cold--

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Yeah. The local Circuit City's GOOB sale prices were . . . about what BB's normal prices are. Wow. Some deals! And I still couldn't get a sales associate's attention if I had set myself on fire.

Good riddance.
 
skinny! said:
and B&H cheaper still. why drive?
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Or for DVD's and videogames there's always Amazon. If the price is not much different though, I'd rather mosey on into BB and pick up what I want.

David Jimerson said:
Yeah. The local Circuit City's GOOB sale prices were . . . about what BB's normal prices are. Wow. Some deals!.
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I noticed the same thing with the Circuit City near me that went out of business before X-mas.
 
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