Circuit City closing stores! >ALL<

a while back I read somewhere that they let all their top earners go in an effort to save money.

Hmmm fire all your legacy people that have a clue and keep the inexperienced because they cost less.

That's a great business strategy seems to be working well :sign:
 
I saw on the list the one on Gun Hill Road in the Bronx - that store just opened up a couple of months back.
 
They're an old client of mine, in my last incarnation as a consultant (I worked with them up in Canada, then down at head office in Richmond). Good people, but I'm wondering if the industry is changing on them.
 
Marco-Polo said:
They're an old client of mine, in my last incarnation as a consultant (I worked with them up in Canada, then down at head office in Richmond). Good people, but I'm wondering if the industry is changing on them.
Click to expand...

Consumer purchasing is changing! :D

They also may have expanded beyond usefulness.
Not to mention other/general type stores picking up more electronics.
You notice I said 'more' and not better, as products seem to be getting better across the board.
At a minimum, the products are getting less expensive(such is the tech market) - ie VIZIO.

It will be interesting to see how other electronics stores fair....especially with internet sales increasing.
In my search for a new TV and bed(separate items :D), online prices(non-B&M stores) is kicking retails store prices in the tail.
 
Back when Circuit City tried to swindle the American public with divx I was fighting them on the internet with a goal to turn all their stores into parking lots. I didn't accomplish that but it is happening now. Death to those scum bags, never shop there and never let anyone you know shop there.
 
I decided I had enough, after 18 1/2 years, in May. Looks to me like they are closing a number of stores opened in the past year or two, along with entire markets(Phoenix).

Way too much change last year, which started when I had to lay off 20 of my 45 employees because they made too much. Then they changed the management model, to where I had to let 2 of my 5 managers go, then go with 18 year old department supervisors. Had they been thinking correctly the best employees, that I had to lay off, should have been my supervisors. Oops, did things backwards. :sign:

The week before Thanksgiving last year, all of the laid off associates received a letter that stated they could get their jobs back, but at a substantial wage decrease. Being the holidays, and the fact that they were all on their last week of unemployment, this brought 16 of my employees back to me. I wouldn't have lasted through Christmas with CC, had these associates not come back. Before they were laid off, it was a career to them, and they had personal equity invested in our success. After the lay-offs, it was just a paycheck. I cannot blame them for feeling that way.

I felt bad for those associates when I left in May, and I feel bad for all of my freinds throughout the country that are losing their jobs now. Poor upper management decisions have driven this company to the brink.
 
My only purchase from CC was a radar detector a year or two ago. My then-current one crapped out unexpectedly and I had a 600 mile trip I was undertaking later in the day so I didn't have time to order anything online. Best Buy only carried Cobra products (worse than not using a radar detector at all) and CC had a few different top-of-midrange Bel products, so I bought a 995 from them.

The store looked like a disaster had hit. Boxes and crap everywhere, no rhyme or reason to the organization, entire aisles with nothing on them, half the TVs were off or showing static, employees playing videogames, etc.

I dislike Best Buy as much as the next guy, but what I saw at my local CC was a joke.
 
beyond the band said:
a while back I read somewhere that they let all their top earners go in an effort to save money.

Hmmm fire all your legacy people that have a clue and keep the inexperienced because they cost less.

That's a great business strategy seems to be working well :sign:
Click to expand...
yea, i was part of the first layoffs back in 2002. they laid off all of the commission sales reps that were averaging over a certain amount of money.
 
This is but the beginning of the retail shake outs. You'll be seeing more of these stories in the coming months.

Sorry to see so many people losing their livelihood.
 
joshmickelson said:
yea, i was part of the first layoffs back in 2002. they laid off all of the commission sales reps that were averaging over a certain amount of money.
Click to expand...

What kind of idiot can possibly think that makes any kind of sense? ???
 
Best Buy said many years ago that they're goal was to put Circuit City out of business - mission accomplished I guess. I refuse to shop at Best Buy, have had several run-ins with their staff.

In Monrovia, CA - CompUSA went out of business last year, and Circuit City just opened their doors less than a year ago, now they're shutting down. Too bad. Perhaps more of the mom & pops will come back. I never was a fan of large corporations - too many are evil, plain and simple.
 
Rod said:
Best Buy said many years ago that they're goal was to put Circuit City out of business - mission accomplished I guess. I refuse to shop at Best Buy, have had several run-ins with their staff.

In Monrovia, CA - CompUSA went out of business last year, and Circuit City just opened their doors less than a year ago, now they're shutting down. Too bad. Perhaps more of the mom & pops will come back. I never was a fan of large corporations - too many are evil, plain and simple.
Click to expand...

Best Buy can kiss it. I shopped there for years and spent plenty of money. I found something I had purchased for almost 300 dollars cheaper on Amazon. They refused to help me out and were extremely unpleasant about the whole situation. They have lost the majority of my business. I have purchased a few things since then, but nowhere near what I did. The only reason being, it was cheaper there than anywhere else.

As far as CC tough luck. I had just started shooping there. UGH where too now.
 
Unfortunately, just like Linens n' Things I expected this to happen. I graduated college in 06 from a business school and we talked quite about reasons and signs of failing corporate structures. While we continue to have an economic struggle for so many families, its going to speed up the closing of other corporate businesses. In return more people losing jobs, vicious cycle :(
 
I've boycotted Best Buy for years. Stemming from (among other annoyances) them telling my brother he was an "idiot for not getting the extended warranty" on a tv he was buying. My brother instantly stopped and asked for someone else to ring him up because of what the guy said to him. I wish I had been with him because he should have demanded more than that and not even bought the TV from them.

The other funny thing was when I was in there a few years ago, the sales kid said, "you should really get this sattelite tv service. They're actually paying you to get it." When I asked him how in the world he thought they were paying me to get it when I'd be locked into a service contract costing me X amount of dollars he was literally speechless. argh...

I've taken my business to Ultimate Electronics. They are some better but it seems many of these places are all the same.

I've dealt with CC a few times and liked their service. It's too bad they're going out of business. Sign of the times, I'm afraid. Things happen and hopefully new stores will spring up.

BR
 
Shooter said:
Rod said:
Best Buy said many years ago that they're goal was to put Circuit City out of business - mission accomplished I guess. I refuse to shop at Best Buy, have had several run-ins with their staff.

In Monrovia, CA - CompUSA went out of business last year, and Circuit City just opened their doors less than a year ago, now they're shutting down. Too bad. Perhaps more of the mom & pops will come back. I never was a fan of large corporations - too many are evil, plain and simple.
Click to expand...

Best Buy can kiss it. I shopped there for years and spent plenty of money. I found something I had purchased for almost 300 dollars cheaper on Amazon. They refused to help me out and were extremely unpleasant about the whole situation. They have lost the majority of my business. I have purchased a few things since then, but nowhere near what I did. The only reason being, it was cheaper there than anywhere else.

As far as CC tough luck. I had just started shooping there. UGH where too now.
Click to expand...

i feel you, i used to work at best buy when they first started and the store i worked at was wonderful, i was a part-time customer service/finance guy and the moto at the time was to help. then it all went down hill, i went a year or two later after leaving the company to return something, thinking the return policies and the staff would still be under the same customer loyalty practice and they were just horrible, went all the way up to the store director, he had the nerve to tell me that the store i used to work at was just doing it wrong. never went back, started shopping at circuit city, guess thats out of the question.
 
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