Circuit City and the American Dream 835
An anonymous reader writes "Circuit City said yesterday that it had fired 3,400 of its highest-paid sales staff — 8% of its employees — and will replace them with lower-paid workers. Sign On San Diego called this 'a risky strategy to cut costs that goes beyond the layoffs, buyouts and hiring freezes commonly used by struggling companies.' The fired workers have a chance to apply for lower-paying positions after a 10-week wait, the company said. Quoting a Circuit City spokesman: 'This is no reflection on job performance... We deeply regret the negative impact. Retail is extremely competitive, and if we're going to thrive and operate a successful company... we just have to control costs.' So: work hard, become the best in your field, and get fired so they can offer you a new job 10 weeks later at a lower salary."
Re:You have *got* to be kidding me. (Score:3, Informative)
a) Retail is an obsolete business model since the internet offers more convenience for lower prices
or
b) Retail needs protection from the internet in order to preserve jobs
Circuit City is, IMO, doing the only thing they can to try to compete with Amazon, NewEgg, etc. They need to cut costs to keep _some_ people employed or given more time they're all unemployed. It isn't like NewEgg will pick up the slack and need 3400 more people even if every person who shops at Circuit City suddenly started to buy from them.
There comes a time where you have to decide whether it's better to save $5 for yourself, or spend it so that somebody else has a job.
Circuit City's CEO (Score:2, Informative)
Maybe it's time to find a cheaper replacement.
Re:Didn't they do this years ago? (Score:3, Informative)
>> indiscriminately firing workers - Wall Street loves that.
CC is down 71c so far today.
wall street knows a dumb move when it sees one.
A little insight (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Democracy? (Score:3, Informative)
What I tend to think about is the early history of the USA. Basically, you had bunch of monarchies in Europe with the attitude that "what's good for the king is good for the country". Then, some rather enlightened people in what was to become the USA looked at the situation and concluded that if you let the leaders act in their own best interest then they take just about everything for themselves and leave everyone else with very little.
Actually it wasn't in the US that these enlightened people came from. "As a movement", The Age of Enlightment [wikipedia.org] "occurred solely in Germany, France, Britain, and Spain, but its influence spread beyond". From there it influenced the USA's Founding Fathers [wikipedia.org]. The founding father of capitalism Thomas Paine [wikipedia.org], who served under Washington, was a big advocate, having written several tracts supporting democracy during the Revolution. He was the one who wrote "These are the times that try men's souls." And the 18th century's Age of Enlightenment was preceded by the 17th century's Age of Reason [wikipedia.org] which also took place in Europe.
The way I see it, the key realizatoin was that, unless leaders are subjected to oversight and compelled to act in the best interest of everyone, leaders will instead act in their own best interest to the detriment of everyone else. At the time, these ideas were applied to the leaders of governments.
Unfortunately these ideas are no longer applied, to politicians or to others.
FalconRe:Democracy? (Score:3, Informative)
Checks on royal authority and the existence of a broad middle class helped the British monarchs keep their heads while absolute monarchs on the continent were literally losing theirs.
Re:First boycott Best Buy, now Circuit City? (Score:3, Informative)
The incentives of the middle manager can be perverse sometimes. The too-smart-for-his-own-good salesman may attract the attention of higher-ups and become a potential threat to the middle manager. The middle manager reacts by eliminating a perceived threat (i.e someone who performs better and is more productive than they are) before it is too late for them to act. The middle manager typically wants to improve overall performance by raising the productivity of each worker an equally incremental amount not by having rising stars in sales steal his thunder when it comes time for promotions.