Circuit City Files For Bankruptcy 574
WillDraven is just one of many who writes to tell us that Circuit City, the United States' 2nd largest consumer electronics retailer, has filed for bankruptcy under chapter 11. This news comes as no surprise as the company has been in financial trouble, recently announcing that it will be closing over one fifth of its stores and laying off 17% of its US employees in the process. "Larger rival Best Buy, which is based in Minneapolis, has said it might take over stores that distressed rivals close. Yet a flood of discounted merchandise from liquidating Circuit City stores could hurt Best Buy during this holiday shopping season, said Jefferies & Co analyst Dan Binder."
I can't bring myself to have much pity for them... (Score:5, Insightful)
... given the fact that they treat their customers like criminals [switched.com]. Besides which, my local electronics place usually beats them on price -- and there's always online shopping.
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:5, Insightful)
Good riddance to a disgraceful company. Let's not forget how they fired all their highest-paid, most experienced employees and allowed them to re-apply for minimum wage positions. After they pulled that stunt I never spent another penny there, going way out of my way to go to Best Buy instead when I needed to purchase something from that sort of store and didn't have the time luxury of getting it from the internet. Don't misunderstand: Best Buy sucks too, but at least they're not Circuit City.
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:3, Insightful)
Discounted Merchandise (Score:5, Insightful)
I hardly think a company that sells a cable for $129.99 [bestbuy.com] when a functionally equivalent cable is available for $5.43 [monoprice.com] is concerned about the availability of discounted merchandise.
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:3, Insightful)
Interesting.
I've longed since stopped going to either Best Buy or Circuit City, but I have to wonder why someone can't accept the annoyance in exchange for lower prices *. Fry's does the same thing, after all, but people here generally love Fry's so you don't see anyone complaining.
What you have here is not a violation of any rights, they weren't going to search purses and handbags (although some stores do - but they clearly post that they reserve the right). It's implied consent when you shop at a store like that, and if you don't like it, don't go back.
I admit the part about the cop arresting him for doing nothing wrong is a bit perplexing, but I'm sure the outcome will be a positive one. To think, that guy could have avoided all the hassle, all the wasted time and money, just buy opening the plastic Circuit City bag and showing the receipt.
People keep demanding lower prices, they're going to have to put up with crap like this to get them.
* Yes, I read where you said the local place beats them on prices. Then why do people shop there? There must be some compelling reasons.
Re:Bailout (Score:5, Insightful)
AIG is FAR bigger than Circuit City and tightly intertwined into the economy of the country. Nothing will change with CC going out of business except their employees losing jobs. AIG going out of business would mean huge collateral damage to the entire financial industry, which would then affect every other industry.
I'm not saying I'm for the bailout. But AIG has a massive impact where CC does not.
IT's just bad retailing (Score:2, Insightful)
Have a look at Best Buy and how Best Buy continues to have a better, more attractive retail space. On the other hand, Circuit City got more and more confused and worse and worse. I used to like to go to Circuit City and Comp USA but both those stores screwed up their floor plans so much that I lost interest in them. On the other hand, I was in Best Buy and it just amazed me, how nice it was.
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:5, Insightful)
Searching my bag - whether it is a bag I came in with, on my brand new (once my purchase is completed at the register) Joe's Discount Electronics' bag - is indeed a violation of my rights. I don't surrender my rights because you put up a sign.
If specific and articulable facts lead you to a reasonable suspicion that I have been involved in a crime, they can hold me and call the cops. Store personnel have no right to search my person or my effects, and they do not gain such by posting a sign. All they can do if I don't comply with their store policy is ask me to leave and not come back - which, when treated like a criminal, is exactly what I want to do anyway.
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:5, Insightful)
What you have here is not a violation of any rights, they weren't going to search purses and handbags (although some stores do - but they clearly post that they reserve the right)
I don't think putting up a sign gives them the right to go through my things. At best they could ask me to leave if I refused to let them go through my bags. Of course this is a moot point unless they are going through the bags before you enter the store, because by the time they asked you to leave you would already be on your way out the door anyway.
It's implied consent when you shop at a store like that, and if you don't like it, don't go back.
I'm sorry but it's not. If I put up a sign on my front door that says "all female guests waive the right to refuse to have sex with me" does that mean I can rape with impunity? All they can do is ask you to leave -- but unless they are enforcing this policy when you enter the store (as opposed to when you exit) it's kind of like closing the barn doors after the horses have already escaped.
To think, that guy could have avoided all the hassle, all the wasted time and money, just buy opening the plastic Circuit City bag and showing the receipt.
He probably could have. Some people are willing to give up their rights to avoid a little hassle. I'm not one of them.
Yes, I read where you said the local place beats them on prices. Then why do people shop there? There must be some compelling reasons.
Because Circuit City is on the flashy commercial strip and the local place is tucked away in an old part of town that most people aren't familiar with?
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:5, Insightful)
You're expecting me to become familiar with Ohio law?
Only if you intend to make statements about it, i.e: "He did something wrong when he refused to show ID to the police officer". If you don't intend to make statements about Ohio law then I guess you don't really need to become familiar with it.
I'd try to find a resource for where it's illegal to not carry ID on you, but any Google search for it is flooded by voter ID requirements.
So in other words you are talking out of your ass and have no proof to back up your claims? Well, at least you were right about one thing: "And I have a feeling I'll get modded troll for this post."
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:5, Insightful)
No, he's upset that they fired all of their best and most experienced employee's.
It wasn't just top sellers. It effected everybody.
And why the hell would you fire your top sellers anyway? How retarded is that?!?!?!
When you fire your top sellers and your most knowledgeable employee's what does that leave you with?
It wasn't exactly a brilliant move. I'm sure it saved them money in the short run but 2 years later they're bankrupt and closing most of their stores.
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Oh well. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Bailout (Score:5, Insightful)
"AIG is, quite simply, too big and intertwined with the American financial system to be allowed to fail. Period"
What that statement really means is that AIG is, quite simply too big to be allowed to exist. It should be broken up into many smaller entities - each with their own *separate* management and board of directors so that one or more components can fail without devastating consequences to the overall economy.
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:2, Insightful)
Actually, about half of a store's shrinkage (losses) is due to employee theft, while only about a third is due to shoplifters. And retail stores on average lost 1.57% of their inventories in 2006. So I'm not sure where you get this "one in ten customers is a shoplifter" idea.
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:3, Insightful)
*That* was likely the killing blow, not any overt boycott.
Actually the killing blow was probably the economic crisis and the realization on the part of the American consumer that borrowing against your home to finance a plasma screen TV isn't usually a sound financial decision.
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:3, Insightful)
I knew that they were not long for the world when I realized that they'd hopped onto the "premium cables" bandwagon. I haven't set foot in a Circuit City since I went in casually looking for a set of RCA cables, and found that the bastards didn't even *carry* a set priced at less than $30. Not only that, but the employees were utterly obnoxious when I pointed out how stupid this was.
I ended up getting them at Radio Shack for about $3. Any company that relies upon its customers to be absolute idiots SHOULD go out of business.
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:5, Insightful)
You can keep arguing from here to hell freezes over, but it wont make it true.
By reading this response you owe me 1 million dollars. You had the right to not read it, but read it voluntary and now owe me a million dollars.
Re:Weak (Score:2, Insightful)
I really haven't visited Circuit City since they stopped paying the employees commissions. When I used to enter a Circuit City, an employee would FIND ME, and try to sell me something.
Oh, they stopped doing that? I quit going to Circuit City years ago because nobody would let me browse and shop in peace. Sometimes I don't know what I want yet. And I don't want suggestions, I want to look around the store uninterrupted.
Employee commission is a horrible idea. It encourages pushy salesmen (salesman should NEVER "find you". They should be easy to find. They should also never offer suggestions when they see you buying something. If you *ask* for a suggestion, then they should feel free to give them). It also justifies lower salaries to the store employees since they are expected to make most of their money on commission. The knowledgeable employees will just try to steer you toward the more expensive product they can sell, regardless of whether or not they know about a better one. The less knowledgeable will pretend to know their shit and take advantage of the non-geeks who can't tell the difference anyway.
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:2, Insightful)
They have the right to refuse service to anyone, therefore they have the right to say you can't buy anything if you don't voluntarily submit to search.
So could they say they have the right to punch you in the stomach too before you leave? Would that be legal in your mind?
Posting a sign does not convey any rights, nor does it restrict them.
Re:Weak (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:not really surprised (Score:3, Insightful)
Am I the only one having trouble parsing this? (Who mentioned Linux?)
It kinda sounds like you'd put up with offensive service for the privilege of walking into a physical store to make your purchase. It's not exactly clear why. "New Egg and Amazon and Ebay"... the first two are online stores, and the third is the online equivalent of a flea market, with all the caveat emptor issues of same. I'm also having a hard time understanding the "pliers and screwdriver" comment. Buying stuff at an outlet store doesn't necessarily improve the chances of getting what you paid for -- Much of the time, all you can really tell is that there's something heavy in the box. And you *do* know about the reshrink machine in the back, right?
I know, return policy -- but Amazon has that too (I've used it once, when what I bought was not what I received).
"Less than competent service is traded for freedom in the market"... I'd like to reply to that, but I haven't a clue what you meant.
Back in the old days, there used to be this thing called catalog sales. Sears and Montgomery Wards and so forth. Back in the day, catalog sales primarily existed so that people in outlying areas could still buy stuff even when the nearest physical store was a day's travel away. In this day of strip-mall saturation, we forget that our grandparents (great-grandparents in your case) had to rely on mail order if they didn't live in the city. Given a choice of brick-and-mortar or mail-order, there are several advantages of going to the store -- immediate gratification, and being able to touch and feel before making the purchase. But with electronic items, they're often just boxes that have very rigidly defined specs, or they're some common item (ipod touch, for instance) that you can see almost anywhere. Even then, the brick-and-mortar store has immediate gratification going for it but bad service can quickly negate that. If the widget is difficult to buy in a real store, there's less reason to go there. Apple (to continue with the example above) understands this, and the Apple outlets are pleasant places to shop. Circuit City did not understand this, and they're bankrupt. I guess (if I'm reading your response right) your complaint is that this gives you fewer physical stores in which to shop. This is true. But it begs the question, why would you want to go there in the first place?
Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them (Score:2, Insightful)
They can indeed decline to serve me. But in this case, they've already done so! The transaction is done. I've already bought the thing.
Re:shoplifting (Score:5, Insightful)
Is this post a joke? I can't tell, I really can't tell, if it is bravo, you got me.
If this post is not a joke, good lord, wow! You Americans and your expectations from retailers continue to fascinate me, absoloutely and utterly incredible, it's got to come to an end.
I've been using the internet now for about 12 years and I'll never forget the first time I heard some of the stories you guys would relay.
Rebates, incredibly cheap prices compared to the rest of the world, massive huge stores with IT gear in them, like KMart sized IT stores, wow!
You can actually purchase a product and then go back a week later if the price drops with your receipt and they give you the difference, what the hell? Over here that's 'tough luck buddy' (and to be honest, so it should be! you bought it when it was higher, tough!)
The deals you can find on the internet still blow me away "buy this router for 11$ get a 9$ rebate" "buy product X for 50$ with a 30$ rebate" yet these same items cost 80 or 100$ US over here!
Now I've just come across your post, and I sit here unable to comprehend it.
You're telling me you want a store to give you a cash refund on a purchased product without a receipt and you have the audacity to whine about it?
Really? Where's the bloody proof you purchased it?
You could have stolen it.
You could have purchased it cheaper somewhere else, effectively stealing from these people.
You could work for the manufacturer and get them cheaper.
It could be broken.
There's a plethora of reasons why companies demand a receipt, it's common bloody consumer knowledge, I mean seriously what next will you people expect from retail stores? "Sorry, I don't have the cash on me now but I promise I'll pay next week!"
This way of doing business and being so competitive and catering to the ever pushy consumer (and a large portion of Americans are a very pushy consumer) is what's causing business's to go bust, admitedly circuit city was a dump but really, there needs to be a sharp dose of reality kicked in here.
Disclaimer: Not all Americans are pushy, not all business's in America cater to some of the ridiculous whims of the consumer, none the less as a foreigner the above is the impression I have gathered over the past 10 years of speaking to some of you guys and gals on the internet, really - you had it good, you had it too bloody good in some ways, consider yourselves damned lucky... price protection for goodness sakes.. sheesh