Circuit City Closes Its Doors For Good 587
bsharma is amongst the hordes of people wanting us to share the news that long beleaguered retailer Circuit City has finally decided to close for good, asking for court approval to close the remaining 567 US stores. "Whalin said management mistakes over the past few years combined with the recession brought down Circuit City. 'This company made massive mistakes,' he said, citing a decision to get rid of sales people and other mismanagement. What's more, given the credit market freeze, Whalin added that no manufacturer wants to sell to any retailer who doesn't have money to pay for the merchandise. At the same time, Whalin said there's still a very slim chance that one or more firms that have expressed an interest in buying Circuit City could still buy it out of bankruptcy over the next few days."
With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone... (Score:5, Insightful)
Their own bankruptcy?
Consumers are clearly using their purchase power to go where the deals are (online). BB will be the next to go if they don't compete.
Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone... (Score:5, Insightful)
There's still Office Depot and similar stores, which you may have noticed are moving into consumer electronics to a degree (e.g., that's where I got my TV.) And, of course, the elephant in the living room: online competition. For items like TV's and stereos, most people are probably more comfortable buying something they can actually see and hear in the store -- but when it comes to, say, buying a printer or an external hard drive, there's really no reason to shop brick-and-mortar.
Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone... (Score:5, Insightful)
Good Riddance (Score:3, Insightful)
Sale !!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone... (Score:1, Insightful)
Newegg. I have no clue why anyone would still buy eletronics from a B&M store.
Democrats, Republicans (Score:2, Insightful)
Hopefully a trend with crappy companies (Score:3, Insightful)
The Nightmare is Over (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Democrats, Republicans (Score:1, Insightful)
Well, Republicans and Democrats, respectively, I'd guess.
Re:Main mistake they made? (Score:3, Insightful)
WalMart is a dangerous company. They can put other business out of business because they can sell for lower prices than anyone else could ever afford to do, because WalMart is so huge and is the only choice of shopping places in many parts of the country.
Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone... (Score:5, Insightful)
Hard-to-find items (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not sure what actual CC stores are like - since most here are bought out "radio shack" stores -, but the local "Source/Circuit City" store was the only bloody place that I could find that would sell desolding braid (used to suck up solder off of PCB's etc). Hardware stores, electronics stores, etc, plenty of them had solder and crappy soldering guns, but CC was the only one that actually carried the desoldering braid.
It also cost me $5.99 for a little 5ft braid, and the saleperson charged $6.99 (until I picked up the price sign, brought it to him, and got a refund at the cost of my contact info)... so I can see how their prices aren't helping them.
Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone... (Score:5, Insightful)
You should have paid the $220 more at the local store. They provided the excellent service and deserve it.
Unless you want everyone to provide the same crappy service for cheap prices.
The sales guy earned it, don't you think????
If you ever wonder why you get crappy service at the big box store, it is because when price is all that matters to the customer, then having better informed (higher cost) sales reps is an expense they can't afford.
1) Price
2) Quality
3) Service
Pick any two. If you want better service, reward it.
Re:Main mistake they made? (Score:4, Insightful)
I felt the same way about CompUSA.
Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone... (Score:4, Insightful)
My guess is that as the economy manages to sort itself out over the next year or so you'll see a comeback in smaller individual stores, local/regional chains, etc. that provide MUCH better service. I think consumers are becoming more and more savvy when it comes to realizing that they need to think about things like after-sale service & support, and the big box stores simply don't provide that with any sense of reliability or consistency.
I wish you were right, but I think the opposite is true. I love local electronics/hi-fi stores. The masses won't go to them, however, because they typically don't stock the low-end, low-priced products, and can't beat Walmart on the prices. In a recession, people won't go for premium.
Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone... (Score:4, Insightful)
No, but it is a good example of how little stores can really earn customer loyalty,.. it's also an example of what best buy might have to become some day since fewer and fewer people (over time) are going to bother going to a big box. Probably within the next 10-15 years their cash cow (DVD and CDs) will probably start drying up.
Re:I'm sure everyone is wondering also... (Score:5, Insightful)
Having seen plenty of these (Sharper Image and Mervyns come to mind), those liquidations are usually disappointing. First phase: everything is 10-20% off, no better than the rotation of items on sale.
Next, you start seeing the goobers on street corners with "Circuit City Going out of Business - everything 20-40% off" signs. You go in there and anything interesting is 20% off. You buy something for 20%, no returns allowed. You end up hating the item or seeing it on sale at Target for less next week.
Now, the signs say 40-60% off. You go in and it's picked through and open box shit. You go home.
Finally, the 80% off signal. You go in to buy something, anything. The fluorescent lights, their enclosures, and a few display cases are on sale.
Re:Main mistake they made? (Score:5, Insightful)
From what I remember, in the late 1980s/early 1990s we didn't have Circuit City or Best Buy here in Chicago. The electronics stores around here were called Highland, Silo, and Omni. They all went out of business during the recession of the early 1990s. [wikipedia.org] It seems like history has repeated itself once again. Lesson learned, don't hold stock in electronics retailers during a recession.
Yeah, but electronics retailers aren't the only ones going out of business. Linens'N'Shit is closing, and I understand Chrysler and GM (hey, what about Ford?) are in deep trouble.
So I think you could generalize to say something like "Don't hold stock in a poorly run company in a crowded market." Then again, isn't that good advice in general?
Re:Main mistake they made? (Score:5, Insightful)
People aren't afraid to spend too much money if they get good service. And that was precisely what Circuit City did. They fired all of their best, most expert sales and service staff because they cost more. They replaced these people with kids off the street and they got what they paid for.
It was bad customer experience that killed Circuit City. The bean counters thought they could improve their bottom line by lowering payroll costs but they neglected to consider that it would damage the store's reputation and drive customers away. We see this time and time again. Every time you see IT salaries fall and people start leaving the field, what is left? Do they really think they can fire skill and experience and replace it with inexperience and STILL maintain productivity, efficiency and quality of service?
At the next CEO/CFO conference, I hope this is topic for discussion -- they are destroying their businesses with short-term greed. And every time I see it happen, it is tragic... and they never learn from it.
Re:Main mistake they made? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Main mistake they made? (Score:3, Insightful)
It'd have to have been some major disaster with fire-trucks and stuff to keep me from going to the Best Buy across the street. My problem pretty much began and ended with the obnoxious sales staff, although the higher prices would have been a deal-breaker on their own.
Re:I'm sure everyone is wondering also... (Score:3, Insightful)
How bad will Best Buy will be with no competiton? (Score:3, Insightful)
Best Buy used to be a great store but they have been in a steady decline for years, with a smaller selection, higher prices and crappy return policies.
Now with Circuit City gone they have ZERO direct competition in the B&M space, they will be able to raise prices and cut service even further.
Sure you can (and I do) buy many things online but obviously you can't get anything same-day and bulky items such as TVs or appliances aren't always practical (I can't imagine trying to return a defective TV by freight).
CC was great because when you needed something same day it was quick and easy to order something online and pick it up in the store. I guess not enough people agreed with me though.
I have avoided Best Buy for a few years now, guess I have no choice but to go there now, I'll have to remember to bring lube when I go. :(
Re:Democrats, Republicans (Score:1, Insightful)
There is no point in complaining; the tag system on Slashdot is utterly useless (even when the tags are not fraudulent).
Re:sucks for the employees (Score:2, Insightful)
You joke about management, but I wonder if that's the root of the problem - too many chiefs, not enough Indians. 30,000 employees to operate 567 stores? That's more than 50 employees per store. I realize they have a corporate HQ and all, but the figure still seems excessive.
Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone... (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe Wal-Mart customers aren't so bad where you live, but here in Arizona, going to a Wal-Mart is not a fun experience, unless you like tripping over countless undisciplined children running amok and throngs of non-English speaking customers who walk very slowly and always insist on taking up the entire aisle, instead of staying to one side so you can get by.
There's a reason I'll only shop at Wal-Mart after 11pm.
Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone... (Score:5, Insightful)
The small guys got the business. In this economy that is huge. Survival through blood, sweat, and tears is rarely "an inspiring tale", except when it is told by the survivors to their thriving descendants.
Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone... (Score:3, Insightful)
That's a great story, and while I'm sure that everyone applauds your efforts to support a local business with your commerce, the only thing that jumps out at me from it was the fact that the local "mom-n-pop" store probably made little to no profit off of the sale (unless you also splurged on some cables or something high-margin like that).
Small stores like what you're describing don't have nearly the level of "clout" to negotiate w/ electronics manufacturers (and their distributors, natch..) as a BB or CC, so maybe they earned your loyalty and your custom the next time you go to buy a piece of electronics, but if the price-shopping behavior of all of us (myself absolutely included, hypocrisy aside) becomes the filter that all purchases go through, then ALL but the biggest brick-n-mortar stores will eventually just be forced to fold.
Personally, I avoid retail locations as much as humanly possible, with the exception of a (totally unhelpful to the B&M store) tendency to go looking at the stuff I'll eventually buy from Amazon or Newegg. So, I'm just as big a culprit as anyone else.
So, after writing all of that, I realize what a total muddle it must sound like.. I guess what I'm saying is that in a dream world, a local store would be able to compete on a price basis with their biggest competitors, without sacrificing the "local touch" that they rightfully are offering. I just don't see how anything like that is possible. The reality I see as most likely is a dwindling number of physical stores catering to the least savvy (and oldest) among us, until the generation of people that decidedly DON'T shop online simply die off. Sad, but (I think) inevitable.
Re:Main mistake they made? Form of Mismanagement? (Score:2, Insightful)
"citing a decision to get rid of sales people and other mismanagement."
So, sales people are a form of mismanagement? LOL!
Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone... (Score:1, Insightful)
The line between Troll and Funny is very fine; isn't it, mods?
Don't underestimate the damage DIVX did (Score:4, Insightful)
The advent of DVD was a huge time for consumer electronics. And Circuit City tried to hijack it with their own pay-as-you-go scheme called DIVX ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIVX_(Digital_Video_Express) [wikipedia.org] ), not to be confused with the video codec DiVX. To put it mildly, it pissed off legions of die-hard gadget junkies... you know, the ones who advise their friends and family about technology purchases. The way the company handled that left a bad taste in the mouths of the customers they needed most...the ones who actually buy the high-tech gizmos.
Thankfully DIVX failed, but I never forgave Circuit City for that and I never spent another cent in their stores and neither did many of my friends and family because of it. I'm not alone.
-S
Re:Main mistake they made? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Main mistake they made? (Score:3, Insightful)
The other thing that killed Circuit City was the fact they never got their act together when it came to selling home video software. How could they compete against Best Buy's well-organized display of home videos (originally in VHS, now in DVD and increasingly Blu-ray formats). And don't forget the original DIVX format fiasco from the late 1990's, too.
since when? (Score:5, Insightful)
Radioshack and (if you're on the West coast) Frys still sell niche components
I haven't seen a niche component in stock at a Radioshack in years. Unless you consider a Sprint phone to be a Niche component, anyways.
As far as I have seen, the days of going to Radioshack for circuit boards and resistors for home hobby projects are long gone.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:sucks for the employees (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Main mistake they made? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, commissioned salespeople are more motivated. More motivated to blatantly lie about a product's capabilities, the list price of an item, the store's warranty policies, and pretty much anything else they think they can get away with in order to make a sale and get that commission into their hands.
I can usually tell when a salesperson is trying to BS me on a technology-related item. Unfortunately, I'm the corner case. 95% of the people who walk into a Circuit City don't know anything about the products being sold and rely on the salesperson to education them.
And don't get me started on the extended warranty crap. They tried to sell me an extended warranty for a $20 mouse once. I'm normally a very shy person in public, but in that case I couldn't help explaining very slowly to the cashier that an extended warranty for computer mouse was by far the dumbest thing I'd ever heard of and to even mention it was an insult to my intelligence and a clear reflection of theirs.
No sir, I won't be said to see Circuit City go. I just hope whatever springs up in their place isn't even worse.