The Last Will and Testament of Circuit City 600
Harry writes "Sunday is the final day of business for Circuit City, the once-dominant national consumer electronics chain done in by the rise of Best Buy, the crummy economy, and multiple failings of its own. I paid a final visit of respect to my local store, and found that they'd gotten rid of just about all the unopened electronics products, and were therefore selling off stuff like broken computers and the toilet-paper dispenser from the restroom. Whether or not you were ever a fan, it was a sad scene." NPR has a segment on the end of the Circuit City era as well.
they cant even go out of business right (Score:4, Informative)
here in washington they couldnt even go out of business right!! The prices at 40% off were either the same as best buy or more!!
Re:Was decent, once upon a time (Score:5, Informative)
That's because they fired all their employees and offered to rehire them at a lesser wage [signonsandiego.com]. Some Exec somewhere decided that 'knowledgeable' and 'trained' employees were stupid for the kind of job CC did so lets replace them with some HS kid off the street that doesn't know a thing.
The ONLY reason I set foot in a brick and mortar store is to feel in my hand what I'll be buying online. I did it with my Rebel XT before I pulled the trigger on an awesome online deal.
Best Buy and Circuit City have both appalled me as of late with the prices of their cables. $30 for a 6' USB cable? Sometimes if I know I'm going I'll take a MonoPrice print out and stick it up by the cables.
I have to wear headphones when I go in too because of the insane amounts of stupid spewed by the staff. On more than one occasion I've corrected something they were telling some poor soul.
Re:Great place to work (Score:3, Informative)
When I took my previous car to Circuit City to have some stuff installed (four speakers and a head unit, nothing fancy) they screwed it up, double-charged my debit card, AND charged me for the full rate instead of the special rate.
They could have resolved the problem in an hour. By having someone skilled to go in and fix the wiring/install errors, and by either giving me cash or some kind of proof that the money would be put back into my account. Did they do it? Nope.
The same guy worked on my car again, and didn't see anything wrong. Even though the rear and driver side speakers went in and out as I was driving. Then he charged me for another install. The assistant manager told me that I'd have to take it up with corporate, that they have nothing to do with refunds or billing errors.
Long story short, I got my refunds processed (with some extra, for my trouble I guess), and the setup ended up being fixed by the guy's supervisor. But the general 'fuck the customer' attitude is what got them in this mess to begin with.
Best Buy, however, is about the same as far as customer satisfaction goes. They've always been the highest-priced of the general consumer electronics vendors, narrowly beating Circuit City. The Best Buy employees are paranoid and skittish, because they could be canned at any time when a sub-manager wants to hire his friends so they can sit out back and smoke weed on the clock. They could be canned if enough people say 'no' to their magazine subscriptions, candy sales offers, and/or extra warranty options. I suspect their prices will drift even higher now that they realize they have no major competition, other than from Wal-Mart.
Re:Even in death they sucked (Score:1, Informative)
On the subject of the liquidation prices... Ofcourse they weren't giving everything away on the first day. They are still in the business of making money up through the last day they will be open. The liquidation prices have nothing to do with the old CircuitCity prices. That 10% is off the MSRP... And most stores sell things like computers and TVs at way below MSRP already, so ofcourse the first days of the liquidation werent going to have the best deals. As long as someone will buy it, they aren't going to lower the price, which is why they progressively raised the % off over the course of the liquidation, to something like 80% off most things on the last day for the store near me. But ofcourse the store was picked clean of anything actually useful by that point. Though I did manage a couple open HDMI cables that had been used on displays for $2 each.
Re:Really? (Score:5, Informative)
I like Office Depot things I used to go to BestBuy or Circuit City for that I don't buy on NewEgg. Cables, SD cards, maybe a keyboard, a landline telephone. They have a nice selection.
Re:Was decent, once upon a time (Score:5, Informative)
If you hate it now, you're gonna get to hate it even more in the future ... Bell wants to buy 'The Source by Circuit City' [cnn.com] so they can pimp their crappy sympatico and bell mobility brands, screwing their franchisees in the process.
Sounds like a marriage made in heaven. After all, there's no love lost for BCE either.
What do they expect? (Score:5, Informative)
1) customers do not owe businesses "support", If a business treats their customers with courtesy, good service, and respect for their intelligence they will earn customer loyalty even in bad times.
2) Customers tend to get outraged when they hear about 40% off sales and then go in and see that the 40% off item was marked higher than it had been the week before the sale started. Its not a matter of "didnt get the discount they wanted" its a matter of being suckered into a store and having their time wasted.
3) Their customers didnt kill their store, their bosses did. They shouldnt blame their customers for simply looking for an honest bargain.
Bought 3 HTTVs (Score:2, Informative)
First a Mitsubishi from their one brand store as it was really the only game in town. Next from Sears as they had a decent price and I was there after visiting Best Buy and not deciding. 2 days ago after visiting WalMart where they were out of every one of a size and brand I'd consider, was it Costco and drove home with it. Their selection was medium, price good, condition of box (and product on installation) perfect, sales pressure/help not needed.
Interesting article in Business Week on liquidators and how they operate. Don't expect bargains until the last days when there is darn near nothing anyone wants left. It wasn't Circuit City people selling in those last days, it was the liquidator setting the prices and hiring the existing staff.
Re:Was decent, once upon a time (Score:4, Informative)
The *are* terrible, but every once in a while (once in a blue moon) you might (if you're extremely lucky) find something useful or interesting.
I once found some self-contained karaoke mikes (the microphone is it's own karaoke machine, just plug it into the TV - on sale for $29.99 - they were on sale , but not at that price - a pricing error. Bought both, and had them get 2 more from other stores at the true sale price of, IIRC, $49.99. Made great Christmas gifts 5 months later ...
Have I seen anything since? On the one or 2 occasions per year that I go there, no. Just a store with too much junk merchandise (it's only "eclectic" if your store is making enough money to be called "eccentric", and not "crazy stoopid") crammed into too small a floor footage.
I don't see how they stay in business ... oops, they don't.
And the practices they carried over from the Radio Shack days - always asking for your name and phone number so they could sell it to marketers - always pissed me off.
Re:Really? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Even in death they sucked (Score:4, Informative)
I worked for Circuit City before and during liquidation. All the prices for the items went back UP to MSRP. I was part of the stocking team at the time and we had to rewrite almost every single tag in the store to reflect this. We used to sell stuff at (usually)below MSRP, usually by $10 to $20. This is how every retail store works generally. In liquidation they take a small discount off of the MSRP price(the "was" price), and sell it at that discounted price(the "you pay" price). Over time they increase that discount off of MSRP until they reach 90% or some other high number. Only at about 40-60% off do you finally get a better price than it was originally.
Re:Really? (Score:5, Informative)
Very insightful post, but I'm wondering why you call Fry's "the worst of all". The Fry's near me, unlike most B&M stores which have horrible selections of computer equipment, usually (I haven't been there in a while) has a very good selection, amazing actually compared to a typical BB or CC. You want a CPU, memory, case, etc.? They have lots of them. They also have weird parts, like laptop-to-desktop IDE converters, and also lots of electronics stuff like soldering stations, oscilloscopes, components (at a high markup of course), big spools of CAT5e cable, etc. Their prices really aren't that great compared to Newegg of course, and to be honest shopping there is an ordeal unless you like noise and chaos and annoying salespeople (they also have a horrible location in my town: Tempe, AZ. It's right next to Guadalupe ("Little Mexico") and is a great place to get your car stolen), but if you really need 1000 feet of CAT6 cable and connectors and a crimping tool, and you need it today, Fry's is the place to go.
Re:Ya pretty much (Score:3, Informative)
That's normal: technology gets cheaper until it hits a minimum at the "slightly obsolete" stage, then the price goes back up because it stops being manufactured and gets harder and harder to find. Go check pricewatch or something, you'll see.
'Course, you're still stupid if you pay it, since you could just go grab a less-obsolete whole computer from a thrift store for the same price (or a used stick of RAM from some independent shop's random-old-parts bin for $5).
Re:What do they expect? (Score:4, Informative)
The perception is grounded in reality. In the case of pharmaceuticals, it's grounded in the reality that those same drugs cost less in other countries. In CC's case, in the reality (noted by many posters above) that other retailers sold the same item for less -- even during CC's closing down sale.
Re:Really? (Score:1, Informative)
No kidding. Online I could pick up some Belkin cables for $4 apiece. In CircuitCity and BestBuy they are $20. 16G flash drives are $15 at a Newegg daily deal and $100 at Circuit City. This is for *identical* merchandise with the same SKUs.
I used to go to BestBuy to pick up DVDs to watch on the weekend. Now I use Netflix or just watch online. I used to get larger items at a retailer so that I could see the equipment beforehand. The deals online are so much better that I don't do that anymore. My Canon 40D was $400 less online. Even the service is no longer as good at retail.
Re:Really? (Score:3, Informative)
I've also had downright abysmal experiences:
My wife decided she'd buy me an Epson Stylus Photo R1800 for Christmas (great printer btw). What a travesty.
She signed up for an Amazon card. Approved with an initial limit of $400, or so. Fine. Pay the balance on a second card. Oh no, you can't do that. You'll have to buy a gift certificate. If we must, sure. All good, we think.
An hour later - "Your card has been declined". Uhh? You just issued me a card with a $400 limit, I charged $400 to it and it's declined?
On the phone to Amazon: sure enough, they put a $1 pre-auth on the card, so $399 is the balance. Are they able to do something about that in the interim, so I can get my Christmas present. "Oh no, you'll have to speak to the bank."
Uhh.
More screwing around on Chase's (Amazon Visa provider) part about doing something about it. End result, no can do. Fine.
Problem. Card charge still not going to be approved. We have to cancel order, on phone with Amazon support.
We then cannot re-order because the system has "forgotten" that we have an Amazon Visa card (you don't get access to the actual 16 digit number until you receive the physical card), but eventually someone works something out, is able to re-do things. We have to buy a SECOND gift card to cover this discrepancy, and in conjunction with the CSR , we re-order the printer. Yay.
Or not. An hour later, "Your card was declined." Manage to get through again, of course, another pre-auth. "Available balance: $398". Ye gods.
Back on the phone with Amazon (this was now the next day). We go to place the order with the CSR working through these issues on the phone. Problem. Item is coming from external merchant. When we placed the order? Shipping would be fine for Christmas. Now? Big warning: "Your product is unlikely to arrive until Dec 26 or later".
Gah.
Amazon CSR and CSR manager's helpful suggestion?
We, as the customer, email the merchant, and ask that they expedite shipping, at their expense, for an issue that has absolutely nothing to do with them, other than their choice of Amazon as an outlet for their products. Not that Amazon ask them, or cover the shipping upgrade themselves (they flat out refused that, though they acknowledged that the system in place a) did not account for the fact that someone might actually use their new account straight away, and b) that imperfections in the system caused us to spend two days trying to get this printer ordered through them).
So here I am, writing a humble email saying etc, etc, that it wasn't their fault, blah blah blah.
Of course, in the intervening time, the CSR has recreated the order, and I eventually get an email from the confused merchant who asks "I can't see your order in our system, why are you asking us to pay expedited shipping for a problem that isn't our fault, when you're not actually buying a printer from us?"
Amazon CSR had found another merchant who could deliver by Christmas and re-placed the order... but for the fact that that would be $40 more in shipping - not that they were intending to pay.
Long story short? I got the printer - and it is gorgeous - for Christmas, by Christmas...
No thanks to Amazon, though.
Re:Yup (Score:5, Informative)
2) It is cheaper for the merchant. Cash = no merchant fees.
Depends. Often large stores want to get rid of cash as over a certain point the handling fees become prohibitive. Ever noticed how they always try to offer cashback?
Re:Yup (Score:4, Informative)
2) Loose your wallet, loose your cash. Loose your wallet, deactivate your credit card.
loose (verb)
1 loosen, relax, loose
become loose or looser or less tight; "The noose loosened"; "the rope relaxed"
lose (verb)
4 misplace, mislay, lose
place (something) where one cannot find it again; "I misplaced my eyeglasses"
Re:Really? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:History Of CC...By someone who was there for it (Score:1, Informative)
You forgot about the burnouts they caused on a few companies when they did this.
Example Carver Amps. Mid 90s Carver was *THE* amp to buy. You wanted a decent selection go to CC. CC took the whole lot and shipped it back to them unsold and unopened. That put Carver out of business instantly. Walmart likes to do this trick too.
But doing that to one of your high profile providers of merchandise does not make the others say 'oooooh we have more shelf space'. It makes the go 'hmm better make sure we get our money'. Sony recently did this at the end of last year. They stopped mid shipment all of their xmas items. They wanted the money UP front for everything.
Re:The Real Reason Circuit City went under (Score:4, Informative)
I'm pretty sure that someone made this story up as a way of characterizing the poor customer service at the individual stores.
This is the keen insight that keeps me coming back for more.
Re:Yup (Score:5, Informative)
Plus of course there's the fact that credit cards tend to move lines faster. If this means a store can have only 4 lines open instead of 5, they're saving money right there.
Phil
Applying to Circuit City (Score:3, Informative)
I remember applying for a job at Circuit City while attending college for computer science.
The application essentially boiled down to "Would you lie to make a sale to the customer. And would you hard sale push the service plans."
As I endeavor to lead an honest life, most of my answers to their veiled questions were no. But I don't need to. I used to wander the aisles of CompUSA and Circuit City and sell goods for them. Because I was pretty much always more knowledgeable than the salespeople.
But I believe the above philosophy is in part why Circuit City went under. When you build a foundation on lies, you're not going to have good customer loyalty in the long run. And the only thing you're going to have is price-stalkers.
Maybe this was just a symptom... (Score:3, Informative)
Right after college, desperate for a job, I interviewed with Circuit City.
I had to go to the main place down near the city instead of out in Henrico.
First thing I notice is there are a bunch of people who look like a bunch of junkies hanging out in fron of the door.
I walk past that into the reception area. After a brief wait, a guy and a girl who I think were younger than me at the time, took me into an office for the interview.
As soon as I sat down they started reading questions from their clipboard.
These questions weren't the kind that would see if you knew anything about their products or could otherwise do your jobs. They were all about "If you saw one of your coworkers using illegal drugs in their home, what would you do?" With few exceptions they were all about drug use.
The last question was, do you have any questions for us? My answer was "Yes I do. Since y'all seem extremely interested in drug use, does Circuit City have a lot of employees with a drug problem? I certainly don't want to work in such an environment."
They gave me some BS answer about weeding out that kind of employee.
I walked out the door knowing I would not accept a job with them no matter what.
Of course they didn't call me either so I guess I didn't give them the answers they wanted.