Job Cuts For Dell, Motorola, and Circuit City

maeveth writes "Talk about not a good time to be working in the tech sector. Layoffs all over the industry have been announced, in a variety of different areas. Last week Dell announced they were partnering with Wal-Mart; this week they are planning a ten-percent reduction in their global workforce. Motorola was already going to cut some 3500 jobs by the end of June; they're now adding another 4000 pink slips to that number (and hoping that next month's RAZR2 launch will boost profits). To top it all off Circuit City is acting in a decidedly schizophrenic manner. The are going to axe about 850 employees, on top of the 70 stores they closed last month ... while also planning to open 165 new stores."

Dell, Motorola, Circuit City

[The Clockwork Troll]

One of these things is not like the others.

Re:

[aichpvee]

No, I'm pretty sure they all suck.

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[The Clockwork Troll]

Also, they are three companies who have never been in my kitchen.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Quite a few ways...

Circuit City and Dell are retailers. Moto is not.

Dell and Motorola make products, circuit city just sells them.

Dell and Circuit City are hated by portions of the population.

Circuit City treats their employees worse than anyone else in the United States and should die a horrible death. My mother worked in HR there for a bit... did I mention she has no degree?

Re:Dell, Motorola, Circuit City

[WrongSizeGlass]

did I mention she has no degree?

No degree? Do you mean:
* No degree of difficulty?
* No college degree?
* Registers zero on a thermometer?
* Is not an angle?
* Profit!

Re:

[MillionthMonkey]

My wife knows someone who works at Circuit City corporate headquarters. According to her, within an hour or two after the layoffs were announced, people were leaving the building carrying boxes with their diplomas, etc., escorted by cops.

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[Original Replica]

What ever happened to two weeks notice?

Two weeks notice is an unrequited loyalty

[bADlOGIN]

Employers expect (as professional courtesy) two weeks notice prior to leaving your job.
You'll notice that they never extend that courtesy in return when laying people off...

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[Bigbutt]

Ask IBM. Two days notice for contractors.

[John]

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[hdparm]

Were you really happy to stay at the place like that?

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[bynary]

I consider Dell as much a part of the Tech sector as I do Kenmore or Whirlpool.

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[cashman73]

I think it's probably a good bet that one could easily find more than a good handful of people that hate just about ANY company in the United States world. I mean, seriously, if you don't hate Circuit City, you hate Best Buy. If you don't hate Wal-Mart, you hate Target. If you don't hate Dell, you hate HP. Perhaps the only company that is universally hated is Micro$loth. That, and I haven't really heard anything too negative about Apple, so they're probably hated less,... but I'm sure you can find SOMEBOD

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[angrykeyboarder]

I think it's probably a good bet that one could easily find more than a good handful of people that hate just about ANY company in the United States world.

No offense, but doesn't that just make sense. I bet everyone hates at least one company. It's just common sense (not specifically that they hate a business, but just the fact that they would).

If you don't hate Wal-Mart, you hate Target.

That may be true, but I'm willing to bet that the numbers of people who "hate" Target are a drop in the bucket compare

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[hondo77]

My mother worked in HR there for a bit... did I mention she has no degree?

Isn't that a prerequisite for HR?

Re:Dell, Motorola, Circuit City

[owlnation]

My mother worked in HR there for a bit... did I mention she has no degree?

Isn't that a prerequisite for HR?

Yes, I think so, at least from my experience in coming into contact with people from HR depts.

While I'm sure there are college courses that exist for HR related studies, I can't help thinking that this is a terrible waste of society's time. I mean let's face it, as a child no-one dreams of working in HR. As a kid about to leave school you'd only choose to go into HR if you had no imagination and wanted a job that was safe -- one you didn't have to care about, or think about. There is no point in HR being a degree based study, as there is no option for creative or original thought in the job, nor in the people who are so employed.

If you work in HR, you will not only have no friends at work, people will actively go out of their way to hate you. All employees, at every level in the firm will hate you. At best, the operations directors will tolerate you because you are a necessary evil, but will still resent you as a cost centre.

There's a high probability you will be female somewhere in the region of 30-50. You will most likely be grossly overweight. You will power-dress like it's 1985 every year. Your arrogance, insincerity, and ability to bold-face outright lie will attempt to overcompensate for your lack of imagination and intelligence.

It's a personal view, but one I believe to be truthful. And I guess the reason why I would never work in a corporation again.

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[flappinbooger]

You've got some great points, and your descriptions could also apply to the stereotypical employee of the BMV.

Regardless, I've had dealings with HR too and some of the most basic qualifications (aside from physical attributes and dress which you described) are that you must be a heartless, patronizing, bureaucratic brown-noser.

The typical HR drone is easily identified by the perpetual smug grin, because they KNOW they are the last ones to go.

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[drinkypoo]

Isn't that a prerequisite for HR?

No, all you need to work in HR is no soul and no sense of loyalty to anything but your paycheck.

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[Original Replica]

No, all you need to work in HR is no soul and no sense of loyalty to anything but your paycheck.

Of course, it's right there in the name. Human Resources. Humans are resources to be used-up, traded, or processed. If that is the nature of the company you work for. However I have worked for companies where Human Resources was actually a resource for the humans that worked there. I think HR people might just reflect the true face of the upper management.

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[Amouth]

but they are almost as small as my StarTac..

yes by volume my the StarTac is smaller than the Razr.. and damnit.. why the fucked up spelling..

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[Ucklak]

It's a poor artist that blames his tool.

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[thegnu]

It's a poor artist that blames his tool.

All the rich ones can afford better tools.

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[jafac]

I love my RAZR. It's physically fragile, but that's the price you pay for small.

What I hate about it is the crappy software UI. Which is entirely Verizon's fault. Fuckers.

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[richdun]

Well, Dell and Motorola are (at least in theory) product development, while Circuit City is (again, in theory) consumer sales. Of course, one could argue that the real oddball here is that Dell is the only one beating expectations for (positive) earnings, and is still cutting jobs... Maybe a pre-emptive layoff, but you have to feel for those guys. Your company does well and STILL you get massive layoffs.

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[radtea]

Your company does well and STILL you get massive layoffs.

Yeah, this is how broken corporate America is. If your company does badly, lay people off to reduce costs (Motorola). If your company does well, lay people off to increase apparent productivity (Dell). And if you have a senior cadre of expensive workers who have built the foundation for your success over the years, lay them off (Circuit City).

If you have a problem, we have a layoff.

Take home message: no one should ever under any circumstances be

Re:

[jafac]

This is because, to institutional investors, a Layoff is a signal that a company is willing to cut fat and take profits. This triggers a near-reflexive BUY response, and often causes a jump in share price. Past a certain increase, the execs get an extra percent or two on their bonus. Hell, half the time, they don't even actually have to lay anyone off - they just have to announce it. (same goes for outsourcing).

Nothing more than whores applying makeup for the evening walk.

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[prelelat]

I highly doubt that Dell would work with Wall-Mart if they weren't going to make money off of it. Their model is giving them a profit, if Wal-Mart was going to cause them to cut back employees it wouldn't be a profitable enough venture for them why take it on. I'm sure this is the case with some companies, but Dell is making money, they have a way to get to consumers, if they didn't like the Wal-Mart deal they could target anouther company like best-buy. I'm sure Wal-Mart wants the Dell brand just as much

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[jadin]

Maybe this quote from the article would make more sense :

"By now, it is accepted wisdom that Wal-Mart makes the companies it does business with more efficient and focused, leaner and faster. Wal-Mart itself is known for continuous improvement in its ability to handle, move, and track merchandise. It expects the same of its suppliers. But the ability to operate at peak efficiency only gets you in the door at Wal-Mart. Then the real demands start. The public image Wal-Mart projects may be as cheery as its yel

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[morgan_greywolf]

Right. Circuit City is a retailer. Their industry is the same as Wal*Mart, CompUSA, etc. They are not a 'tech' company anymore than RadioShack, Wal*Mart or Amazon.com.

However, most of the jobs that are being cut in these companies are unskilled, low-paying jobs. Everywhere I look sysadmins, DBAs, network admins, developers and systems analysts are in high demand -- IOW, the higher-paying, higher-skilled jobs in the tech industry.

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[Bigbutt]

Then why all the cuts at IBM? 3,700 sysadmins in exchange for 19,000 Indians. 52,000 Indians hired since 2003.

[John]

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[dedazo]

Well, now that you've told us what's wrong with these companies, maybe you can tell us what's not wrong with BestBuy, Hewlett-Packard, IBM/Lenovo, Gateway, Sony, LG, Ericsson and all the others that are in the same segments as these poor victims of evil "M$"?

While you're at it, you could explain to us why Dell posted better than expected profits [iht.com] while doing what you consider to be their problem, if indeed you consider six months of poor post-RTM Vista sales to be able to have enough negative impact on a c

Fallout from supply squeeze

[twitter]

An insulting AC writes:

... that was the line in April. In May it shifted to reports of huge Vista shipments followed by "Of corse M$ has been selling huge piles of Vista their a convicted monopolist

Yes, Microsoft is a convicted, coercive monopolist. So now, in June, the suppliers who took all of those Vista CDs are firing people. This is not a coincidence, it's a consequence. Vista is not selling and those who were forced to take it lost. "Channel stuffing" is little more than a transfer of wealth f

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[The Bungi]

This whole line of "reasoning" is stupid, even for you. Why don't you go back to waxing poetic about the RIAA? You're much better at that.

This'd be a feature of printing money.

[Colin Smith]

printing presses -> inflation -> interest rates -> bad times.

HTH.

 

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[Kohath]

Yeah, except inflation is down [marketwatch.com].

So a person might wonder what the hell you're talking about.

Re:This'd be a feature of printing money.

[Vancorps]

Except that the only reason inflation is down is because people aren't being paid more to purchase all the goods that have gone up in price. I'd call that bad times for a lot of people. Fortunately I'm still due my raise, woohoo for no inflation!

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[Kohath]

I'm not arguing good news vs. bad news.

Inflation is down. So the "printing press" comment is pure nonsense (at best). That's all.

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[Vancorps]

Fair enough, it's safe to say the state of the economy is certainly not a simple conversation. So many people want it to be a black and white problem when it's always been a giant cloud.

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[Maxo-Texas]

Inflation is down if you do not eat or use gasoline (or pay property taxes).

All are ignored by the core inflation index. So the typical consumer is suffering from inflation while some fake number is within range.

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[Kohath]

So you are saying that "printing money" caused gas prices and property taxes to go up?

Are they "printing money" that can only be spent on gasoline? What do the gasoline suppliers do with this money?

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[Colin Smith]

This is btw, the mechanism by which the rich get richer and the poor poorer... The poor don't get raises in line with inflation (and therefore actually take a wage cut), the rich have stock options etc and ride the inflating of the stock market.

 

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[Colin Smith]

Inflation is down because some oil figures just after katerina have fallen out of the statistics. It'll go on for another couple of months before the real stats hit.

 

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[Kohath]

Ah. The real stats will come in a few months. Not today, when this is currently being discussed. No, in the future, when everyone will have forgotten.

Give us an exact date then. On what day should we expect to see this "printing money" reflected in the data? How much higher will inflation be on that day? Will it be at 3 percent? 8 percent?

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[rleibman]

Yeah, except inflation is down.

Emhhh... please specify, that's only Core inflation, which doesn't take into account a huge amount of the economy. Core inflation is government's attempt at pretending that printing out bills is not inflationary. Core inflation does not take into account energy (I was paying $2.00 for gas not too long ago, now I'm paying $3.50...) My food bills are larger than they were a few years ago. I don't know if this measurement includes housing, but I've heard from others that the c

Re:

[servognome]

The reason food and energy are excluded is because the short-term volitility can misrepresent the long-term inflationary pressures. Though I would agree some sort of normalized price (eg 12 month moving average) should be used for those calculating inflation in those markets.
That said, the CPI which does include energy, food, and housing is still at a relatively low 2.6% for the past year (ended Apr).

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[Kohath]

This is fairly common in modern debate.

When the actual numbers don't support your argument, there's always some secret number that's the real number.

Pay no attention to those numbers that everyone else uses. We have the real numbers and they tell the story that supports our position. We just can't come up with them right now. But we know they're the real numbers. We can feel it.

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[Colin Smith]

for 1 month?
 

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[Kohath]

You have absolutely no basis for your comment above. I offer a factual refutation that's actually from today's news. And your response is that my facts don't cover enough time? Care to cite a fact yourself?

Inflation has been very low for decades now -- since the mid-80s. Your "printing money" comment is laughably incorrect. I can Google it and post the link if there's any doubt.

Let me repeat what I said before: What the hell are you talking about?

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[Kohath]

So if we believe you, then we never have to come up with any facts or data to back up our arguments? Because all the data is faked anyway, but your position is true-True-TRUE-TRUE!!! Because you say so. Anonymously.

You make a good case. I think I'll stick with the real world though, at least until Monday.

Re:This'd be a feature of printing money.

[megaditto]

Bad times? What are you smoking.

Here is today's article from NY Times Dell Reports Better-Than-Expected Profit http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/technology/01del l.html [nytimes.com]

The reason these people are laid off is because the companies want even more profits, not because they are losing money during "bad times."

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[Vancorps]

They are all following the lead of IBM laying off 1500 people for no reason after meeting profit projections. Gotta love it!

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[metlin]

Here is the way it works - companies alternate between the red and the green, and when they are in the green (actual, good performance), they want to keep the investor confidence in the high.

Now, based on how they perform, the market they may mark them as Buy, Sell or Hold. If a company's deep in the red zone, it gets marked Buy. But if a company goes from red to green, it tends to get marked as Sell. Usually, if enough investors dump the stocks (making a profit while they can etc), then the stock price ten

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[maxume]

Lots of companies operate this way. Lots of others actually have good management.

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[servognome]

printing presses -> inflation -> interest rates -> bad times.

Actually it's:
printing presses -> inflation -> good times -> bubble burst -> bad times.
Interest rates are used to keep inflation in check to prevent boom bust cycles.

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[Colin Smith]

I agree, what's needed is a currency outwith of banker and politician's control. With supply matched to the expansion/contraction of the economy.

Pipe dream though.

 

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[servognome]

With supply matched to the expansion/contraction of the economy.

Yeah becuase the best thing to do in a contracting economy is to reduce liquidity by contracting the money supply - it worked so well in 1930.

the sky's not falling

[softwaredoug]

Meanwhile, every tech place I know can't hire fast enough. The good candidates are getting soaked up by the market fast. Wasn't there a stat recently that computer people are in higher demand than during the tech boom? But maybe its just a localized phenomena where I live.

Re:the sky's not falling

[ushering05401]

An old tech veteran I know made a good point. The industry does not need to be healthier for there to be more positions than back in the boom. We are just years down the line and the integration of technology into our society has continued apace... becoming more prevelant in everyday life... less visible and more taken for granted (except for when, say, your cell phone erases your car key).

The industry is larger but not necessarily healthier, more profitable, or better-off in general.

Regards.

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[lawpoop]

Where do you live?

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[porkThreeWays]

When they use the word "tech" it's very generic. Mostly sales people are the first to go as they are the quickest/easiest to hire again if things pick up. Then probably entry level technicians such as Circuit City's Firedog employees. There's plenty of work out there for highly technical people such as engineers and quality programmers. That's really anywhere though. You want to be so valuable that it's cheaper to pay you to do nothing for months at a time than try and find a replacement when they do need y

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[MalleusEBHC]

Meanwhile, every tech place I know can't hire fast enough. The good candidates are getting soaked up by the market fast. Wasn't there a stat recently that computer people are in higher demand than during the tech boom? But maybe its just a localized phenomena where I live.

From what I can tell, this is true, as my company (in Silicon Valley) can't hire engineers fast enough either. However, these aren't "tech jobs" per se. To mean, that means engineers and maybe IT, but the blurb makes it sound like any job

The articles don't say ...

[WrongSizeGlass]

... where the cuts will occur. Obviously the Circuit City cuts will be in the US, but what about Dell & Moto? Any bets that they are not in the call centers of India? The Dell article mentions employees in England & Ireland but doesn't say where the cuts will be.

Nothing like making the employees pay for management's bad decisions.

Schizofrenia?

[hibiki_r]

What's so strange about closing 70 locations and opening 165? Anyone that has had anything to do with corporate retail planning can see that it can make perfect sense: The company wants to grow, so they add more stores, at the same time, some stores have been performing so badly that they think the location will never be profitable enough, so they are closed.

The only surprising part is that we are talking about all that many stores at the same time: It either means that the former management was ignoring all the indicators, or that the new management has just gone overboard to make a point.

Either way, it's something that seems perfectly healthy for a retail chain to do.

Site shuffling

[nurb432]

It could be too that they are just re-arranging the stores into better markets.

Tech sector?

[TimeTrav]

FTFA:

"This time around, the company [Circuit City] axed roughly one manager from each of its 654 stores along with nearly 200 positions at its Richmond, VA headquarters."

How does sacking a bunch of retail managers and back office support staff spell doom for tech sector employees? I understand that job cuts are bad things, but I don't think this one should be lumped in with the tech sector.

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[Bobartig]

I concur. A retail store manager has no relationship to a tech worker in terms of required skills. Even if you work at a really high tech retail store, chances are more likely that you came from Pottery Barn than a CS background (and you'd want the manager from Pottery Barn over the CS grad anyhoo).

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[ajanp]

Yeah, this seems like a bit of an exaggeration to somehow group job cuts from 3 companies and claim that it's a bad time to be working in the tech sector.

1. We know that most of the Circuit City cuts are from management/unprofitable locations - the cuts (and the company tbh) seems like it has more to do with sales/retail sector than it does with the actual tech sector, not to mention the fact that they are opening 165 new stores in areas they hope will be more profitable.

2. We don't really know what type

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[drinkypoo]

Seems like the tech jobs working on R&D/customer support are actually pretty safe at the moment.

Companies will also tell you to enjoy the upgrade they made to their support system right before sending you off to have your call answered in India. Do you believe everything you read?

Maybe Motorola is laying off the people responsible for their old cellphone OS :)

Same goes for the news from dell, too, who is currently being sued by the NY Attorney General for providing shit support while claiming to be t

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[TheLinuxWarrior]

You hit the nail on the head. Tech people aren't getting sacked. In fact, we have a large number of slots we need to fill nation wide (US) for tech people doing deployment and maintenance work. Redundancies are being reduced as departments merge (Professional Services and Field Delivery for example), and unnecessary managers are being eliminated.

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[pipingguy]

I apologize for all the job losses. Seems like I bought some stuff from ThinkGeek instead of my local CC and apparently that's what tipped things.

This doesn't have much to do with the tech sector

[Rix]

Circuit city and Dell are in the retail sector, and that article doesn't say who at Motorola is getting canned. It could be marketing for all we know.

Re:This doesn't have much to do with the tech sect

[drinkypoo]

Circuit city and Dell are in the retail sector, and that article doesn't say who at Motorola is getting canned. It could be marketing for all we know.

Given the strength that the marketing department seems to have at Motorola, I wouldn't doubt that they are staffed by a cast of thousands. Can someone explain to me why Mobile Phone Tools needs to be stuffed chock-full of pictures of people younger, trendier, and apparently happier than I am?

Weak sales with a common root: M$.

[twitter]

Circuit city and Dell are in the retail sector, and that article doesn't say who at Motorola is getting canned.

Yeah, but CC and Dell and CompUSA and anyone else selling hardware has been squeezed by M$ and burnt by poor sales. That they are firing people means they expect worse. After six years of waiting, Vista is a flop. People are really sick of the upgrade train and it's hurt the whole industry's reputation. Time for honest computing.

How does Motorola get into this mix? Well the neat-o things a

Schizo closings/openings.

[ushering05401]

The submission suggests the decision to open new stores while closing others is weird... but it is not.

BGI (Borders, Waldenbooks, Brentanos, Paperchse) announced they would be closing/spinning off all international operations a day before they announced the opening of several new international stores. The intertia behind the construction, planning, hiring, etc was too great to halt. Additionally, the purchasing departments negotiate deals based on volume and there was *years* of planning/analysis/spending that affected the entire chain and would need to be revisited if the stores did not open as planned.

The damage to the company would have been greatly compounded if the new stores had not opened.

Finally, while closing locations is common practice for companies that are in difficult times, it is not unusual to continue expanding in markets that show more promise than the failing ones that were cut. Shoring up existing markets does less to placate edgy shareholders than showing aggressive pursuit of new opportunities.

Regards.

Be Nice If...

[Nom du Keyboard]

this week they are planning a ten-percent reduction in their global workforce.

Be nice if it was global, and not just USA.

Circuit City != tech sector

[Gadgit]

Perhaps someone can inform me how people getting laid off at Circuit City is any indicator of the status of the tech sector. Now I have never bought anything from a Circuit City but they weren't the most technically adept people I have ever talked to...just a bunch of dullards spouting numbers off of a tag and having no clue what they actually mean. I can see Motorola and Dell, but lumping Circuit City in there is just grasping for straws

Easy

[ushering05401]

CC and related retailers still exist in the numbers they do because people like to be able to play with tech before they buy it. It is not safe to assume that customers have simply switched to buying online, or that CC competitors have made enough of a market incursion to justify these sorts of layoffs (after all, CC has a huge established client base due largely to their longevity in the market).

CC laying people off is not the same as, say, Tower Records doing the same. There is no emerging technology th

Sorry, this is to please Wall Street only

[postbigbang]

During growth cycles in the stock markets, like the record-breaking S&P 500, it's very typical for companies to shed employees. It has nothing to do with Tech as an industry segment, has nothing to do with outsourcing, has nothing to do with EducationInAmericaToday, has nothing to do with anything but pleasing Wall Street. This allows stockholders to fatten up the stock price, lower DE ratios, and at the end of the day, inject new blood.

Does it suck? Of course it does. Wall Street is a nasty bitch.

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[JasonB]

And to a certain degree, this is what is driving the private-equity-backed buyouts of publicly traded companies: take them private in order to remove the pressure from the quarterly roller coaster that is Wall Street. In doing so, you give companies the time and space to make long term plans and execute on them. By not having to please Wall Street on an ongoing basis, situations like these may happen a bit less often.

-jason

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[postbigbang]

Amen.

It's a genuine madness that makes highly intelligent companies act like idiots for three weeks each quarter.

There's a better way. We just haven't thought of it yet.

Re:Sorry, this is to please Wall Street only

[lawpoop]

There's a better way. We just haven't thought of it yet.

Well, the simplest solution for our current system would be rules and regulations that require you to hold stocks for long periods of time, say months, or even a year or two, before you can sell. That would encourage investors to look at the long-term health and planning of a company, instead of short-term profit.

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[postbigbang]

Whenever there's a bull market in tech, each company tries to get their share of the upswing, so they all get slim and attractive and put on financial lipstick at once. You can spot this trend starting in the 70's. I've seen it go this way about 15x. Dollars you spend in tech right now, barring a national catastrophe, will be rewarded.... even the hideous price of oil, which normally sags the market, isn't having an effect. It's a bull market. Run with it if you want. I'm not an investment counselor, lawyer

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[servognome]

The myth of working 30years for a company and retiring with a nice investment egg is fantasy. All wage slaves are subject to this, sadly

People are only wage slaves if they think of themselves that way. Personally, I'm always on the lookout for a better opportunity, and take advantage of any training or networking opportunities my company provides. Don't chain yourself to the company and use them as much as they use you.
They can lay me off at any time, but I also can quit at any time, neither party can dep

Re:

[postbigbang]

We agree, but you're obviously not enslaved. W2 is ok if you keep your skills up, don't over extend your credit, and watch your company, industry, and ass. Any of those can mean a rapid shift in fate. It's best to be ready; corporate concern for its employees is poor at best. That's why I'm my own corp, and why it always remembers to look after me. Fortunately, so do my clients.

Having worked at Circuit City in the past...

[fiordhraoi]

I worked for Circuit City from about 2000-2002. It was interesting seeing the way things deteriorated.

At first, it was a great part time job for a guy working his way through college. Commission based computer sales, and the commission was more than fair. Then around late 2000 there was a huge shift.

First of all, our store's management staff was almost entirely changed no less than 9 times in 7 months. That's the store manager, assistant manager, and all the department managers. The only role that was relatively "safe" was the AV manager, who got demoted to a sales guy when they brought in someone else, then got promoted again after 3 guys went through that manager role.

Commissions were first cut, then to compound the problem they started flooding the sales floor. Where you used to only have maybe 2 guys in a department during the day and 3-4 at night (depending on the time of year and the department), it became literally 5 during the day and 8 at night. No one was making money on commission anymore, we were just drawing the minimum hourly pay.

Ironically, I think that last move is what really started the store's sales going downhill - no one wants to feel like there's 8 sharks circling for blood/a sale while they're looking at a printer or whatever. Even if the salespeople aren't trying to do so, with 8 of them in a small department, you can't really avoid that feeling.

From one of our assistant managers, I heard that there was some huge politics going on in the regional level in the company. Exactly what, he didn't have details on, but most of the Northeast was going through similar issues (although our store was the worst example he heard of).

Really, I think the problem is that Circuit City hasn't been aggressive enough in its adaptation to new marketplace conditions. It settled for "good enough" for too long, and lost it's momentum.

Disclaimer: I don't hold anything against them, like I said, it was a nice place to work for a while. And at least their problems stemmed from poor organizational practices rather than a crappy attitude toward the consumer. Customer service was at least given more than lip service while I worked there. Granted, it's been 5 years, so things may have changed there too, I'm not sure.

Having shopped at Circuit City in the past...

[Just Some Guy]

What killed Circuit City for me was that stupid restocking fee. They can argue and explain until the end of the world about how it's fair and reasonable and helps keep costs down, but when it's CC or Wal-Mart for the same price, and Wal-Mart will give me no-hassle returns, I'm not buying from CC.

True story: I bought a graphics card from CC on sale for $20 a few years back. It was going in a cheapie desktop, so I basically wanted something that could put color on a screen. Anyway, I got home and it was

Re:

[tomstdenis]

Oddly enough "the source" (what bought out Radioshack) in Canada tries the same shit. I recently bought a car kit for my ipod which was DOA. When I brought it back [with the ripped open blister package] they mentioned that they don't like giving refunds for packages that are destroyed like that (the kit itself wasn't damaged other than not working).

After pointing out, loudly I might add, that they can't restock broken gear and that they would have to return it anyways, they just gave me a "whatever" look

Schizo?

[RickOfTheHillPeople]

"decidedly schizophrenic manner"

Schizophrenia != Split Personality

Tech Industry?

[TheOldSchooler]

I don't know if I'd really consider working for Circuit City to be part of the "tech industry". More like retail sales.

obligatory

[pak9rabid]

Dude! You're getting a pink slip.

anyone remember DIVX?

[fred fleenblat]

I completely stopped shopping at circuit city back when they tried to foist DIVX on the world.

They sold me a DIVX for the price of a DVD player.

[HornWumpus]

I never bought a single DIVX disc or plugged it into the phone line (or took one of the free ones they tried to give me with the player).

The percentage of DIVX players that never phoned home once were a bunch a nails in its coffin. It performed OK as a cheap DVD player.

IT -- still doing better than Ford!

[$criptah]

Please see this article [cnn.com]. According to Fortune, in some areas hiring in the tech sector has been increased by a substantial number. Companies are out on a hunt for college grads and overall the picture does not look bad at all. Of course, there is no such thing as job security, but I'd rather work in IT than for an American auto company. The glass is always half full :)

Re:

[Penguinshit]

I work in IT for an American auto company, you insensitive clod!

(really, I do...)

A more relevant question would be

[WillAffleckUW]

how many employees do they plan to hire in India and China in the next six months, and how many of said new employees were using L-1 and H1-B visas in the US prior to said "downsizing", when it's really outsourcing?

Do an online Yahoo Stock search and check the news and PR items and find the truth.

Re:

[servognome]

how many employees do they plan to hire in India and China in the next six months, and how many of said new employees were using L-1 and H1-B visas in the US prior to said "downsizing", when it's really outsourcing?

Make sure to ask, how their revenue is growing in India and China vs. the US.
Just as Circuit City is closing some stores, and opening more elsewhere doesn't represent outsourcing of the same job. Hiring in the booming economies of India and China and laying off in the more stagnant US doesn't ne

Meanwhile, Dell opens new R&D center in Bangal

[Palmyst]

May 31, 2007

Dell inaugurated Thursday [infoworld.com] a new research and development (R&D) facility in Bangalore, India, that can house up to 1,000 staff. The new facility is in line with Dell's plans to make India a hub for the development of enterprise products such as servers, storage, and software.

Coincidence? Surely not.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Circuit City = Tech Sector = Shortcircuit

[MSTCrow5429]

Circuit City is not the tech sector. It's the retail hell sector. Dell, well, if you stretch it, you can argue it's in the tech sector. It's more of a packaging and logistics company.

Brown vs. White

[Wansu]

I was laid off from a telecommunications company in the 80s. At 4pm, the computers went down. The word wafted around the building like a bad smell that we ought to grab our belongings and go down to the lobby. There we saw 2 tables. One had boxes of white envelopes. The other had boxes of brown envelopes. You stated you name and the people at the tables looked for your name on an envelope. A white envelope meant you stayed. A brown envelope meant you were laid off. Mine was turd brown. That day, 1200 people

Re:Not a good time for tech?

[WrongSizeGlass]

Slashdot posters are some of the dumbest people around. This guy must have his underwear pulled up around his waist.

Now now ... just because I happen to enjoy a good snug fit to my tighty whities doesn't mean I'm stupid. That is accomplished by my head being up my ass. Which, just as a side note, is more difficult when my bun huggers are so tight they look painted on.