

Circuit City to liquidate all US stores - larrywright
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5irmWZmMlki7isG4T9NmoHzSlAMJwD95OAOSG0

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watmough
Circuit City needed the consumer electronics equivalent of Gordon Ramsay to
come in and say:

    
    
      1. Your store looks like ass, clean it up.
      2. You fired the best sales staff to save money. You're morons, go and beg them to come back.
      3. Your name sucks. Who the hell wants a 'Circuit'? Rebrand.
    

I'm sad to see it fail, but especially after the sackings of experienced sales
people, I can hardly say I'm surprised.

~~~
projectileboy
Agreed. What's sad is that it's the same old story - the CEO flew the company
into a mountain, and gets rich for doing it. A _responsible_ board of
directors would have showed him the door - sans bonus - when he fired all of
the experienced sales staff to cut costs. Unfortunately, there aren't many
boards in the U.S that are looking out for their shareholders.

~~~
rudyfink
If you look at the board ( <http://investor.circuitcity.com/directors.cfm> ),
there doesn't seem to be much direct retail or electronics experience. Most of
the individuals seem to come from finance or service industry backgrounds.
Perhaps the board was attempting to be responsible but simply did not have the
background necessary for evaluating the business.

~~~
muhfuhkuh
Service industry is all about the customer, so I guess those board members
were asleep when he fired the salespeople who gave good customer service.

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jballanc
I had to get a part time job to support myself in grad school. The first offer
I got was a local Circuit City. I worked at that location for about 6 months,
and then moved to the 3rd largest store in the chain when I transfered
schools.

I was a customer service associate and, yes CSA's, as they called us, were the
lowest paid position. Never underestimate the value of quality customer
service! On top of that, lazy managers always had me do tasks they didn't feel
like working on...by the time I left that store, I had the access codes for
every manager except the Store Director! I could move inventory, receive
shipments, alter time-cards, etc...and I was getting paid $9/hr.

Can't say I'm particularly sad to see them go...

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trickjarrett
About time. They've been thrashing around long enough and the store near me is
already in shambles as employees have apparently stopped caring.

But it's a reminder that a struggling company isn't always going to get bought
out. Circuit City simply couldn't compete with Best Buy, and they're both
being increasingly squeezed by Wal-Mart and Target.

Circuit City will remind Best Buy that it's perch isn't safe.

One thing that jumped out at me is that Best Buy is not a "tech" name, so they
could in theory (I'm not necessarily saying they should, only that they could)
have a rebirth as a Target, Walmart, K-mart competitor.

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brk
I can't say I'm surprised. The few times I've gone in there recently to
purchase something, I couldn't believe the outrageous prices. $49 for a 1M
"digital" optical cable? $99 for an HDMI cable? Everything was massively
overpriced, and this is factoring in that I was willing to pay more than
online prices for local shopping/instant gratification, but not 40% more.

~~~
graywh
But that's always been the case with such accessories.

~~~
brk
It wasn't just accessories. DVD players, TVs, etc. everything was WAY high.

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larrywright
I'm sad to see them go. Locally my only real choices for electronics are Best
Buy and Circuit City. I loathe going to Best Buy - the service is crap, the
stores are cluttered, and in general it's just a miserable shopping
experience. And don't get me started on the Geek Squad...

~~~
pgebhard
I find that NewEgg is more than adequate for any sort of tech purchase. I
guess that if people are going to be spending a lot on expensive tech
equipment (and nearly all of it is expensive) then they'd probably like to see
it in person first.

~~~
grouchyOldGuy
I concur. NewEgg gets 99.9% of all my tech-related purchases. It's too bad
that Circuit City couldn't survive, but I've only been in my local store once
in the past year (and IIRC, I didn't buy anything then and left empty-handed.)

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apstuff
Circuit City was one of the companies featured in Jim Collins' book "Good to
Great." So was Fannie Mae.

He got Wells Fargo and Walgreens right tho'.

~~~
tptacek
In "fairness", the first couple chapters of the book was a disclaimer about
how the companies were already great, but Collins' couldn't be blamed if they
because crappy after the book was published. It looks like most of what went
wrong with Circuit City went wrong in the last 8 years.

~~~
apstuff
Agree.

"First who, then what" is still my favorite from the book. I think the "who's"
changed at CC and that is "what."

~~~
aardvarkious
That's always seemed common sense- it was the hedgehog concept which was great
for me.

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Mystalic
That's 35,000 jobs...

~~~
mikeyur
And unfortunately 35,000 is just another number in this economy - does it mean
anything anymore?

It's like the war: 7 killed in roadside bombing, 25 killed in rocket fire.
Just number that start to lose their meaning.

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natch
Meh. The amazing thing is that Fry's with a kickback scheme running is cheaper
than Circuit City with a sale running.

