

Don't waste your time at Circuit City - pj

I went there today and the only thing that was actually 30% off were the Monster Cables which would still be a ripoff at 80% off.<p>Headphones were twice as expensive there -- even on sale -- as they are online for the exact same models. Nearly everything in the store was really only 10% off, despite the signs outside saying 30%.  Looks like stuff was marked up, then down.  I'm not sure the regular prices, but no one was buying /any/thing.<p>I wasted my time, don't waste yours -- yet.  If this sale is going to go through March, prices are going to have to come /way/ down before anything is worth buying, but really nothing in there is worth buying anyway...
======
trickjarrett
I went to Circuit City the first day of the supposed fire sale and I was
thoroughly disappointed. I've never EVER been a fan of Circuit City, their
prices were never competitive and the stores have not been good experiences
for me. So I was going purely to hunt deals.

The only deals I found were on burnable media, and on a crappy movie which I
love dearly. I stood in their SINGLE checkout line as it was nearly thirty
feet long, waited fifteen seconds, then deposited said merchandise on the
nearest shelf and departed the store.

This is why the company is failing. They suck at life.

~~~
johns
They're being run by a liquidator now so you can expect there won't be many
employees working which results in long lines.

I've long preferred Circuit City to Best Buy because my local Best Buys are
pretty terrible. I'll be stuck using them now.

------
ssharp
You have to realize that there is a middle market here. Trading companies will
buy up inventory from bankrupt companies and resell them through their
established channels. From Circuit City's standpoint, it's better to unload
all that inventory in one major deal than to try to stay open and sell them to
consumers.

So for merchandise like electronics, which is easily resold, you're not going
to see any deals. They'll mark the prices up to retail ("normal" price is
typically discounted) and then take 20-30% off which is what they normally
take off anyway. The deals are going to the companies buying this stuff up in
bulk.

~~~
RobGR
That doesn't really make sense, why doesn't Circuit City do what the trading
companies are doing but cut out the middle man ? After all Circuit City's
stores should be a fine "established channel". And why would the trading
companies by from Circuit City when they could contact the manufacturers
directly ?

I don't think there is a rational reason involving trading companies or some
other established channels for Circuit City's pricing; instead, consider the
possibility that Circuit City is run by idiots. Occam's razor dictates that
idiocy is more likely explanation here. It also is consistent with the reasons
they are going out of business in the first place.

That said, I also suspect that there is a large downturn in consumer buying,
and it might shake out even retailers that aren't run by idiots.

------
Ravenlock
I managed to snag Grid PC for about $16 ($20 - 20%) and a UMD case for PSP
games for about $9 ($13 - 30%), but the vast majority of the stuff in there
was still horribly overpriced.

Luckily, thanks to the internet, it's a lot harder for stores to call
something a "deal" when in fact it is _higher_ than actual market value and
get away with it.

Or maybe that's just an illusion, since there were plenty of people in there
still running around grabbing stuff as though it were a super bargain, but I
have to believe there were less folks suckered by it than there would've been
10 years ago.

Sidenote: I suspect that once a store starts sliding downhill, it's much
harder for them to recover than it once was thanks to the same basic effect.
Once upon a time, a store whose stock was starting to slide could send out a
bunch of flyers, get some people in their doors, sell some merchandise and
turn things around. Now, though, we all know within a day that the reason the
flyer is in the mail is that the store is tanking, and so we stay away.

------
cstejerean
Stores like Circuit City don't really make much money on electronics
(computers, TVs, camcorders, digital cameras). Most of those items have fairly
low margins. Most of the high margins are in things like accessories. This is
usually reflected in their employee discount policy and also at times like
these when stores are closing. The only thing you'll find significant
discounts at Circuit City is cables and other accessories, but these are the
same items that you can always buy online at low prices.

Also, my feeling is that in a sale like this most of the big ticket items will
be purchased at relatively low discounts by people that aren't usually
comfortable with buying things online. So to them 5% of a TV at CircuitCity
looks like a really good deal even though Amazon sells it for 10% cheaper.

------
tdavis
As a retail store, they'd have to significantly mark stuff down to compete
with online stores. I'm surprised they're still so high though; I would have
expected more of a fire sale.

~~~
gravitycop
_I would have expected more of a fire sale._

It's one of the oldest retailing tricks in the book: advertise a fire sale,
and then don't have one. There are people who will convince themselves they
are getting great deals, regardless.

~~~
pj
I think people are wising up. We are beginning to demand truth in advertising.
When we are lied to, we are walking away. When we had lots of money, we would
tolerate it, but not anymore. In times of surplus, we can act without reason,
but in times of scarcity, rationality wins.

It was funny walking around the store -- like a bad garage sale. People would
pick things up, look at them with this confused look on their face like they
were thinking, "Are these people serious?" and then put it down and walk away.

People don't have any money. Where is the mystery? People want bargains and
Circuit City has 1.3 BILLION dollars worth of inventory they have to move.

Marking up 20% then down 10% isn't going to move product. That kind of
arrogance is why they are going out of business. I hope the other big boxes
don't learn this lesson the easy way and they go out of business too.

It's sounds very cynical to say it, but I think the world will be better off
without brick and mortar stores like Circuit City.

Actually, it makes me very excited to see them going out of business. I know
it is painful for a lot of the employees and I don't mean to relish in their
pain, but it's proof that rationality wins in the end.

The Circuit City bankruptcy is a metaphor for the U.S. It's a signal that the
old world is dying and a new world is being born -- online. Consumers are
being smarter about their money. They don't have anymore credit cards to max
out, the housing ATMs are broken and people are wising up.

We're all going to be smarter and better and more rational after the fire.
Slash and burn. Plant a new crop.

~~~
tdavis
You have far more faith in people than I do. Something tells me within the
next 5 years Americans will have forgotten about the whole "maybe spending way
more money than I make is a bad idea" and things will go back to the way they
were. Whenever I have to choose between lasting rationality and history
repeating itself, I almost always choose the latter.

~~~
pj
Now my mind is going crazy with the "faith" part of it. Having faith seems
naively optimistic and hopeful.

It feels right now like we, or at least I, need faith in something. God's not
going to help us -- we might be the evil ones. Obama, while I like him /way/
more than any other president I've known, I have little faith that he will
turn things around. I wanted Ron Paul. Obama is too soft, we need some of RP's
tough love right now. Spending more money in the wrong places isn't the way to
get our country out of debt and Obama has already shown that he doesn't
understand that concept.

Who does that leave? The other politicians up there are still corrupt. CEO's
are still greedy. Banks are still crooks. Retail outlets are still lying to
consumers.

All we have left to have faith in are the people. I have faith in Hacker News.
What a breath of fresh air this place is! It's the only rational place left on
the Internet. Please PG, work your magic and keep HN sane!

Somewhere in "the people" is someone with the charisma and the intellect and
the wherewithall to be a real leader. Obama is a leader and he is extremely
intelligent, but lacking in the wherewithall...

Doesn't mean I don't like him. He was our best choice after Ron Paul. We need
to find a Ron Paul the people can relate to. RP is too smart. Too rational.
Too extreme for the media to support. The media are people too and they have
jobs and their jobs are on shaky ground and they know it. They punished RP
because the Internet that loved him hated the media and the internet also
threatens the media...

In 4 years though, things are going to change. The Internet will be stronger.
More truth will be available. The people will have better access to knowledge
and resources they can trust. Someone, probably not Ron Paul, but someone as
thoughtful and honest as him, though not so far outside the comprehension of
the mainstream will take over the reigns.

Sounds like I'm going from faithful to hopeful.

Man, we gotta do something!! Obama isn't gonna do it by spending money and
listening to the same people that have been making all the mistakes that got
us into this mess!

Shoot, I'll do it! I'm going to get rich and buy ads and listen to people and
travel around the country and talk to them and understand them and hold their
hand when I tell them it's going to be really really hard and we are going to
have to make sacrifices and trust rationality even if we don't understand it
and move forward knowing that we have to make things real again. We have to
get out of our grandiosity and look around the world and understand that we
are people in a big world and we are just /one/ country and everyone is mad at
us for being so arrogant and Obama has a lot of work to do and I love him and
I know he is going to do better things for the country than that last guy.

I'm going to take it a little bit further and make it all better! I'm tired of
people complaining and not doing anything about it. They say washington is
corrupt and no one wants to get in that mess and they're afraid of getting
killed by the military industrial complex.

Who cares!? I'm gonna die anyway. I'll go out with a bang!

I'm going to try it! If I don't make it, it'll be a fun ride. Going to make
this place a better world and start right here at home. Someone's going to
have to because we're in a serious mess people. A serious mess. This isn't
going to be pretty. I don't think it's really hitting people how extremely
f'ed up this place is going to get because of our greed and irresponsibility
and hubris.

Maybe I have some of that too, but I /want/ it to be better, not just for
Americans, but for the world and if we are going to be the leader of the free
world, then by damn we better start acting like we are part of that world
instead of swimming around inside this tiny little fishbowl...

~~~
eb
I really can't understand why people are so fond of Ron Paul and how his
positions would solve this country's problems.

Can you be more specific on what approach you believe should be taken to pull
through this recession? What is so mislead about Obama's approach? What's The
Ron Paul Solution?

~~~
pj
I like Ron Paul because he is honest. He says the truth, even when it isn't in
his best interest. When I listen to him, he says the things that I have come
to believe over time through independent study and research regarding the
world around me.

He has a solid understanding of world politics, economics, and history. He is
literate and he reads a lot.

He's also a genuine guy with a huge heart. I think he'd be willing to do the
hard things the nation needs in a time of crisis. He has a vision to the
future. He is concerned about generations other than his own. He is concerned
about the world outside his own home and he really wants to make the world
better.

He's prophetic. He warned us that what is happening right now was going to
happen and here it is. I think being able to predict the future and accurately
analyze the current situation is something we want in a leader.

As for The Ron Paul Solutions that I would like to see implemented:
responsible fiscal policy, libertarian ethics, ending imperialization, a focus
on the home front, and shrinking of the size of government. Obama has none of
that in mind.

~~~
eb
What, specifically, is a responsible fiscal policy? How would he have
prevented this economic mess? How does he suggest that we fix it, now that
we're here? What economists support his views? Obama hasn't failed yet, how do
we know his approach is wrong?

~~~
pj
Responsible fiscal policy means spending less money. It means eliminating the
IRS. It means the elimination of fiat currency. It means not spending money on
guns, military bases, and other things that we just don't need.

Ron Paul gets his economic views from the Austrian School of Economics. There
are lots of economists who agree with those ideas. Many popular economists
agree with his views including Milton Freidman, Peter Schiff, and more... A
lot of what Ron Paul believes about economics are well though out ideas
presented by other people, they aren't ideas he just "thought up." For
example, every fiat currency ever in the history of the world has eventually
collapsed. Sure, the US Dollar may prove to be the one that doesn't collapse,
but history doesn't seem to indicate that is the case.

Obama may be a shining star. I hope he is. Even if he is, even if Ron Paul was
up there, we wouldn't know for sure if it was the President who fixed it or
not. Bush did a lot of damage and the greedy bankers he enabled did a lot of
damage, I'm not sure even Ron Paul could fix it. It'll take all of us working
really hard to fix it.

We are so in debt it's unfathomable. The younger generation is going to have
to work really really hard to get us out of this mess. Let's hope Obama can
rally the troops!

------
tptacek
Don't you read Consumerist? Liquidation sales are apparently never a good
deal:

[http://consumerist.com/5138341/the-secrets-of-liquidation-
sa...](http://consumerist.com/5138341/the-secrets-of-liquidation-sales)

------
sokoloff
This headline is equally apropos now and 2 years ago, and 4 years ago, and...

------
redorb
yeah I went with my Android phone - and the barcode app the compares prices;
there was positively no deals with any margin higher than 10% (tax money) vs
even other local retailers.

------
rufius
I got Guitar Hero 3 (Legends of Rock) Wii for cheaper than I could anywhere
else... 45. Most places go no lower than 55.

Other than that, nothing to see there, move along now.

------
jcl
See also <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=440124>

------
bocalogic
i forgot the exact number but they owe creditors something like 180 million so
they are going to charge as much as they can get away with.

wait until the last day for any true rock bottom pricing

------
steveplace
Just wait until it all gets dumped off to Big Lots and TJ Maxx.

