Slashdot Mirror
Circuit City and the American Dream
An anonymous reader writes "Circuit City said yesterday that it had fired 3,400 of its highest-paid sales staff — 8% of its employees — and will replace them with lower-paid workers. Sign On San Diego called this 'a risky strategy to cut costs that goes beyond the layoffs, buyouts and hiring freezes commonly used by struggling companies.' The fired workers have a chance to apply for lower-paying positions after a 10-week wait, the company said. Quoting a Circuit City spokesman: 'This is no reflection on job performance... We deeply regret the negative impact. Retail is extremely competitive, and if we're going to thrive and operate a successful company... we just have to control costs.' So: work hard, become the best in your field, and get fired so they can offer you a new job 10 weeks later at a lower salary."
There is a huge logical gap between "We're not getting rid of these people for performance reasons" and "These people are the best in their field". I don't think you can read any of this and come away even with the idea that these people were any better than the other, lower paid employees in their same stores. If they think they can employ the *exact same people* for less money in 10 weeks, then clearly these salespeople were paid beyond what the market can bear.
Why do we need to make up negative stuff about this when we could simply point to the fact that the salary savings look pathetic in comparison to what they continue to pay their executives?
What other large electronics chains are left that I can buy at? I don't want to support businesses who either cheat their customers (Best Buy) or who mistreat their employees (Wal-Mart, Circuit City.) I'm going to be running out of vendors, soon.
Anyway, this reminds me of a friend of mine. He graduated from college with a degree in History. Yes, a rather un-saleable degree. So he lived on my couch for a few months after he graduated while he tried to find a job. The only job he could find was telephone credit card sales. Yes, he was *THAT* guy. Every day, he came home from his job, the first words out of his mouth were "I hate my job." What made it even worse is that he was *GOOD* at it. His second month there, he set a sales record. His third month, he broke that record. Then he got fired. Because he wasn't following the script to the letter.
Now, if someone comes in, and, by *NOT* following the script to the letter (he did say all the parts that the law requires creditors to say,) sets sales records two months in a row (he got a plastic slinky with the company name on it in thanks,) shouldn't you have the OTHER people follow his lead, rather than fire him?
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I recently suggested a solution to this dilemma based on someone's remark on that topic.
Basically, someone should set up "stores" that don't make money on sales at all, but essentially just rent you access to the showroom so you can figure out what you need (and then perhaps rate the people there based on how informative they are -- like Slashdot) and then find the cheapest place online to get it (either using their computers there or just go home having a better idea of what you need). They would have no qualms about telling you, "ah, you don't need this stuff".
Depending on the money needed to make it work, you could either run them for-profit or as a co-op where your "membership fee" is all or partly your service of working there part-time in a department you're already knowledgeable about. You help people find what computer they should get, and in return, old folks there teach you what gardening equipment you should get (for example).
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
That's the whole point. If they can make $30 million more by NOT paying you, then guess what? They should fire you! You're not worth the $30 million.
That's like your plumber telling you "Hey, uh, you should really pay me twice as much, because if you don't, you're just going to keep the money for yourself."
If you want money, EARN it. Don't expect it to just be handed to you.
paintball
No, that is not the truth. That is the bullshit propaganda the Capitalists want you to believe. Without any salesmen, the company can not sell anything and the whole Circuit City collapses. Same thing with the strawberry pickers, without them the strawberry sellers can't sell any strawberries and so goes out of business. Therefore, these people are, for their respective employers, invaluable. The only reasons companies can treat the like shit is.... because they can!
I'm a developer at my company and I make quite a lot of money. Without me, they wouldn't be able to sell any products, so I'm valuable. There are also janitors at my company. They clean stuff and pick up the trash that we, the developers, leave behind. They make much less money. Why? It can't be because we work harder (each of us spends at least one hour/day surfing), it can't be because what we do is more valuable (without the janitors this place would be so disgusting no one would be able to work). The only reason they get paid less is because the company can get away with it. And if the US is any example, they will try to force down the developers wages too.
There is really nothing immoral with that. All companies want to lower their costs to stay "competitive" (read: more money to the owners). But what is despicable is that the employees just lays downs and takes it. The solution is so simple. Just strike dammit. Unionize. If just a few thousand of Circuit City's employees decided to strike for a week or two, they would lose so much profit from lost business that it wouldn't be economical to fire them.
Football Odds
Circuit City was identified as the best performing company in Jim Collins' book, Good to Great. Over about 15 years, Circuit City transitioned from a mediocre retailer to a phenomenally performing company, beating the market over 18-fold over 15 years (1982 - 1997)! (p7 of the book).
So what happened?
I no longer shop at the local CC if I can avoid it. Black Friday last year they were a complete mess. It took several minutes to process a customer. Rebates were filled out by clerks, keeping the line waiting. Lines were randomly woven throughout the shopping aisles: you didn't know what aisle you were in and customers were kept from shopping by the congestion. Presently, during normal shopping, their checkout system is quite slow and cumbersome.
In contrast, Best Buy was very well organized and the checkout lines as fast as possible.
Where did the "great" Circuit City go?
Even during
ShoutingMan.com