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Circuit City Closes Its Doors For Good
bsharma is amongst the hordes of people wanting us to share the news that long beleaguered retailer Circuit City has finally decided to close for good, asking for court approval to close the remaining 567 US stores. "Whalin said management mistakes over the past few years combined with the recession brought down Circuit City. 'This company made massive mistakes,' he said, citing a decision to get rid of sales people and other mismanagement. What's more, given the credit market freeze, Whalin added that no manufacturer wants to sell to any retailer who doesn't have money to pay for the merchandise. At the same time, Whalin said there's still a very slim chance that one or more firms that have expressed an interest in buying Circuit City could still buy it out of bankruptcy over the next few days."
The main mistake Circuit City made IMHO was that their prices were always higher than their primary competitors (Best Buy, CompUSA, etc.). They had a policy that they would match the price of any competitor; however, they wouldn't beat the competitor's price. Of course, their high pressure sales tactics didn't help either but my main gripe was their advertised prices.
Only matching a competitor's price (and not beating the price) meant they were basically forcing their customers to do their job, i.e. price shop their competition. If I find two stores selling the same item, and one store is less than the other, I'm going to the lower priced store. The only time I'd consider going to the higher priced store would be if they gave me a price LOWER than their competitor. A price match is meaningless.
Maybe they changed their policy in later years (after I stopped visiting their stores), I don't know, but the negative perception I developed about them persists to this day. And now they're gone. I wonder if they learned anything?
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
Make BestBuy next!
A few years ago, all the Radio Shacks in Canada were changed into mini "Circuit Cities," branded as "The Source - By Circuit City" - They were the same size as a Radio Shack, but under the Circuit City brand. I wonder what will happen to them...
Here's a picture of one:
http://flickr.com/photos/photofinderguy/2472113998/
Where I live, even the mom & pop computer shops are less expensive than Best Buy.
An aunt of mine recently decided to splurge on an HDTV. She'd looked at what was available at Best Buy, Sears, etc. and found a nice 40" Sony at Best Buy that she really liked. But she wanted to buy the tv from a local store, not a big box store, for a number of reasons. She's the kind of person who believes in "mom & pop" types of outfits. She's also a photographer and wanted to use the HDTV to view photos from her computer. We went to the local store she was interested in and found the same Sony there. The sales rep bent over backwards to help us out and answer all our questions. I was impressed when my aunt started asking about viewing photos and pulled a photo CD out of her purse. The guy ran around the store, found a DVD player, hooked it up to the tv she was interested in, and let her view the photos. Then she started noticing some of the other HDTV's there and asked if she could view the photos on any of them. So the guy figured out where the feed to all the tvs in that section was and hooked the DVD player up to it, so my aunt was able to look at her photos on a dozen different HDTVs all at the same time.
We decided to do a little more shopping around and grab some lunch before making a decision. We stopped back at the Best Buy and saw that it was selling the HDTV for something like $200 less than the local store. We went back to the local place and asked if they'd match the price. The guy ran off for a few seconds and came back and said they could but then couldn't offer us the free local delivery they typically provide. Big deal - we were planning on taking the tv with us anyway. And the local shop offers full warranty & repair service AND will come pick up the tv for free if any work needs to be done on it.
You'll NEVER get those sorts of services from places like Best Buy. My aunt was treated amazingly well throughout the experience, and the local support she'll get is top notch. If she ever has any questions/problems she can call the store and they'll help her out.
My guess is that as the economy manages to sort itself out over the next year or so you'll see a comeback in smaller individual stores, local/regional chains, etc. that provide MUCH better service. I think consumers are becoming more and more savvy when it comes to realizing that they need to think about things like after-sale service & support, and the big box stores simply don't provide that with any sense of reliability or consistency.
is hearing all of the stories that are going to come out of the liquidation.
I bet these employees have been holding it in for a long to come out. Now, with the store going away, they might give us a little insight to why they failed so badly.
import system.cool.Sig;
My wife and I had almost the same experience. Our fridge died. We went to Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowes.. Everybody said that it would take four of five days to get one delivered. We decided to check out a local place. They had a great fridge for a great price. Then came the delivery, the answer was how about tomorrow?
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
The Fry's that I live near is good only because it is huge. Nobody knows much of anything. And, for some reason, none of my credit cards will successfully swipe at their registers. Not even the one that was only 2 weeks old. That makes paying a real PITA. Guess that it's Web-only for me. Too bad as I like to browse.
Sorry, but Wal-Mart simply isn't competitive with online retailers for electronics and computers. First, as you noted, they only stock limited items. But, if they don't have what you want, it DOES matter, because you not only wasted a trip (time and gas), but you had to deal with the hell of going to Wal-Mart and being around their annoying customers. Maybe Wal-Mart customers aren't so bad where you live, but here in Arizona, going to a Wal-Mart is not a fun experience, unless you like tripping over countless undisciplined children running amok and throngs of non-English speaking customers who walk very slowly and always insist on taking up the entire aisle, instead of staying to one side so you can get by. And good luck not having someone run into your car in the parking lot.
For clothes, housewares, and many other goods, Target is a much, much nicer and less stressful place to shop, but they don't have many computer parts.
While I do agree with you, I'll take a moment to play Devil's advocate. Small store owners can be dicks just like the big store owners. I do a lot of grocery shopping at hole in the wall ethnic markets and the staff there can be every bit as surly as disaffected slackers in big box stores. The difference (usually) is that good performance goes unrewarded at the big box stores, actually punished at Circuit City since they fired their top salespeople. In a small shop environment, it should be possible for a good salesman to be rewarded for his efforts, therefore you would expect more positive reinforcement and better reps there.
I worked for a computer guy back in '99 as the box stores were rising in prominence. The mom and pop shops couldn't compete with the box stores on price and this guy decided to add PC hardware to his midrange business that was slowly dying off. I told him that trying to make money off of merchandise was ridiculous and that the only way a smaller shop could compete was on service. If we built a proper service department, we might have a shot at surviving. He didn't, I moved on, and from what I've heard of people who have tried running service shops catering to businesses, its a damn rough game to be in these days. Businesses will pay for lawyers and accountants to come in and help as necessary but they seem to think that computer people should be paid the same rates as the janitorial service.
Apple's first big loss to Microsoft was thinking people would pay more for mac quality but the market said Windows wasn't great but good enough. It'll be interesting to see how it goes in the future. The iPods are ridiculously overpriced as mp3 players but those bastards sell like hotcakes. I guess the bit of genius there was equating this to fashion. People will be ruthlessly efficient when it comes to making practical purchases but when it comes to buying impractical things like handbags, shoes, and designer goods, logic and reason go out the fucking window.
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Except that they were able to match a "big chain" retailer... and do it with far better service, with the friendly local atmosphere, and built a customer "I think I'll go back to them" relationship.
Frankly, very few people that I know shop entirely mercenarily (is that a word? probably not). They tend to like going somewhere they know and/or trust and/or feel comfortable and/or the people are friendly and pay a little more for the same item.
I wasn't a fan of CC at all (selection, prices, and staff all seemed pretty bad there IMO), but I will say I don't like to see this because as Best Buy's competitors drop, they seem to be getting worse and worse. I remember when Best Buys first started popping up in my area they were actually pretty cheap, but I don't think anyone could claim that anymore.
I guess it just means we have to shop online if we want good prices...which really isn't that bad.
hot foreign sheep.
If we are going to discuss this in detail, though, I would specify how you define service:
I don't care about salespeople *at all*, in fact, I would generally just like for them to leave me alone unless I ask is something is in stock, etc. I generally know what I want or can read the back of the package (or often just find the partnumber and read reviews online right there on my cellphone.) I don't expect some teenager to know nuances about RAID setup, PATA vs SATA notebook drives, or what webcam is compatible with linux, etc. After junior high I stopped asking pretty much any non-engineer/programmer/somebody-that-actually-made-the-device anything about computers, as I'm sure many of you did.
What I do care about is being friendly and helpful with logistics (delivery of the flat-screen TV) or returns / exchanges for defective parts. A few online companies are absolutely fantastic with this (Amazon, etc.), so I almost end up with everything online unless I need it immediately. FWIW, despite their adherence to retail (and rarely ABOVE-retail prices), Best Buy has always been pretty good in terms of my definition of service for me.
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Hrm, yes, that's why I can get a Dell laptop from Dell's website, with an employee pricing plan discount, for three hundred dollars more than I can get it at Best Buy... because Dell is the lowest of the low... but not in the way you meant...
We had one of the first wave of store closings here back in December. The "going out of business" "20-50% off", etc prices were still higher than the BB across the street. I even visited the store on the very last day where even the fixtures were on sale and everything was STILL over priced, even the fixtures. ...and why would I buy a $2k+ TV, laptop, etc from a store that wouldn't even be there the next day?
Do yourself a favor and avoid the temptation to join the crowds of bargain hunters who think they are getting a good deal just because the tag says "30% off". What ever you're looking for will still be cheaper online or at Best Buy, Office Max, Fry's...
Circuit City...overpriced and useless to the very end.
I worked as a cashier in the Circuit City music department for the first couple years I was in college. It was a pretty low-key job and since CD's were really just a loss-leader to get people into the store there was really no pressure on me to sell. As long as I kept my work area clean and provided good customer service my boss was happy and life was cool. And every month I was able to take home any of the promotional CD's from the previous month - so on the plus side it gave me a chance to appreciate music I wouldn't normally be inclined to purchase (this was pre-napster, mind you). On top of that, the employee discount was pretty substantial. Overall it was a pretty decent gig as far as joe-jobs go.
The other departments were a different story. The salespeople were borderline sociopaths. There was tremendous pressure on them to sale -- and I would even see salespeople chewed out in public for underperforming -- but because they were usually such raging assholes it was hard to feel any sympathy for them.
After I quit (due to getting an internship) I never set a foot back in the store. I knew how much the markups were on were on everything, and I couldn't bring myself to actually pay for music.
>Maybe Wal-Mart customers aren't so bad where you live, but here in Arizona, going to a Wal-Mart is not a fun experience, unless you like...
Trust me, it isn't just Arizona. In Virginia it is the same story. Add to that: 50 checkout lanes of which only 8 or so ever seem to be open, so you have to stand in line listening to the kids screaming for 20+ minutes.
I go to the Target across the street as much as possible- it is a TOTALLY different experience. Clean, quality merchandise, quiet, helpful staff. Unfortunately, they just don't carry everything I need, and Walmart put everyone else out of business. So I wait until I can't any more and then reluctantly go to Walmart (wearing earplugs- I kid you not)
When I was young in the 80's, I remember at least half of the store was parts and stuff. I thought it was awesome. About a year ago I needed some resistors or something in a hurry and I discovered that it has become two bins with sliding drawers. There's a place locally called Sandy's Electronics that's nothing but components and more, albeit a bit expensive. If they ever disappear I'll probably be forced to order things online.
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Actually, all computer parts and electronics sellers are abusive, to some degree, in my experience. The problem was just that Circuit City was worse that others. My experience of them was that no one who worked there had any technical knowledge.
CompUSA was worse than Circuit City in my experience. (That's pronounced com-POOZ-a to show the proper low respect.) The predictable happened. The title of that article is: "CompUSA closes shop".
Incredible Universe had a unique formula. They abused their sales people; I was told that and observed that. The predictable happened: Incredible Universe crashes to earth. Actually it crashed to under the earth.
I remember Future Shop in the U.S. as being a confused place. The predictable happened in 1999: Future Shop closing U.S. stores.
Most of the problem with computer retail stores is the same as with any technology company: There are managers who think they can run a technology company without actually understanding their products.
Does anyone know of an online computer and electronics equipment seller that is not abusive?