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."

Comments

Main mistake they made?

[It doesn't come easy]

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?

Re:Main mistake they made?

[bdenton42]

My issue with them was that several times when I would go to their store to buy their advertised loss leader... they wouldn't have it. Then I would go across the street to BB and pricematch, and BB almost never seemed to have a problem with having something in stock. At some point I just stopped going to CC completely... I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[megamerican]

That pretty much sums it up. The only reason to go to a Circuit City was to avoid crowds.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Usefull Idiot]

The main mistake Circuit City made IMHO was that their prices were always higher than their primary competitors (Best Buy, CompUSA, etc.).

Circuit City more expensive than Best Buy? It has not been like that in the last 10+ years, at least not in my area. I wouldn't be overly concerned, but now Best Buy is the only shop within at least 60 miles. Guess I have to go exclusively web.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[oneiros27]

From what I remember, in the late 1980s/early 1990s they'd give you 10% over the difference in price. (so if it was $100 less somewhere else, they've give you a $110 refund).

By the time I saw my first Best Buy in the DC area (mid 1990's), they had stopped doing it.

They also used to be one of the few places that actually made good on their extended warranty -- if you had to bring it in 3 times for service, you got a replacement (either same or equivalent model).

Oh well ... yet another memory of my childhood gone (Service Merchandise, Erol's, etc.)

Re:Main mistake they made?

[SBrach]

Theur main mistake was tying their business model to selling consumer electronics warrantys and then not adapting when Walmart undercut the price of those warantys by 300%.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[orclevegam]

Compounding their sin of higher prices they also had the singularly least helpful (or knowledgeable) staff of just about any store I've ever been to. The selection was also rather poor often missing products from major vendors. They tended to try to cram overpriced and unneeded warranty programs down your throat as well. The final insult however was almost every time I've ever been in a Circuit City some moron would be in the back with the car stereo systems cranked to max volume, the bass knob broken off on 11, and some truly horrid radio station tuned in. Simply stepping in the front door was usually an invitation to permanent hearing damage and a pounding headache for a few hours.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Xtravar]

Huh, I find that my CC has smarter and more helpful people than the local BB.

Now that I've typed that, we need a competitive electronics store that can be abbreviated DD. Dick's Digitals? Digital Dungeon?

Then we can say "Let's go to double D" and have a good laugh.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[cbreaker]

It's not a question of adapting. WalMart has so much purchasing power that they can bully the service centers into offering WalMart customers rock bottom prices for servicing their products.

WalMart is a dangerous company. They can put other business out of business because they can sell for lower prices than anyone else could ever afford to do, because WalMart is so huge and is the only choice of shopping places in many parts of the country.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Thelasko]

From what I remember, in the late 1980s/early 1990s...

From what I remember, in the late 1980s/early 1990s we didn't have Circuit City or Best Buy here in Chicago. The electronics stores around here were called Highland, Silo, and Omni. They all went out of business during the recession of the early 1990s. It seems like history has repeated itself once again. Lesson learned, don't hold stock in electronics retailers during a recession.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[bigstrat2003]

Not quite. At Circuit City I could buy a tube of thermal grease in a pinch. You can't do that at Best Buy, or anywhere else in my town. I'll be sad to see them go, just because they were the one business willing to carry somewhat niche products like that.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[CrkHead]

I put in my time at Circuit City many years ago. Around the end of that time they had just started moving some departments from commission to hourly. I say this is the #1 reason they eventually tanked. Commisioned people are more motivated. Good commissioned people are more interested in repeat business than the immediate sale.
I haven't paid any attention to CE retailers and I'm not one to really go to the big box stores as a consumer too often. I do know that when I started working for CC beating a competitor's price by 10% of the difference was new in the industry and we did shop and match competitor's prices (We'd go in with hidden mics and record model prices).

Re:Main mistake they made?

[jythie]

I felt the same way about CompUSA.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Guido von Guido]

From what I remember, in the late 1980s/early 1990s we didn't have Circuit City or Best Buy here in Chicago. The electronics stores around here were called Highland, Silo, and Omni. They all went out of business during the recession of the early 1990s. It seems like history has repeated itself once again. Lesson learned, don't hold stock in electronics retailers during a recession.

Yeah, but electronics retailers aren't the only ones going out of business. Linens'N'Shit is closing, and I understand Chrysler and GM (hey, what about Ford?) are in deep trouble.

So I think you could generalize to say something like "Don't hold stock in a poorly run company in a crowded market." Then again, isn't that good advice in general?

Re:Main mistake they made?

[erroneus]

People aren't afraid to spend too much money if they get good service. And that was precisely what Circuit City did. They fired all of their best, most expert sales and service staff because they cost more. They replaced these people with kids off the street and they got what they paid for.

It was bad customer experience that killed Circuit City. The bean counters thought they could improve their bottom line by lowering payroll costs but they neglected to consider that it would damage the store's reputation and drive customers away. We see this time and time again. Every time you see IT salaries fall and people start leaving the field, what is left? Do they really think they can fire skill and experience and replace it with inexperience and STILL maintain productivity, efficiency and quality of service?

At the next CEO/CFO conference, I hope this is topic for discussion -- they are destroying their businesses with short-term greed. And every time I see it happen, it is tragic... and they never learn from it.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Chonine]

I worked at Circuit City from 2000 to 2003, and this was not the case for us.

I cannot speak for CC nationwide, as I was in a store in the northeast, but we had a "price match plus" policy. If you found a lower price from a brick and mortar store, and you or we could verify it, we matched the price and beat it by 10% of the difference. Perhaps this was not the case before or after I was there, or in different regions.

To the best of my knowledge, prices were also identical to the competition. Every weekend a small group of us would comb through every newspaper they brought in, and would familiarize ourselves with what the competition was advertising in their flyers. We were usually the ones to announce to customers that a certain item was on a price match sale, and managers were supportive in helping us get them that lower price. We would call or go online to verify a better price if needed. Only very rarely did a customer find a lower price elsewhere and bring it to our attention.

Now, I also think this was the "best" time for customers with CC. They had come out of a DivX salesman era, which stained the companies opinions in many peoples minds. The company started to revise its checkout system, and brighten up stores, as well as introduced a completely new layout for the new stores. But it was still playing catchup to the other guys. The same poor management was running the show. Any progress here was lost with the changes to the payment structure which lost a lot of good will with loyal employees, which were later outright laid off. Then they were just slow with keeping up with the competition with Firedog, and never had the kind of HDTV showcasing that Best Buy was able to foster.

The rise of Best Buy and Walmart did the company in, with superior selection, store layout, and even colors. Seriously, Blue and White or Blue and Yellow, just flat out beat Red and Black. Our stores were dark, dated, they felt old, the store was like the weird used car salesman of electronics. While the "we don't have checkout counters" idea was an interesting experiment, it was a failed one that the company never truly fixed. A poorly run company can survive in the absence of great competition, and I think CC was floundering for the past decade. Semi-competent (at least more competent than Circuit City) competition and a recession is all it took.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Guido von Guido]

Huh, I find that my CC has smarter and more helpful people than the local BB.

You gotta admit that's setting the bar pretty low.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[conureman]

It'd have to have been some major disaster with fire-trucks and stuff to keep me from going to the Best Buy across the street. My problem pretty much began and ended with the obnoxious sales staff, although the higher prices would have been a deal-breaker on their own.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[orclevegam]

The Circuit Cities around me typically only had a handful of people out wandering around the store at any given time, and they mostly just stood around and talked with each other, or sometimes stocked the shelves. Usually the conversations would go something like:

Me: Do you have any IDE to SATA power adapters?
Salesdroid: What?
Me: IDE to SATA power adapters?
Salesdroid: Uhm... is that like a XBox thing or something?
Me: Is there someone who works in this department I could talk to?
Salesdroid: I work in this department.
Me: ok... uhm, do you have any SATA power supplies?
Salesdroid walks me over to the UPS selection.
Salesdroid: Here are our power supplies.
Me: You know what, I think I'll just go look around on my own.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[blueZ3]

I don't think Walmart is as dangerous as you seem to, though I haven't been in a WalMart in ages. I think that in the race to the bottom, Wlamart is definitely the winner, but I don't see hiring unhelpful workers to sell crap products in dirty stores as a viable long-term strategy.

I don't know of anyone who actually likes to shop at Walmart, though I have a friend who goes there occasionally to stock up on stuff you can't screw up (like paper towels). But everyone in my (not large) social circle has pretty much stopped shopping at Walmart because (as I said above) the employees are surly, the stores are dirty, and the stuff that they sell is crap.

Circuit City failed at least in part because there was a perception that their prices weren't great. But the terrible sales staff and knock-off quality stuff they sold was part of it, too. I expect that in the end, Walmart is going to find out that treating suppliers, customers, and employees like crap isn't winning combination.

I hope I'm not wrong :-)

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Anonymous Coward]

Radioshack and (if you're on the West coast) Frys still sell niche components, but from the looks of it Radioshack has been in a painfully long losing battle with oblivion since the early nineties.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[blueZ3]

Here in the Valley, my wife an I say that you can tell the state of the tech economy by the quality of wait-staff in restaurants... It's sort of like a trickle-down employee quality metric: as intelligent tech workers get laid off they replace less intelligent folks in other jobs, which eventually percolates down to waiters and waitresses in Dennys and such.

When the economy is really bad, you get excellent service in restaurants. When it's boom time, you get a ten-minute wait time for a seat in an empty Denny's while four sub-seventy-IQ employees stand around ignoring customers.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[darkpixel2k]

WalMart is a dangerous company. They can put other business out of business because they can sell for lower prices than anyone else could ever afford to do, because WalMart is so huge and is the only choice of shopping places in many parts of the country.

...yet so many people just keep shopping there. Maybe one day everyone will wake up and realize they want a store that doesn't negotiate for lower prices on the products they sell...

Re:Main mistake they made?

[PalmKiller]

Just go to radio shack and buy the heat sink compound (Cat. No.: 276-1372, it will be over where the transistors and the like are) and comes in a small tube, its the white paste stuff and is pretty good unless your overclocking drastically and need some special stuff like artic silver, much better than the thermal crap that comes on heatsinks. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102858

Re:Main mistake they made?

[HTH NE1]

Don't you know? After BB and CC comes CC++++!

Will they sell HHD DVVDD BVDs there?

Re:Main mistake they made?

[cdrudge]

According to their website (google cache link while it works), they did the standard 110% of the difference that many stores do these days. I know I've priced matched a few items over the years and I think I always got the difference. 10% of the difference usually only amounted to a buck or two but it was still less.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Dmala]

Linens'N'Shit is closing...

The worst part of Linens'n'Things closing is that I won't get to say Linens'n'Shit anymore. Now I have to come up with new ways to annoy my wife.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Anonymous Coward]

GOOD thermal paste drys out over time once its been opened.

YOUR geek card. Hand it over. Putting old half dried crap on your cpu... wtf is wrong with you?

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

Well there's still Blood Bath and Beyond.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[IorDMUX]

In my hometown, we had a Best Buy, a Circuit City, and a Microcenter within about a .25 mile radius. (Don't ask me which planning genius decided we needed that level of saturation, but at least there were advantages for the consumer.) My options, when it came to purchasing that tech-whatever-on-sale that I needed, tended to go as follows:

* Best Buy -- Be told that there are 6 of the item remaining in stock, but... uh... "We can't seem to find them. No, we don't do rainchecks, why do you ask?".

* Circuit City -- Find the item, take it to the cashier, see it ring up at 125% of the shelf-listed price, and be told "Sorry, what the cash register says is what goes."

* Microcenter -- Find the item (no advertised sale, but a decent price nonetheless), chat with a guy for 10 minutes about the latest AMD motherboards, and check out without further issues.

Needless to say, one of these stores received the majority of my business, as well as that of the other tech-knowledgeables in the area. The other two shops are not doing quite as well.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[CodeBuster]

CC would have the item but BB never would.

The reason for that was because people, like the grandparent, stopped going to Circuit City for general needs and browsing because the overall selection and availability sucked, the prices were high, and the service was crap. However, if you wanted to go in just for the loss leader (i.e. you read the circular or looked it up online and planned your trip) then you were more likely to get that one item because there were fewer casual shoppers and browsers in Circuit City to compete with you for the loss-leader items.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[CodeBuster]

This is exactly what they did do. Most of the choicest and best closeout items were sold off or were inside deals (i.e. you knew one of the employees). It seemed that there was nothing particularly good left by the time the doors opened to the public for the final closeout sell down. At least, that is how it was at our local CC.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[wooferhound]

Radio Shack
you have Questions
we have Blank Stares . . .

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Firethorn]

A month ago I was shopping at BB and surprise, surprise, I found a tube of thermal grease. Overpriced, of course, but they had a number of small computer repair/construction items.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[CodeBuster]

and not have to go into a Wal-Mart?

Which is the biggest factor really. Wal-Mart has dirty stores, over-worked part time employees who could give a shit about the customer (despite all of Wal-Mart's motivational training bull crap), and their parking lots are becoming centers of criminal activity. The documentary, Wal-Mart: High Cost of Low Price, documents rapes, murders, robberies, and other violent crimes occurring in Wal-Mart parking lots, caught on cameras that were set up not to make customers safe in the parking lots, but rather to spy on union organizing activities in and around the store.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[tompaulco]

I went when the prices were marked as "Everything 40-60% off". They still had quite a lot of merchandise, including some large TVs which I happened to be in the market for. Unfortunately, at 40-60% off, they were still about 25% higher than the competition. I decided to wait, and sure enough a few weeks later they had it up to 80-90% off everything. I went in and everything was gone. Apparently the sheeple are happy to pay 25% more than they should for the pleasure of "saving" 70%.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[tompaulco]

Wow, synchronicity. I was looking for an IDE to SATA adaptor yesterday. I tried Best Buy and got basically the response above, until a third salesperson was able to direct me to the SATA cables, of which there were no power adaptors. I mean, I bought the SATA drive there, you would think they would stock the likely accessories needed. Helpfully, the salesperson recommended a small area computer shop that I had previously not been aware of. They were closed at that time, so I went to Radio Shack, where the salesperson was even more clueless than the BB ones. Today, I went and picked one up effortlessly from the local computer store recommended by the semi-clued BB salesman.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[MtViewGuy]

The other thing that killed Circuit City was the fact they never got their act together when it came to selling home video software. How could they compete against Best Buy's well-organized display of home videos (originally in VHS, now in DVD and increasingly Blu-ray formats). And don't forget the original DIVX format fiasco from the late 1990's, too.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[b4dc0d3r]

I don't go to BB or CC. I go directly to AA. Can't find what I'm looking for there, but I end up solving some problems that I didn't know I had.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Scyber]

Radio Shack
You have Questions
We have Batteries....

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Thugthrasher]

It's not illegal. BUT it was CC's policy (at least up until a year or so ago when I stopped working for them) to match the shelf-listed price (as long as it was for the right item, occasionally an item would get moved to the wrong peg or whatever and that couldn't be honored, because customers would try to screw over the store). Company policy was to match the shelf-price.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[RenderSeven]

Radio Shack
You Can Get Better
But You Cant Pay More

Re:Main mistake they made?

[narcberry]

Your opinion doesn't matter. They are a business, going out of business. That's absurd, especially in America! Why aren't our legislators fixing this?

Re:Main mistake they made?

[uvajed_ekil]

...and $25 USB cables.

walkie-talkies anyone???

Re:Main mistake they made?

[kklein]

I worked at BB for a couple months when I was really hard-up for work. Here's why no one can find anything:

The inventory team moves shit around nightly. You'll work until close on Tuesday, come back Wednesday morning, some customer asks for a such-and-so, you smile and confidently guide them over to where they are... No, where they were... Like... 12 hours ago...

You then smile and ask them to wait, and run around the store trying to figure out where they hell they put the such-and-sos, check the inventory computer (the inventory system at BB, BTW, I thought was pretty impressive and easy to use), see that we have some somewhere.

Eventually you have to go back to the customer who is impatiently waiting in the aisle and say:

there are 6 of the item remaining in stock, but... uh... "We can't seem to find them.

Sometimes I'd find the stuff had been put away in the back. It was still available for sale, but was invisible to the customer and required the sales person to wander around in the dark for 10 minutes to find it. Ugh.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[commodore64_love]

>>>"Sorry, what the cash register says is what goes."

Take a digital image of the pricetag on the counter. Scan the receipt. Forward by email to the State Attorney General's office and request an audit of the store. Almost every year I read in the paper that such-and-such chain was fined several million dollars by the PA Government for false pricetags on their items.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[nanoflower]

Or a Frys.. It's a bit odd here because until Circuit City closed up shop locally we had a MicroCenter, Frys, Circuit City and a Best Buy all within about a mile of each other. Plenty of selection.. oh, and now we have one of those HH Gregg stores to compete with CC/Best Buy on the home appliances.

Re:Main mistake they made?

[Eil]

Commisioned people are more motivated.

Yes, commissioned salespeople are more motivated. More motivated to blatantly lie about a product's capabilities, the list price of an item, the store's warranty policies, and pretty much anything else they think they can get away with in order to make a sale and get that commission into their hands.

I can usually tell when a salesperson is trying to BS me on a technology-related item. Unfortunately, I'm the corner case. 95% of the people who walk into a Circuit City don't know anything about the products being sold and rely on the salesperson to education them.

And don't get me started on the extended warranty crap. They tried to sell me an extended warranty for a $20 mouse once. I'm normally a very shy person in public, but in that case I couldn't help explaining very slowly to the cashier that an extended warranty for computer mouse was by far the dumbest thing I'd ever heard of and to even mention it was an insult to my intelligence and a clear reflection of theirs.

No sir, I won't be said to see Circuit City go. I just hope whatever springs up in their place isn't even worse.

More than mismanagement

[SomeJoel]

I guess the business model of high prices, unfriendly sales staff and poor quality merchandise didn't pan out for them.

Re:More than mismanagement

[rudeboy1]

Agreed. I bought some memory there a while back, through their in-store pickup option. I paid for it online, drove to the store, and had to wait 30 MINUTES for them to figure out how to process my order. Without exception, every time I went in to a Circuit City, I left disgusted and vowing to avoid shopping there again.

Incidentally, now that CC is closed, that mantle is being passed on to Fry's. The reps never know anything, assuming you can actually get one to help you, and they never have to part I'm looking for. It's either not stocked anymore, or they're always sold out of it. Sure it's fun to go in there and drool at the TVs, but I'm sticking to Newegg from now on.

Re:More than mismanagement

[bb5ch39t]

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.

Re:More than mismanagement

[jae471]

Actually, my experience at CC wasn't that the staff was unfriendly -- it was that there were too many who were clueless.

Shortly after the Wii Fit came out, I was trying all the local electronics stores to find one. I asked a sales rep if any were in stock, and he spent 20 minutes looking at the yoga mat accessory kit and demo DVD, despite me telling him repeatedly that those were *not* the Wii fit.

For the most part, I'd say the staff was always helpful, and they left you alone if you said you didn't need help, and were fairly quick to show up if you did need help. Granted this is probably due to culture set by the individual store manager, and I only ever went to one CC.

Re:More than mismanagement

[DigiShaman]

Well, that's because it's basically a retail warehouse for geeks. It always has been, and perhaps always will.

It would be awsome if NewEgg opens a giant super store some place. Would be the motherlode of computer geekdom, don't you think?

sucks for the employees

[Uberbah]

But the management was the worst of the worst. I think there was a factory in Argentina where the union kept the shop going after the owners went bust. Too bad the 30,000 employees of Circut City that still have their souls couldn't do the same thing.

Re:sucks for the employees

[greenguy]

I think there was a factory in Argentina where the union kept the shop going after the owners went bust.

Actually, there were close to 200 of them. You can learn quite a lot about it here, and in a couple of months, you should be able to buy my translation of The Silent Change, which is mentioned there.

Re:sucks for the employees

[ShaunC]

You joke about management, but I wonder if that's the root of the problem - too many chiefs, not enough Indians. 30,000 employees to operate 567 stores? That's more than 50 employees per store. I realize they have a corporate HQ and all, but the figure still seems excessive.

Re:sucks for the employees

[TooMuchToDo]

Thanks for the info. Just added the documentary to my Netflix Watch It Now queue.

With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[magsol]

...what's to stop Best Buy from inflating their already-borderline-ridiculous prices even further?

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[log0n]

Their own bankruptcy?

Consumers are clearly using their purchase power to go where the deals are (online). BB will be the next to go if they don't compete.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[MozeeToby]

...what's to stop Best Buy from inflating their already-borderline-ridiculous prices even further?

Target, Wallmart, Sam's Club, local retailers, amazon, newegg, froogle, etc...

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[Daniel Dvorkin]

There's still Office Depot and similar stores, which you may have noticed are moving into consumer electronics to a degree (e.g., that's where I got my TV.) And, of course, the elephant in the living room: online competition. For items like TV's and stereos, most people are probably more comfortable buying something they can actually see and hear in the store -- but when it comes to, say, buying a printer or an external hard drive, there's really no reason to shop brick-and-mortar.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[michaelwigle]

You know, I was thinking the same thing. It seems to me that brick and mortar companies are going to have to re-invent themselves as true customer service companies if they want to stay in business. They are never going to beat online retailers on price even with shipping costs. If BB can provide informed sales staff and a good selection of products that is at least close to online prices they may have a chance.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[Iphtashu Fitz]

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.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[LWATCDR]

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?

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Of course, the moral of your story is that the little mom 'n pop store bent over backwards to give you high quality service; but only ended up getting best buy prices... That isn't really an inspiring tale of the victory of the little guy.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[cbreaker]

What kind of place do you live where there's any "Mom and Pop" television stores? Maybe you have that choice but besides a small hardware store or two, you can't find any independent electronics retailers in all of New England.

1965 called, they want their main street back.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[Archangel Michael]

You should have paid the $220 more at the local store. They provided the excellent service and deserve it.

Unless you want everyone to provide the same crappy service for cheap prices.

The sales guy earned it, don't you think????

If you ever wonder why you get crappy service at the big box store, it is because when price is all that matters to the customer, then having better informed (higher cost) sales reps is an expense they can't afford.

1) Price
2) Quality
3) Service

Pick any two. If you want better service, reward it.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[Paladin128]

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.

I wish you were right, but I think the opposite is true. I love local electronics/hi-fi stores. The masses won't go to them, however, because they typically don't stock the low-end, low-priced products, and can't beat Walmart on the prices. In a recession, people won't go for premium.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[Grishnakh]

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.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[jollyreaper]

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.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[jythie]

No, but it is a good example of how little stores can really earn customer loyalty,.. it's also an example of what best buy might have to become some day since fewer and fewer people (over time) are going to bother going to a big box. Probably within the next 10-15 years their cash cow (DVD and CDs) will probably start drying up.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[CannonballHead]

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.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[prator]

I had the same kind of experience. A couple of years ago, I was jumping through hoops to get Circuit City to match Fry's on a 40" Sony LCD, and, ultimately, they wouldn't do it.

I called a local shop told them what I was looking for and how much I was willing to pay for it. They agreed right away (I probably should have gone lower). Then later, they swapped it for another unit after I let the unattainable perfectionism at AVS Forum lead me to believe that my unit was faulty.

I'll definitely be visiting the next time I'm looking for a TV.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[amabbi]

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?

Ugh. I hate it when people answer a question with a question. Bastards.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[deraj123]

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.

There's a reason I'll only shop at Wal-Mart after 11pm.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[Compuser]

The small guys got the business. In this economy that is huge. Survival through blood, sweat, and tears is rarely "an inspiring tale", except when it is told by the survivors to their thriving descendants.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[Binkleyz]

That's a great story, and while I'm sure that everyone applauds your efforts to support a local business with your commerce, the only thing that jumps out at me from it was the fact that the local "mom-n-pop" store probably made little to no profit off of the sale (unless you also splurged on some cables or something high-margin like that).

Small stores like what you're describing don't have nearly the level of "clout" to negotiate w/ electronics manufacturers (and their distributors, natch..) as a BB or CC, so maybe they earned your loyalty and your custom the next time you go to buy a piece of electronics, but if the price-shopping behavior of all of us (myself absolutely included, hypocrisy aside) becomes the filter that all purchases go through, then ALL but the biggest brick-n-mortar stores will eventually just be forced to fold.

Personally, I avoid retail locations as much as humanly possible, with the exception of a (totally unhelpful to the B&M store) tendency to go looking at the stuff I'll eventually buy from Amazon or Newegg. So, I'm just as big a culprit as anyone else.

So, after writing all of that, I realize what a total muddle it must sound like.. I guess what I'm saying is that in a dream world, a local store would be able to compete on a price basis with their biggest competitors, without sacrificing the "local touch" that they rightfully are offering. I just don't see how anything like that is possible. The reality I see as most likely is a dwindling number of physical stores catering to the least savvy (and oldest) among us, until the generation of people that decidedly DON'T shop online simply die off. Sad, but (I think) inevitable.

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[Astadar]

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.

There's a reason I'll only shop at Wal-Mart after 11pm.

Isn't that when all the parents take their kids there?

My Walmart horror story:
I have a vivid memory of going to pick up baby formula (something that couldn't wait) at 0730 on a Sunday morning and passing a streetwalker near the food section who'd apparently just gotten off her shift.

I'm hoping she was a working girl, given the scariest leopard print dress and tallest heels I've ever seen.

Scary, scary stuff, that early on a Sunday.

</trauma>... <please /trauma?>

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[markdavis]

>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)

Re:With Circuit City and CompUSA all but gone...

[analog_line]

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.

That depends on the business you're dealing with. We charge $90/hour, and in general the people who you've got to wrestle payment from are the big businesses (who have recently instigated payment policies that have us waiting 6 months or more to get paid) and regular Joe Schmoes (who on the whole treat you like you're stealing their money, and do things like "I want to buy 1 hour of your service time, will that fix the problem I've vaguely described to you over the phone that could be damn near anything?"). Small companies can't afford to hire their own actual IT, and they enjoy getting paid too, so they tend to be pretty forthcoming about payment themselves. The ones that aren't don't get their computers fixed until they pay.

Obvious

[notque]

But DIVX was just about to take off!

Re:Obvious

[Ron_Fitzgerald]

Hey! DivX 7 now supports H.264 for .mkv files. That is a company listening to its users and looking to the future.

Re:Obvious

[Xibby]

Parent was referring to DIVX not DivX.

remember not to fall for "liquidation sales"

[Anonymous Coward]

If you've not seen the behind-the-scenes newstories on liquidations, essentially they raise prices to list and then slowly lower them back to the discount prices. So it's always a ripoff.

What about "The Source" in Canada?

[CohibaVancouver]

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/

Re:What about "The Source" in Canada?

[VeNoM0619]

My only question is, why is only the right half of the sign lit up when its a tech store?

Re:What about "The Source" in Canada?

[Shrubbman]

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...

The article mentions that they'll continue to operate.

Re:What about "The Source" in Canada?

[Xelios]

Yes, I remember it well. Radio Shack used to be a chain of small stores where everything was overpriced and the employees knew nothing about what they were stocking. Now it's a chain of small stores where everything is overpriced and the employees know nothing about what they're stocking, but it's called The Source. Good game guys.

Re:What about "The Source" in Canada?

[crabboy.com]

Someone please mod parent down for reading the article.

Re:What about "The Source" in Canada?

[borgasm]

The second half of the sign was above the 4GB addressable memory size.

Re:What about "The Source" in Canada?

[blueZ3]

This isn't intended as a "get off my lawn" post, but you never made it to RS back in the day, I take it?

Radio Shack used to be a geeky-kids paradise, with electronic components, LEDs (back before they were everywhere), and all kinds of cool stuff. When I was in middle school, Radio Shack was the only place in town where you could go and actually see (and fiddle with--the sales guys were really cool) a computer. A lovely TRS-80 Model II. Heck, my dad bought me my first computer from R.S, as they were the only game in town if you wanted to buy one.

They had ham radio gear, science kits, all kids of "niche" electronics (I saw my first radar detector at the 'shack) and the guys who worked there knew what they were talking about, generally.

Those were the days!

Re:What about "The Source" in Canada?

[Rhone]

According to Circuit City's new homepage, CC's Canadian operations "will continue" and "are not affected by the liquidation of Circuit City's U.S. operations."

Good Riddance

[Anonymous Showered]

Here in Montreal, we have a bunch of stores that are ran by Circuit City, dubbed "The Source by Circuit City". Basically a chain with overpriced items and clueless employees. Doesn't surprise me one bit that their doors are closing, especially with the aggressive market we're in now. Has anyone seen what Dell is selling these days? Pretty much everything, and their prices are the lowest of the low*. Disclaimer: I am a Value Added Reseller (VAR) for Dell.

Sale !!!

[ruewan]

Sorry for staff, glad for cheap electronics. Now if only I had money.

Democrats, Republicans

[AioKits]

Seriously, who the hell keeps putting either of those two tags in stories that have no political connotation to them?

Hopefully a trend with crappy companies

[schwit1]

Every industry has its version of Circuit City. Chrysler's a shining example. Screw bailing them out. They need to adapt or die.

What'll be interesting..

[Seakip18]

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.

compare and contrast with the apple stores

[jollyreaper]

Well, I have had experience with the old school way of doing things, Beast Buy, Comp Useless, and Circuit Shitty. The advantage they had over the smaller shops is a huge selection and usually steep discounts on big ticket items. The drawback was usually that you got raped on the peripherals and accessories ($20 printer cables you could buy for $2 anyone?) and their staff was usually pig ignorant and useless. Not only that but you also had to deal with scumfuck corporate tactics on returns, were treated like a thief every time you left the stores with mandatory bag searches, etc. Ultimately I both hated these stores but knew they were the only option when I needed something today and couldn't wait for a delivery. The other problem with buying online, especially electronics, is that returns become a nightmare. If I'm buying a big ticket product, I need a place I can return it to if it's broken and I don't want to eat S&H along with 15% restocking fees.

The newer model seems to be represented by the reborn Comp Useless (purchased and owned by Tiger Direct) and the Apple Stores. In the Comp store by me, they're shucked the generalist crap and are tightly focused on computers and electronics. They carry a full range of parts and you can pick out anything you need to build your computer. The tech desks are at the front of the store and there's no walls, it's just you and them. If the people on the sales floor don't have a clue, you can go up and ask a tech and get an answer. I don't know what they're paid but they don't seem as unqualified as the Geek Squad. So far, I've not yet been disappointed but am still keeping a wary eye on them.

The nice part about the Apple store is how they're heavily staffed with people to answer questions and all the toys are out there for you to play with. The traditional big box stores leave you to find your product on your own. As a geek I can muddle along but I have no idea how Joe NotGeek can find what he needs. Apple also schedules classes, has the genius bar (yes, it is a stupid name) open for people to ask whatever questions they need, and tries to demystify computing as much as possible. I won't say they're entirely successful but they are a huge improvement over what you get at the traditional box stores which is nothing.

What it really comes down to is that some business models can be run along the lines of McDonald's and some simply can't. In the restaurant field there will be people who pay $100 for a fine steak and those who will be satisfied with a crappy burger spanked together by surly wage slaves. McDonald's has been enormously successful and will remain so, even as there's a market segment for higher quality fast food stand-in's like Panera's and Quizno's.

The big box stores were the McDonaldizing of electronics and big ticket consumer products. The funny thing is that I thought they would remain as successful as McDonald's and for the same reason. Oddly enough, it looks like the cost-cutting I took for making them profitable did away with whatever vestige of quality that kept people shopping there. It will be interesting to see if there's more of a trend towards competing on service and knowledgeable staffing. Hell, even McDonald's is trying to take a stab at entering the real food market with Chipolte.

One other factor that might also come into play is America's acceptance of cheaply manufactured disposable junk. In good times, people were content to buy a big screen that might be dead in five years because it could always be chucked for the next great thing. People didn't want reliability and durability in their cars because they were trading up every three years. When income is no longer quite so disposable, will people be willing to pay more for quality with the understanding that it costs less in the long-term?

Hard-to-find items

[phorm]

I'm not sure what actual CC stores are like - since most here are bought out "radio shack" stores -, but the local "Source/Circuit City" store was the only bloody place that I could find that would sell desolding braid (used to suck up solder off of PCB's etc). Hardware stores, electronics stores, etc, plenty of them had solder and crappy soldering guns, but CC was the only one that actually carried the desoldering braid.

It also cost me $5.99 for a little 5ft braid, and the saleperson charged $6.99 (until I picked up the price sign, brought it to him, and got a refund at the cost of my contact info)... so I can see how their prices aren't helping them.

Re:I'm sure everyone is wondering also...

[Mean Variance]

Having seen plenty of these (Sharper Image and Mervyns come to mind), those liquidations are usually disappointing. First phase: everything is 10-20% off, no better than the rotation of items on sale.

Next, you start seeing the goobers on street corners with "Circuit City Going out of Business - everything 20-40% off" signs. You go in there and anything interesting is 20% off. You buy something for 20%, no returns allowed. You end up hating the item or seeing it on sale at Target for less next week.

Now, the signs say 40-60% off. You go in and it's picked through and open box shit. You go home.

Finally, the 80% off signal. You go in to buy something, anything. The fluorescent lights, their enclosures, and a few display cases are on sale.

Re:I'm sure everyone is wondering also...

[Violet Null]

I needed an external USB hard drive. I had a $20 Circuit City gift card that I knew was approaching worthlessness. I saw their "Going Out Of Business -- Everything Must Go" signs, so I wandered in.

They had stacks of USB hard drives. The cheapest 500 GB one was ~$160. *After* their going out of business discounts, it was $120 + tax. I don't claim to have the pulse of prices down, but that seemed a bit steep. Walked down the block to the Best Buy. Same USB drive there was $90. Bought it, gave the gift card away.

Re:Prices higher?

[bskin]

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.

Service?

[neapolitan]

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.

Re:Service?

[orclevegam]

I define service as actually knowing details about the products you sale and whether you stock something or not. If I come in looking for a particular part I should be able to pull aside someone in that department as say "Do you have ____" and they should be able to tell me yes or no, and if yes show me where it is. I consider very good service being able to answer a technical question, such as if a piece comes with an adapter for something, or if it has to be purchased separately. Crap service is when they don't even know what it is they're selling. I'm willing to accept that they might have to lookup in the computer to know if they have something in particular in stock, but they should at least know enough about what they stock to have a general idea what it is I'm looking for. If you work in the computer department you damn well better know what the difference between DDR2 and DDR3 is, and at least have an inkling of what RAID is. Not knowing the exact performance characteristics of say a RAID1+0 array versus a RAID5 is I can live with, but they should at least have heard of RAID even if only in passing or absolute bare minimum be able to point me to the RAID controllers on the shelf.

Re:Good Riddance

[InfinityWpi]

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...

Re:I'm sure everyone is wondering also...

[LandDolphin]

You forgot the "Mark up the price" step before offering the "deals". Went to mervens and their 60% off was not the great deal you'd expect. 60% off was equal to a regular sale.

Don't get too excited

[sirwired]

Liquidation sales usually suck. The Liquidator starts by marking up all items to full List price (or beyond), and then giving you a "sale" price off of that new inflated price (which nobody ever paid, and was never charged.)

By the time the "discounts" get down to a level that can significantly beat, say, a retailer that isn't going out of business, the store has been picked clean by the uninformed masses that buy stuff, and only when they get home realize they got a lousy deal. (All Sales Final)

OTOH, if you run a retail store, you can often get great deals on the shelving units. (When they say "everything must go" they aren't kidding. Everything not bolted down (and even some that is) goes out the door.

SirWired

I've had it with the credit freeze

[boguslinks]

It seems that no company has been mismanaged or made bad decisions in the past year - any lack of performance is instantly blamed on the "credit freeze"

Problem is, there is no credit freeze.

Don't bother going to the "out of business sale"

[GoChickenFat]

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.

How bad will Best Buy will be with no competiton?

[raitchison]

Best Buy used to be a great store but they have been in a steady decline for years, with a smaller selection, higher prices and crappy return policies.

Now with Circuit City gone they have ZERO direct competition in the B&M space, they will be able to raise prices and cut service even further.

Sure you can (and I do) buy many things online but obviously you can't get anything same-day and bulky items such as TVs or appliances aren't always practical (I can't imagine trying to return a defective TV by freight).

CC was great because when you needed something same day it was quick and easy to order something online and pick it up in the store. I guess not enough people agreed with me though.

I have avoided Best Buy for a few years now, guess I have no choice but to go there now, I'll have to remember to bring lube when I go. :(

Makes me sad

[Renderer of Evil]

It's unfortunate that Circuit City didn't survive long enough to see the historic occasion of Obama being sworn in as president.

Re:Main mistake they made? Form of Mismanagement?

[davidsyes]

"citing a decision to get rid of sales people and other mismanagement."

So, sales people are a form of mismanagement? LOL!

My tale as a Circuit City Music Dept. lackey

[nobodyman]

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.

Don't underestimate the damage DIVX did

[sdo1]

The advent of DVD was a huge time for consumer electronics. And Circuit City tried to hijack it with their own pay-as-you-go scheme called DIVX ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIVX_(Digital_Video_Express) ), not to be confused with the video codec DiVX. To put it mildly, it pissed off legions of die-hard gadget junkies... you know, the ones who advise their friends and family about technology purchases. The way the company handled that left a bad taste in the mouths of the customers they needed most...the ones who actually buy the high-tech gizmos.

Thankfully DIVX failed, but I never forgave Circuit City for that and I never spent another cent in their stores and neither did many of my friends and family because of it. I'm not alone.

-S

They give out guns to any one even homer simpson

[Joe The Dragon]

They give out guns to any one even homer simpson.

Re:Extended Warranty

[drew30319]

Thankfully (at least for the extended warranty I bought for my organization's laptop!) it appears that the extended warranties are not affected. From the website:

Are Circuit City's extended warranties affected by the liquidation?

* No. Circuit City Advantage Protection Plans (extended warranties) have been backed by third-party independent companies for more than 15 years and as a result, are not impacted by Circuit City's closing.

* Currently, all Circuit City Advantage Protection Plans are fully backed by the Assurant Solutions companies. Assurant Solutions operates as Federal Warranty Service Corporation, Sureway, Inc., and United Service Protection, Inc. Assurant Solutions is part of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE: AIZ), and its extended service contacts are backed by an Assurant insurance subsidiary rated A "Excellent" by A.M. Best Co.

since when?

[damn_registrars]

Radioshack and (if you're on the West coast) Frys still sell niche components

I haven't seen a niche component in stock at a Radioshack in years. Unless you consider a Sprint phone to be a Niche component, anyways.

As far as I have seen, the days of going to Radioshack for circuit boards and resistors for home hobby projects are long gone.

Re:since when?

[Glendale2x]

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.

Do you know of one that is not abusive?

[Futurepower(R)]

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?

Re:Do you know of one that is not abusive?

[thejynxed]

Newegg.com is one such site. Never had any problems with them, including returning faulty items. If you are in the USA, I'd recommend using them. They don't ship to outside of the US, unfortunately.

Re:Do you know of one that is not abusive?

[Adult film producer]

Newegg ships to canada... type in newegg.ca. All of the parts are shipped from their u.s. warehouses in NJ or California.

Newegg often charges far, far more.

[Futurepower(R)]

Yes, but that it not what Newegg sometimes does, in my experience. Newegg often charges far, far more than the cost of shipping and handling.

Here's an example: A case fan costs 99 cents. Put four of them in a "shopping cart", the price for shipping is $13.28. The price for shipping one is $3.99. The fans weigh very little. The weight to ship 4 is still under 1 pound. Does it cost $9.29 to have a minimum wage person put 3 more of them in the same box? No.

The true cost of the fans from Newegg is (13.28-3.99)/4 = $2.32, the price after $3.99 shipping and handling cost is subtracted, not the 99 cents advertised price.

Put 10 of the same fans in the cart. The cost for shipping is $21.92. Now it seems that you are actually paying MORE per fan, because the shipping cost will not be $9.50, the cost of shipping and handling if you assume you are paying $2.32 for each fan.

There are many other problems. Newegg's web site is often very slow. Newegg does not pack hard drives correctly, in my experience.

Re:Newegg often charges far, far more.

[volsung]

I'm a big Newegg fan, but the hard drive packing comment is definitely true. If I were to mail a hard drive back to Seagate the way Newegg often mails drives to customers (wrapped in 2 layers of bubble wrap, thrown into box of peanuts), Seagate would void my warranty. The weight of the drive has usually popped half of the bubbles by the time I receive the box. Thankfully, none of the drives I've purchased have been DOA, but this shipping practice must increase the infant mortality rate somewhat.

you need to learn more about shipping...

[Wain13001]

Weight in this case has nothing to do with it, newegg will be charged by UPS or fedex for the dimensions of the box for a single fan, the fans are too light.

The shipping costs are also for UPS 3-day, which is not ground, and is a more expensive service. It should also be noted that your shipping cost per unit went DOWN when you ordered more than one item.

The fact that newegg can, and does, discount your shipping and handling fee on a bulk purchase does not mean they're ripping you off, or overcharging you when you've only purchased one. There are a variety of overheads involved that need to be covered, and newegg (like every company that does mail-order) tries to balance those costs over both the heavy and light items...this is not unfair, or even unusual, it's how the system works.

If you want to complain about price gouging, complain about the retail prices of cables in the world.

There is nothing abusive about a handling fee, you're not just paying some "minimum wage person" to throw one in a box, you're paying someone to verify the order, multiple someones to get the item from the warehouse, someone to prepare the item, which is the box/prills/packaging etc... there's a number of things to be covered here, not to mention cost of prills, box, tape, and labels. Also, the assumption that someone doing jobs like this deserves to be making only minimum wage is extremely foolish, insulting, and naive.

Shipping costs at newegg are calculated PER individual unit, and the price GOES DOWN with bulk purchasing. Which is why the shipping cost doesn't stay at $3.99 per unit when you order 4 of them.

You've already covered my warehouse manager and workers overhead for going and retrieving the items, and verifying the order for the most part with the purchase of the first item. Having them grab a second, third, or 10th one while they're already there doesn't cost me as much as the initial send, therefore the handling fee per unit goes down.

Shipping does the same thing, you are charged based on the general distance the item needs to be shipped, and the cost per pound goes down as the items weight grows...until you cross one or two particular thresholds.

Newegg is attempting to reward you by passing savings on to you for your bulk purchase, not ripping you off jackass.

When you work in a shipping dept. (as I have) you'll find firstly that Newegg does nothing different from anyone else regarding their shipping, with the exception of offering it *cheaper* than petty much anyone else on the market, and there's nothing unreasonable or manipulative about the process.

You will always find what appear to be outrageous shipping and handling fees on extremely small items unless they are shipped via the post office (and even then most of the time it's not any better), this is the nature of shipping companies and what resellers have adapted themselves to. There is nothing unusual about this practice, and you're going to have a difficult time finding any online company that does things differently.