I live in NY and took the train into the city this AM to try and pick up some of the TVonDVD sales they were having. I went to the brand spanking new one on 5th avenue that just opened on 11/16-(it's gotta be great right...it's on 5th Avenue and it is literally right next door to Best Buy) I'm thinking they have to be on their "A" game because they are really in direct competetion.
I saw there was a line to get into BB but none for CC, so at the time it SEEMED like I was making the right choice walking into CC.
Oh....what a cruel cruel world.
I walked in at 6:12AM and was able to get all DVD's I was looking for and was on line at 6:34AM. WTF...didn't I get out until 9:04AM? In this HUGE store, they only had 5 cashiers that seemed to be "working". Yes, I know I could have walked off the line, but after making the trip via train it didn't make sense for me to leave.
So here are some of the problems I noticed....no organization...none. Instead of seeing workers guide people, I got to hear them complain about the time they had to come in. A lot of the problem seemed to stem from the prices not being correct in the computer (ie. Dodgeball came up as $14.99 instead of $5.99) so the customer would argue with the cashier about the price, and the cashier would need to get a manager....but none of them had an ad to check...they had to keep asking the customer for theirs!!!
Wouldn't it make sense to have a manager at the cashier area at all times...so we won't have to wait for them to find one? And keeping a copy of the ad at the cashier ...how hard can that be? I mean are we the only ones with common sense? Then after I make my purchase and walk out into another store, I realize they did not demagnitize my purchase which caused me to set off alarms in other stores I went into.
I go back to CC to ask the security guard to demagnatize my purchase ..and he says "Do you have your receipt?" Me: "Yes" Him "Then don't worry about it" ARE U KIDDING ME? So I explain that I am setting off alarms in other stores, so he sends me to the counter. I have to wait for a manager to tell an employee to check my receipt (the one I already offered for them to see) the employee says "I don't know how to do demagnitize it" and then I have to explain it to him.
I walk out...and the alarm goes off again. How hard can it be? I will NEVER go to CC again during BF. The guy in front of me said he had been outside since 10:30PM the night before and then ran out of laptops in 3 minutes...because there was only 30 in the store. What kind of flagship store is that?
I'm sticking with BB next year, they had my item and I was online for a lovely 12 minutes. It shouldn't be called BF it should be called "Wait Day" :johnwoo:
atxbomber
11-23-07, 07:09 PM
Yeah, the wife and I went to Circuit City this morning too. Ended up in line to checkout for two hours, because this store literally has no traditional checkout lanes, not a single one. Instead everyone was getting funnelled into the damn costumer service desk! And when we finally got to the checkout, we had to argue with the clerk on half or the items we were buying because they didn't ring up at the sell price.
We had gone to Best Buy at 5am before heading over to CC and had no problems. Next time we'll just call it quits after Best Buy.
FantasticVSDoom
11-23-07, 07:54 PM
They can demagnetize them all they want, it will still set off most alarms in other stores... Happens all the time here.
But if you wanted a bad experience at Bestbuy you should have joined us at BB on Northern, it was lovely. I couldn't take any more so we skipped CC altogether, which really wasn't hard because I do pretty much loath them.
zombeaner
11-23-07, 07:55 PM
This same thing happened last year, except my wait was over three hours
diggerbeast
11-23-07, 11:26 PM
yea, CC is horrible. I waited outside there last year so me, my boyfriend and 2 friends could all get the $170 camcorder. There were no tickets that were passed out for it, and when we ran to the counter, it was pure luck that I ended up knowing the guy, so, he grabbed me all 4 of them and proceeded to check us all out. I paid first and after I did, ran to the media dept. to get CDs and DVDs, ran back to the checkout, and had my friends buy them (paying them back later of course) and then we went to the comp. section to find our friends who were getting laptops. We got what we wanted but 2 of our friends decided to stay to get in line cuz they got a TV. She called me later to say she'd stood in line with them for THREE hours. We were in and out in 30 mins. This year, I purchased everything online. The only reason I would see myself standing in line again is for a TV on sale for when I get my degree from college and move out. Other than that, the stupidity of it all, and how unorginized everything is drives me mad. Even at target this a.m. it was bad, the video game section was crazy!
SI78
11-24-07, 02:25 AM
I had a lapse in judgment today and went into CC. Naturally, they had practically nothing from the ad (and no empty bins or shelf tags indicating that they were ever there). However, I did manage to find a couple of things in section. One of those things was Ghost for $3.99. There were two versions in section. The old bare bones and the newer special edition. Both were tagged at $9.99. Naturally I wanted the special edition and was pleased to realize that it indeed was the version shown in the ad.
Surprise, surprise, I get to register after an obscenely slow line and the DVD rang up at $9.99. I tell her it's on sale. She says, no - it's the other version. I help her to compare the spines - I had the version pictured. I also informed her that they had the same original price anyway. Nope. She wouldn't do it. Realizing I didn't really care for Ghost that much anyway, I decided not to press the matter and instead let this poor thing have the rare moment of power in her life she was so clearly enjoying and went on my merry way.
In the future, Circuit City is nothing to me but a location-less sunday circular for pricematching purposes at WalMart and Best Buy.
OstenCarty
11-24-07, 05:54 AM
hands down they have to be the most poorly run national electronic store. I could see a mom and pop local store having limited registers open on black friday but a cc in my hometown had about 20-25 employees and 4-5 registers open. Half the staff were just standing around passing out flyers or just taking up space besides the 4-5 registers open there were also 4-5 people helping customers load heavy electronic items.
People were walking in seeing long lines and walking right back out they lose so much potential business that way .
stonewall
11-24-07, 07:45 AM
My wife has told me horrible stories from years past so we passed going into the store this year. Instead we bought online and got the same deals with free shipping. Kudos to CC for making their sales online this year! But yeah, like everyone else has said, CC B&M stores suck on BF!
jjcool
11-25-07, 02:45 PM
hands down they have to be the most poorly run national electronic store. I could see a mom and pop local store having limited registers open on black friday but a cc in my hometown had about 20-25 employees and 4-5 registers open..
My local Circuit Shitty doesnt even have 4-5 registers. They have two registers that are never open. All sales and returns, everything actually, are handled at the customer service counter. Where they always seem to only have one person ringing, and 4 or 5 people standing around jerking it. Good luck trying to get any help at this store. Good luck trying to find any dvd or cd in this store. There is no organization or alphabetization to this store. I absolutely hate shopping in this store and will actually spend more money elsewhere so I dont have to go through the agravation of trying to find anything in this store.
It doesnt surprise me that black friday was horrible in this shitty store.
fumanstan
11-25-07, 09:11 PM
I had a similar experience at CC on Friday, and it reminded of why I rarely shop there. I ended up not buying anything at all, and just leaving to go to Best Buy.
I have no idea why the stores are organized in the way they are, what with the few registers and having to pay at the service counter. Lines on Friday were snaking in all sorts of random places. Best Buy has lengthy lines as well, but at least it goes fairly quickly and is organized properly.
MikeShaynePI
11-25-07, 10:05 PM
Most Circuit City's I've been to have had like 5 check out registers, and if you're lucky there will be someone actually working one of them. Awful store.
Mosskeeto
11-26-07, 01:53 AM
I live in NY and took the train into the city this AM to try and pick up some of the TVonDVD sales they were having. I went to the brand spanking new one on 5th avenue that just opened on 11/16-(it's gotta be great right...it's on 5th Avenue and it is literally right next door to Best Buy)...
I usually go to the Union Square branch as they are pretty together there and on Friday they had all the titles I wanted plus the line I was in really moved fast. On Saturday I tried to pick up some Bond Ultimate sets as presents but they were sold out at that location so I headed over to the 5th Avenue store and found a full selection and waited in a slow line. They rang up at the sale price; the store is having what is known as a "soft opening" in which they rush to start selling before they officially "open".
zoomgirl
11-26-07, 09:26 AM
I usually go to the Union Square branch as they are pretty together there and on Friday they had all the titles I wanted plus the line I was in really moved fast. On Saturday I tried to pick up some Bond Ultimate sets as presents but they were sold out at that location so I headed over to the 5th Avenue store and found a full selection and waited in a slow line. They rang up at the sale price; the store is having what is known as a "soft opening" in which they rush to start selling before they officially "open".
LOL- I went to the one in Union Square last year and had a bad experience (long line that never moved) so I thought I would give this one a try this year. Maybe I should go shopping with you next year....you could be my good luck charm! :fro:
Lunatikk
11-26-07, 09:51 AM
I have always found circuit city to be a wonderful experience.
zoomgirl
11-26-07, 04:15 PM
I have always found circuit city to be a wonderful experience.
Hmmmm....now I know where your name comes from.....lol
:banana:
Adiras
11-26-07, 06:13 PM
Its amazing how uniformly bad CC seems to be. I have the same experience everytime I've gone into one, employees standing around ignoring customers, long lines with not enough people at registers, items in the least intuitive places, terrible setup for browsing cds, dvds and games. Its like they are trying to be the blueprint for how a store should NOT be run.
dx23
11-26-07, 08:12 PM
I was visiting my brother this past weekend in NY and as soon as we saw the line on CC in 5th ave nueand the people pissed off on the street because of the slowness, we decided inmediately to go to Best Buy.
lordzeppelin
11-26-07, 11:37 PM
A lot of the problem seemed to stem from the prices not being correct in the computer (ie. Dodgeball came up as $14.99 instead of $5.99) so the customer would argue with the cashier about the price, and the cashier would need to get a manager....but none of them had an ad to check...they had to keep asking the customer for theirs!!!
Wouldn't it make sense to have a manager at the cashier area at all times...so we won't have to wait for them to find one? And keeping a copy of the ad at the cashier ...how hard can that be? I mean are we the only ones with common sense?
That is shopping at CC in a nutshell, regardless of the time of year, deal, or advertising. I have not had a single sale item ring up correctly this calendar year (or last, for that matter) at a CC store. Their rebates are an absolute joke, too. I don't even bother going there anymore, I just take the ad to BB for a price match (and have to argue there for a price match, so I guess it's the same anyways...at least CC doesn't get my money and BB has to give an extra 10%, so fuck both of them).
Goldblum
11-26-07, 11:54 PM
Circuit City pretty much sucks, but Best Buy is not much better...except for checkout. (I have noticed that some of the newer CCs are larger and designed more like BB with respect to checkout, which is a plus.) Both stores are only good for their sales. At neither place can I ever find the DVD I want. The BB near me has a greater selection, so that's a plus. But the CC seems to have the better deals. I just bought a TV there last week.
Here are the tips:
(1) Avoid any B&M electronics store on Black Friday like the plague. I learned my lesson at a BB two years ago.
(2) Never ask any of the knuckleheads who work there for advice, especially about finding an item.
(3) Shop online if at all possible for big ticket items (and then pick up in-store if desired).
Bottom line: aim to spend as little time in the store as possible.
There was the rare time when an employee was able to help me. But it was when hell froze over. Be forewarned.
Lastdaysofrain
11-27-07, 07:36 AM
But the CC employees are so informed, they always recommend Monster Cables....they tell me I'd be stupid not to buy Monster cables.......they are just "better"
Funk
11-27-07, 12:44 PM
Even Merrill Lynch finds them to be sloppy and disorganized:
Circuit City shares tumble; Merrill sees service issues on Black Friday (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-21229283.htm)
mw390
12-01-07, 09:09 AM
The are the lamest of the lame.
1 - Their DVD section is a joke. Racks with discs that are always understocked and always have out of order titles. (BB always have staff re-alphabetize DVDs that the public scrambles)
2 - Just go to any Best Buy prior to 10AM any day of the week. Always people lined up waiting to get in. CC.....nobody lines up for that place.
3 - The number of cashiers always seems to max out at 2 plus they answer the phone for the store.
As for BF,the local newspaper had an article about a BB that had a simulation of BF using store employees. Betcha CC didn't. Even on Chuck, the Buy More employees had to come in on Thanksgiving to practice.
But...what do you expect from a company that decides to lay off 8000 employees because they make too much but they can reapply in 3 months at a lower wage.
PhantomStranger
12-09-07, 01:08 AM
Circuit City is unlikely to be around in 5-7 years. They are just not serious competition to Best Buy anymore. I think CC's management has accepted this and has cut expenses bare to the bone to give the company another couple of years of life. Most of their stores that are older then 5 years old are very run down.
jjcool
12-09-07, 01:10 PM
Circuit City is unlikely to be around in 5-7 years. They are just not serious competition to Best Buy anymore. I think CC's management has accepted this and has cut expenses bare to the bone to give the company another couple of years of life. Most of their stores that are older then 5 years old are very run down.
I would even say, in my experience most of the stores are very run down. No 5 years old cutoff. Every one that I have been in, has been a real shithole.
Buy: