NitroJMS

As someone who worked for Circuit City for over 6 years until this past spring, I can tell you their problems are insurmountable at this point. There's the obvious problem of having twice laid off their top sales and support staff (in 2003 with the end of commission and in 2007 with the laying off of long-term staff and store assistant managers).

They also tie up a tremendous amount of overhead in the district, regional, and corporate levels, instead of pouring funding into the stores where it is needed desperately. CC has 4-6 district management level positions per 10-12 store at this point. When I first started, there were about 2 of these positions per district. The company has in essence almost 400 district level employees all making $60,000+ a year since the majority are former store managers and all have travel/expense accounts. Essentially, every 2 stores must support at least one person who may visit a particular store once a month and may actually spend around 1 hour of that time training managers and associates underneath them.

The company also spent hundreds of millions on a new point of sale system to replace the one that many of you always laugh about. Unforunately, IBM took them for a ride and gave them a completely broken system that after 4 years is only about 75% of what they want it to be and in only about 1/6 of store locations.

Turnover also became a huge issue in the past two years. With the layoffs of long time associates, other employees began to see the writing on the wall and left as well in the following year. Of course, with an influx of new employees, it became increasingly difficult to train them effectively and many were thrown to the floor before they were ready. This led to furthur decreases in sales and customer service, as customers were not getting the right products and attachments for their sale.

Regarding the DVD racking, I worked in media for about 4 years of my time there and would constantly tell management and corporate through our feedback system that customers wanted "spine out" style racks, but the feeling was that it wasn't visually pleasing for those who browse. They have since rectified this in the new "City" concept stores, but the other 650+ stores still retain the old racking even though a simple retrofit of most racking would fix the problem. The company simply doesn't care enough about media and gaming to really put much of an effort into it. They don't even have dedicated associates there in most stores, whereas Best Buy generally has at least a few staffers there. They've long wanted to use media to get customers into the store since its the best traffic driver they have, but they don't see it as worth putting any money into since its a break even at best area for most stores. When customers see the poor effort and service they get in media though, why would they ever want to come back for a big ticket item like a TV or PC or camera from the same store though?

I could go on, but there's just too many other topics I could get into. If anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to answer.

Gizmo

Shares are at 20 cents...

bunkaroo

And "Jennifer" is really creepy in the new ads.

fitlissa76

My hubby thought out of curiosity he'd call Circuit City & talk to the manager there about store closings. I didn't figure he'd get much info, but he did get this much. He said the manager said he couldn't comment on which stores would close, but he COULD say that our store is one of the few that is profitable. We have alot of factories, CAT headquarters, alot of customer service inquiries for various places are handled here. So, they have a customer base that actually makes them money. He didn't outright say that the store wouldn't close, but in a round about way it sounds like that's what he was saying.

DeanoBKN

Nitro, what was the average salary for a store manager? You mentioned above that DM's normally make around $60k, that seems very low for the high level volume stores they are running.

mostaccioli

i always liked that c.c. didn't hassle you with price matching like best buy does.

NitroJMS

From what I've heard, and I have to admit I never saw anything official regarding a store manager's salary, I had heard through the grapevine that some store director's topped out around $100,000 when including bonuses. Assistant managers tended to start around the low $30,000 range and would go higher based on previous experience. I have a friend who was promoted into management so I can confirm the assistant manager amount. If you are good at what you do and are lucky enough to have a good location, you'd be able to add on another $10,000 in bonuses. Newer store directors are obviously going to be starting lower based on the current financial status of the company, but there's still a glut of store directors and district management making upwards of $100,000 for very poor performance.

One of the reasons they fired a lot of the long time assistant store managers in spring of 2007 was that they felt they were making much more than they were worth. The company's seasoned managers were pulling in $40,000-60,000 since many had been with the company in those roles for 5-15 years. Most of the management that was kept were those that had worked there for only a few years (or even months) at most. Yet another reason the stores are suffering badly. No one talks about the letting go of that management and it was another big factor in the slow decline of the company.

If you want to figure out where a CC may be going out of business, its probably best to look at the stores that are in retail corridors that have become depressed within the past 5-10 years and been replaced by a trendier area nearby. Alot of CCs are stuck in long term leases in aging locations. A few years ago, they shuttered stores in Cleveland areas that had become less than desirable, and you'll probably see something along those lines coming soon. Most markets have 1-2 stores that simply shouldn't be open any more and would be better served relocated a year or two down the road when the company will hopefully be more solvent.

dx23

From Home media Retailing:

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/new...ing-nyse-13804

lovgun7

I usto enjoy trips to CC but recently i made a choice to go "exclusively" to Best Buy simply put .. Customer Service... something CC has always lacked in ...

*Now the following is based on 4 locations i usto visit for those who live in the San Fernando Valley Ca. the locations are Van Nuys, Burbank, Northridge, and Woodland Hills*

Ex: i walked in one day to buy a bunch of 3.99 movies. The main one on the list was Cujo: 20th Anniversary. I ended up finding the other Zathura, Borat, & Shooter but when it came to Cujo i needed help. First in order to find someone to help you to look for stock on a product you gotta find someone to tell you to go to the register and ask them for help. Once i got that outta the way i then asked my simple question "do you have Cujo in stock for 3.99?" i then expect to see the cashier log into a black and white or black and green database BUT instead she then goes online to the direct website... (now to explain why this is wrong on the cashiers part. NO DVD on the CC website is available for pick up nor does it tell you if the DVD is available at a certain store...) she then tells me that the website says its only available for shipping... i then chuckle a bit and say okay and the HUNT IS ON .... i end up finding the movie in the childrens section (unorganized movies are another issue), pay and leave.

the next day my friend says he wants to buy Superbad 7.99 deal i tag along and we find 3 copies... one copy has the slip cover but its seal is ripped up a bit...the other 2 have no slip cover... i then tell him to hide the other 2 copies somewhere and ask an employee to find him another copy .... this time a MANAGER attempts to help... she does the same and logs into the website and says "the computer says we dont have it and we only have it for shipping" yet we find 3...

SAME EXACT THING happens with 2 other movies ....

this is my reason for never going back the CC and if they do ever have a good deal ill just price match it at best buy

Trevor

My biggest complaint with them is how difficult they make it to purchase an item. The cashiers are never staffed, you must wait in the customer service line to buy anything.

Rule #1 of any retailer should be: make it easy for your customers to spend money.

How this has continued for 20+ years just boggles my mind.

lovgun7

Its like if your not buying an HD TV, Blu Ray player, Surround sound system, Computer, or video game console they really dont give a $H^t about you or your petty money ... seriously ... lol

Funk

Stores would be closed by 12/31/2008, according to rumors.

http://consumerist.com/5074161/break...ing-155-stores

Ravenous

Wow that sucks. Ill have to talk to a friend of mine to see if she'll still be employed!

Michael T Hudson

That does suck but I cannot say I am surprised.

chanster

Long time coming.

asianxcore

Same here. A buddy of mine works as a car installation/Firedog supervisor.

Definitely not surprised but it sucks nonetheless.

calhoun07

How cool would it be that Steve Saunders got one of his own letters in the mail telling himself his job was being eliminated?

Shinobi

How long will CC gift cards last? Should they be used ASAP, or will they still be good on circuitcity.com up until the end of the year?

wildcatlh

Why would that be cool, exactly? Keep in mind that from his job title it sees that he's just the messenger here. The decision to close stores happened far "above his pay grade".

dx23

If we only had a thread talking about this... oh! we have 2:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/store-forum...ty-dead-3.html

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/other-talk/...o-much-31.html


mod note: The two threads in this forum have been merged. The one in the Other Forum will remain open for now. -namja

DJariya

Just an update for anyone who is curious.

Apparently all the stores closing will be in the Midwest. Also included will be Phoenix.

http://gizmodo.com/5074596/circuit-c...ource-confirms

cinemaphile

STORE CLOSING LIST

alfonsosoriano

The Circuit City/Best Buy comparison that article mentions is the same with the two near me...and they're right across the street from each other.

Wow, only one CT store is closing? Would have thought more. Oh well, the next wave will get them!

chanster

They are closing the "infamous" corner store on North Ave. in Chicago. Pretty funny actually. Best Buy has a gigantic store in a good area of town (south end of Lincoln ParK), and Circuit had one out on Elston, which is a lot harder to get to and further west.

They opened a new Circuit right around the corner from that Best Buy in probably the worse location right on North Ave. Its a small store, you can barely see the sign and honestly if I ever went to Circuit- I actually went to that one - because there was never anybody there. Oh well.

Back in the day, I prefered Circuit over Best Buy - but man for the last 5-6 years it has stunk. You can't check out, you can't find anything, and its just the pits.

Doc Moonlight

No stores closing in St Louis. I had the same reaction.