Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

We'll all miss what's his face...

CC fell out of grace with me YEARS ago. I liked that they kept BB somewhat honest with thier ads. Most of the time I'd price match at BB. Black Fridays were great there. I got my current wireless router for almost nothing.

It will be interesting to see who steps in.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

Circuit City's outward appearance has finally caught up to its inner; cold, heartless, and empty. So many bad corporate decisions that left a gap between themselves and Best Buy, and to a lesser extent, Wal-Mart and Target, that could never been filled. Just to name a few of the terrible happenings over the years:

CUSTOMER SERVICE, leaving appliance sector, rebates, trimming from the bottom up instead of the top down of the corporate structure, lack of care by employees over the last few years (everyone's DVD racks were in shambles and good luck having someone find you anything or having the correct price listed). Distribution and pricing problems (anyone ever show up to get "such and such free with purchase of something and it just so happen that that "such and such" was never,ever in stock) also anyone recall the Energizer battery fiasco last year (selling 16AA for $1 AND AAA for around 80 cents (well there were others and this type of thing does not happen to stable companies). There are many others of course, but I just wanted to list some generalizations.

So long Circuit City

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

Good Riddance.

I woked at CC from 2000 to 2006, first as a salesman, then as warehouse manager. When I first started at our local store (Asheville, NC), there were some extremely knowledgeable people on the floor. People who loved electronics, and really knew their stuff. Those were the first to go when CC eliminated commissioned sales. About 2 months before the mass firings, I was offered the warehouse manager job, and took it so I wouldn't have to go thru the ESP pitch and accessory sales pressure stuff anymore. I really enjoyed the warehouse duties, and was glad to still have a job, because I would have been fired for making too much $$ on the floor. The next couple of years I saw the rest of the better employees let go for the smallest infractions, from not meeting goals, to taking days off, to being late, whatever, just to reduce payroll. Finally, my job was eliminated and out I went. I rarely stepped back in, even for sales, just because I'd seen the deteriation of a once good company. Each time I went back, there were fewer and fewer familiar faces, until the last time I went back, a little over a year ago, when it looked like a ghost town. No employees to be found, missing price tags, stereo equipment not hooked up to be demo'ed.

I guess what I remember most are the words of a former colleague. We had a guy in his mid 40's who made huge numbers in the computer dept. Won every sales award offered every year. Trips to Vegas, Florida, awards dinners, the whole nine yards. When he was let go at the end of commissioned sales, I ran in to him at a restaurant a few days later. He said..."Tommy, it's the first time I've ever been fired for being the very best at what I did". Sad.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

I feel bad for the employees losing their jobs... but other than that I'm not at all upset to see CC go down in flames.

Won't even go into the details of all my run-ins with them and the weird crap they tried to pull on me over the years. I DID find some good deals there and whenever I could get in, get what I wanted for the price I wanted and get out with no hassles, I would consider it a small miracle.

On top of the crappy service, the way the corporate machine behaved - especially the full frontal assault on Speedy was what convinced me to never go to another CC again.

It still blows my mind how they could so utterly and completely miss the huge benefit they were reaping from Speedy's posts. How many tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars were spent EVERY WEEK in a CC b/c somebody was hip to a sale a little early due to reading a Speedy post? CC should have offered Speedy a job and doubled whatever his current salary was at the time. It would have been a bargain.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

When I worked for Circuit City (Vista, CA store, 1994-1996) it was a great electronics and appliance retailer.

At that time our customer service was excellent. Much better than our competition (Good Guys, Silo, and Tweeter). Our prices were very competitive (usually either the same as the competition or just a tad lower - we always scouted the competition to make sure that our prices weren't higher), and our sales people were VERY knowledgeable (we all got sent to the Walnut, CA training facility for a week of full time training on the equipment sold in the department that we worked in). It was a professional atmosphere, but we had some fun despite our long hours.

By the time I left in mid 1996 there were some disturbing signs. Just a couple of months before I left upper and middle management was starting to push product that wasn't as good as the stuff we all focused on because the margin on that product was good (the salespeople were good at selling better product with good margin, so their efforts to set sales goals for certain products for each salesperson went over like a lead balloon). It was clear that they didn't know the products, and were losing touch with what the customers wanted.

A few years later I saw the writing on the wall. Circuit City dropped major appliances. Their highest profit items in the store. Their stock fell and sent them into a spiral they never got out of. Of course, bad decisions like firing their most experienced (older) sales people was stupid, further compounded a year or so later when they dropped the commissioned sales structure altogether.

I talked to another former Circuit City employee in October, and he told me that when Best Buy purged 1/3 of their upper and middle management in a cost cutting/streamlining move a few years ago that CC picked up a lot of the Best Buy castoffs. Those were the people that Best Buy didn't want, and the least competent people in their managment team, but Circuit City lapped them up like they were the next coming or something. Of course, with these new people on board Circuit City made no good managment decisions, and continued to spiral downward at at exponentially faster rate.

What was the best electronics retailer became something of a joke. They didn't understand the new market, and had cut themselves off from the old one. Even so, they still provided some good deals on a weekly basis - but they were not doing as good of a job at the customer service level as they had a decade earlier, and their salespeople didn't know nearly as much about the products as the people who worked there when I did.

Their CD sections shrank. Their DVD sections grew, but products were here, there, and everywhere (Is it in the regular section? Or is it on the, "On Sale & New Releases" wall, or on an endcap?), and sometimes you couldn't get any help.

As long as they were in business, though, they still had the opportunity to fix their problems and become what they once had been. They never did, and now they're gone.

And now Best Buy has no real competition. There are no other significant electronics chains to compete with them. They compete with Wal Mart and Sears now. Their incentive to keep their prices down just got a lot smaller. Hopefully, when the economy turns around some people with the money to invest will start a new electronics chain. And hopefully they won't hire anyone from Circuit City's managment.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

My god, I had completely forgotten about Good Guys.

I used to work at Tower Records and we got decent discounts at Good Guys so I would go to the one in Woodland Hills back in the day... around 91/92.

Even with the discount I pretty much hated it there. CC really was pretty decent then, you're right.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

In recent years I didn't buy much at CC, just sale DVDs. But I gave even that up last year when it became clear that if you didn't get there right after opening on Sunday, items were apt to be sold out. Still, back before CC fired most of the experienced (and therefore higher-salaried) salespeople, you could get good service in the CC store I went to, and actually talk to an adult who knew something. I used to buy computer stuff and TV sets there because the salespeople were simply more helpful than the kiddies at Best Buy.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

That's what we prided ourselves on in the 90's - the level of knowledge and high customer service standards that we had.

Why management got away from that I'll never uderstand. They were deathly afraid of Best Buy. I remember in the year before I left that they were awaiting the impending move into San Diego by Best Buy with dread.

They overreacted and tried to become Best Buy rather than to continue to be the best in the business at customer service and knowledgeable sales staff. That was our niche - and it was a damned good niche! Once they got away from that Circuit City was just another store and gave people no incentive to shop there other than sale prices.

Bad management killed what was, in the 90's, the best electronics and appliance chain in the country. That really sucks for consumers because it's left us with less choice on where to go to buy something that we want or need.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

I am sorry for the two friends that I had made at Circuit City who ultimately lost their jobs. One has moved on to Best Buy and now is doing great while the second has moved out of state.

These 2 out of the hundreds that I had transacted with were an example of what CC's customer service should've been.

Unfortunately as we all know, CC's management implemented policies which turned off customers and promoted employee turnover.

This is the second time that they've been in business in my state (as I witnessed their first closure many years ago).

Perhaps they will rise from the ashes once again.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

i cant tell if any of you are being serious

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

nice bargain -rolleyes-

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

This is going to date me a little...

My first computer, a Commodore 64, was purchased at the CC in Winston-Salem, NC. I wanted to purchase Pac-Man with it, but they unfortunately did not have it.

The salesman said, "Tell you what I'll do. I have Pac-Man and about 30 other games on a disc in my briefcase. For $30, I'll make you a copy." Yup, that's right, the CC salesman was selling pirated software right in the store!

Naturally, I took him up on his offer and I ended up with ~30 arcade games like Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Pac-Man, Gorf, etc for $30. Those would have cost $30 each back at the time... :)

That was my one good experience with Circuit City.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

You easily could have said, "Tell you what. I'll take two copies for free, and you get to keep your job."

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

I'll miss the empty checkout areas, waiting in line to buy a $10 dvd at the customer service desk, while the red shirt is answering the phone and doing a return at the same time.

I'll miss you CC.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

Oh yeah. Lechmere was my store in the 70's & 80's. That's where I bought all of my electronics. I applied for a job there but they used to give one of those ethical tests along with an application. I think I failed it 'cause I actually would steal bread if I was hungry.....:hungry:

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

I worked for CC from 96-98. At one point I was the best sales person at the slowest CC store in America.

As a buyer, I've had better experience with CC CS than Best Buy. Every Best Buy I go to has lied to me, made excuses not to honor ads and "punish me" for price matching by making me wait long periods of time to actually get them to honor their policy.

On the other hand, CC has honored their policy (for the most part, and certainly better than BB -- but not as good as Wal-mart). Though to be fair, in the past year BB's CS has gotten a lot better. But I've been burned by them so much it will take a lot for me to actually purchase anything from them that is not a loss-leader --- and certainly no big ticket items at all.

It was only in the last year that I began to see what other people have complained about at CC -- no ad merchandise, unknowledgeable sales staff, etc. Managers that I knew there, turned up at Best Buy.

I am sad to see them go. With them gone, I hope BB does not go back to being total a--holes that they once were. I'm sure if the economy does not get any better, they can't really afford to be. For DVDs I guess Target and Wal-mart are their only competition.

C'est la vie, CC --- survival of the fittest has ruled you obsolete.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

Sort of. Bad management ruled CC obsolete.

When they tried to be something better than Best Buy (as in the 90's) they were great, but once they tried to BE Best Buy they did a half assed job of it.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

When did they stop?

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

Ive always had more trouble at best buy then I did CC. Im sure its different for other areas, like some posts state. When I go into any store I just avoid the people who have given me shit.

It does suck though cause now BB has no competition, so I say shame on you people that are glad CC failed.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

Circuit City will likely be back as "online only". It will be a different company though.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

I had enough bad Best Buy experiences that I've only been there twice since 2004 and each time I made sure to pay cash so I wouldn't run the risk of the whole magazine subscription scam hitting my credit card. I've been frequenting Circuit City ever since, but only for games, movies, and music. I bought a Canon Sure Shot from them that was on sale, but that's the biggest-ticket item. Otherwise, it's been Target and Amazon for me. The last time I was in Circuit City was a few months ago when an employee lied to me and said their manager wouldn't let them issue a raincheck for a no-limitations sale item from that week's flier. Oh, well.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

over a decade ago, CC used to be our main spot, we'd take "field trips" to it practically every week (mainly for the new release cd sale prices). then the internet came along and things weren't the same, especially as prices weren't ideal and the customer service declined (like actively trying to hunt a cashier down for 5+ minutes just to checkout).

CC holds the title of 1st (and so far only place) i've ever applied for a job about 6 years ago. my friend who worked their was somewhat friends with the manager and tried to hook me up. i did both the interview and "placement test" that night, and the drug test a couple days later. we all thought i was in for sure, yet i didn't hear anything back for weeks. finally my friend finds out that headquarters declined me because the test "best qualified" me for the warehouse, which i could not do due to disabilities.

he still tells me great stories about his time working there, and we still joke about DIVX since my brother was working there at the time it came out and had to tell the masses about "the wave of the future!" (personally i thought it was a good idea but horribly implemented.)

oh well. so long Circuit City, but i'm not shedding any tears for you. those are still reserved for the awesome Incredible Universe!

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

The only sad part about CC closing is...

All the empty stores that will probably sit there for at least a decade.

In a town near me, the Caldor store is going to finally be torn down after like 20 years, but HALF of the Bradlees store down the road has yet to be filled.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

Not much to say about Circuit City. Whenever I went in on a Sunday morning, they never had anything they advertised in their ads. The only good memory I have about the place is their gigantic selection of DVDs on sale for Black Friday. I never bothered to go in the morning during the rush, but went in the evenings only to see the employees dumping the DVDs out of boxes onto the floor and customers on their knees sifting through the mess. I thought it was hilarious considering that people really ate up the $3.99 deal on Honey starring Jessica Alba that one year; like, everyone walked out with a copy (sans myself).

The one in my area is probably going to be vacant for years to come and will be a huge eyesore until some other giant mainland retail chain feels gutsy enough to occupy it.

Re: Circuit City R.I.P. Final Words
 

I used to like them like over 7 years + ago then over the course of a year they got bad real quick. The one near me seems like they fired everyone over 21 except people who sold tvs. Mine always had a bunch of young employees that would be grouped together and no help at all. I only would go there to check out their clearance games. I will miss their ad though that i used to take and get priced matched else where.

I always thought it was weird at mine that they never went digital with their POS systems and i still had to actually sign a huge reciept. Being an electronics store you'd think they'd have a decent one.