Circuit City's holidays not so happy
Circuit City posted a steep quarterly loss on Friday and warned the operating losses will continue into the current quarter, which includes the bulk of the holiday shopping season, traditionally when retailers make most of their money.
"We are very dissatisfied with our third quarter results," Circuit City CEO Philip J. Schoonover said in a statement, adding that the company saw fewer sales of profitable items like accessories, services, and extended warranties.
"We believe that these issues are primarily self-induced and are within our control to improve," he said.
I can't say I was surprised given my Black Friday experience at Circuit City. My partner and I waited for hours in line, not because there were so many customers, but because its system for handling a crowd was so poor.
In addition to the $208 million loss from continuing operations that Circuit City posted for the quarter ending November 30, it said it will have a "modest" loss for the current quarter, which spans through February.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
ececutive team, fire them all and clean house. Then fire those
freaking trolls they call employees.
Oh nevermind, just have them to the way of CompUSA and
GoodGuys.
I hope their CEO is reading this. I think it is time for CC to close operations.
I did however have a manager offer me a job one day because I was on the phone with a friend explaining HDTV and he said that it's sad that a customer knows more about it than his guys that work over in TVs.
Every time I buy a DVD they try to get me to purchase a warranty on a DVD. ***?
I think it's their employees that give pretty much every one the same bad taste when they exit the store. Only reason I shop at Circuit City on a semi regular basis is because it's less than 5 minutes from my house... Best Buy is 30 minutes away and with the price of gas it's not really worth it to make an hour round trip for a DVD or a Wii game.
"While customers are waiting in queue, there is only one associate helping them while all others are busy in some unknown activities moving from here to there without a purpose"
That is incorrect... I used to work at a circuit city, I worked in PC sales then as a firedog tech, and there all kinds of items and tasks that need to be completed behind the customer service desk.
There will only be ONE customer service person working, taking care of the line, and I will have to walk back there to get a key, or to get some paperwork forms, customers think I am ignoring them, but I have my own work and customers to take care of, and I am not trained on how to do any customer service tasks (returns or whatnot), and two, my employee code, and anyone else's who IS NOT A CUSTOMER SERVICE associate, physically will not let them complete the task, period.
competition. ..."
There's really no point in going any further. I don't even have a
Circuit City in my town, and I've only shopped there while on
vacation. But, when the guy who actually buys extended
warranties has had enough; even I know that you are clearly and
completely doomed.
Ordinary citizens should be wary when shopping in the vicinity
of any CC location; there's no telling what kind of mayhem can
happen once employees clue in, the inevitable panic ensues and
they begin a stampede for the exits.
Hope your airbags are in working order; as a precaution keep
the women and children indoors until this blows over and the
liquidators move in.
I've still got my 1991 RCA 25" TV working very well, and it only needs to go one more year before I really need to get a 47" LCD. :D
The obvious question: Why does Best Buy do so well while CC fails? Is it because CC gave up on most large appliances?
They stink at selling accessories.
Service Plans are a rip-off (theirs no more or less than anyone else's)
They are the K-Mart of big box electronics
First, the POS system at Circuit City is so old that all three major truck rental firms (B*****, P***** and U-**** along with electronics giant BEST BUY) look more attractive to customers buying anything. As for their customer experience, I find myself knowing more about the product than ANY of their store employees, and have had others ASK ME to go with them and help them buy their electronics items. Also, BB and Radio Shack are much better at selling accessories with their products.
As for extended warranties and service plans, I personally don't like them as my Visa card extends my warranty up to 1 year for FREE, so I don't need any extended service plan.
Finally, CC should never be equated with K-Mart, as K-mart is just horrible, yet still exists where I live (for that matter, next door to CC).
It doesn't matter where you go in the US. It is all the same thing again and again.
This goes for BB, CC, Wal-Mart, and down to all these fake stores in malls and especially the crappy national restaurants.
City, they told me a 150.00 rebate. After 8 weeks I got a letter
saying no rebate. I called to see what happened. Sorry the store
made a mistake, I bought her computer 3 days to early, even
though the local store was out of the quad core and she got it after
the rebate kicked in.
Too bad Circuit City fired their best workers this past summer.
See ya we are getting a new Best Buy next to CC store.
earlier this year. That was a mistake, made more egregious by a
recent news story about CC offering huge cash incentives to
retain top executives. So the cash is taken from the experienced
former employees and given to the guys that fired them.
Another way to look at the issue is to say the CC has taken
service from the customer to generate the cash for the
executives. What a cocked up business model. Too bad that CC
hardly has the monopoly on that type of misguided management
philosophy.
MIRs have several problems. One they are time consuming to send out properly. Another issue, is that they always limit quantities. There are some customers like business customers who want to buy multiple computers where they can't easily get more than one rebate without making every purchase on a different receipt and than sending multiple rebates out from multiple addresses and than have to track multiple rebates. Business customers for this reason rarely go to retail stores unless they needed the item yesterday or they need just one item and the offer is very good.
CompUSA largely did the same thing. They rarely actually discounted stuff except for big sales like Black Friday and the day after Christmas. Look where they are now: looking towards liquidation after the private equity firm that owned decided that it was easier to pillage the company than to turn it around. If CC doesn't discover that need to be price competitive they aren't going to last. Several investment firms have already advised their investors that CC might be bought out soon so CC may meet CompUSA fate fairly soon.
Sales people who are nice, knowledgeable, etc. is important, but that will only get you so far in electronics retail. I remember when I worked for Fry's that the store manager admitted so far that no one really needs any of this stuff, we just need to convince the customers that they want/need it. It isn't too hard to convince a customer that they need/want something, most of us could tout the advantages of upgrading their old computer to a newer computer, but if the customer doesn't feel that the price is competitive and that they can afford it they won't buy it even they feel a strong desire for it. You don't always need the best prices, but if they can buy the exact same product 2-3 miles away you are going to have a tough sell.
The sooner CC learns this the sooner they can turn around their company.
Rod
There will be NO "sears buys Kmart" like white knight for CC. Have fun keeping CompUSA company in the closed chain cemetary CC!
skootertramp
Most products come with a 1 year warranty. For example, if you buy a GE dryer, it will have a 1 year warranty. If it fails within that 1 year, you don't call the store you bought it from, you'd call a GE repair shop and they would fix it under the manufacturers warranty. No extended warranty required at all.
1, Anyone who buys an item without a manufacturers warranty is an idiot.
2. Anyone who buys an item and doesn't bother to ask how long the manufacturers warranty is is also an idiot.
3. Anyone who pays $175 to repair something that should be under warranty is a fool.
As the saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted. If there is any blame at all to CC in this example, it's that they did not inform you that your products should be under the 1 year manufacturers warranty.
However, fools and idiots simply shouldn't be allowed to buy ANYTHING.
open. Stopped going here ages ago.
them in broken states in their stores, and their sales people did
everything they could to steer people away from Macs because
they got bigger spiffs from some PC maker's machines?
But it wasn't as bad for Apple as it was for everyone else.
Because Apple had nothing to lose from leaving. But other PC
manufacturers with razor-thin margins can't conduct business
any way they please. They have to kiss up to retailers. That leads
to arrogance and a lack of appreciation for what it means to be
in sales.
I'll give Circuit City a clue in how they can turn around their
business. Visit an Apple Store. The most profitable retailer in
history (and the fastest growing in history) shows that even for
all their faults, the mostly get it right.
No, not that they sell Macs. That has nothing to do with it. It's
HOW they sell Macs! If Circuit City wants to get a clue, they
would pay close attention to what makes Apple's stores
different.
But of course they won't. The Canon of Business religion would
never allow them to accept that Apple might be right, because
Apple doesn't think exactly like everyone else, or how Wall Street
wants them to think. Costco doesn't either, and Wall Street
doesn't like them either.
worst of all he did not even know what was on sale. I could tell that all he wanted was for me to go away so he could keep talking to his co worker. Fry's is even worst with most people walking around telling you their favorite line "Thats not my deparment". At the end is does not matter because is really the company's fault for cutting cost by hiring the cheapest work force as possible. You get what you pay for.
is to walk in the door to see how ineptly these businesses have
been run. It's a shame that the media don't call up members of
the boards of such companies to ask what role they played in
bringing down the ship. Directors shouldn't be able to hide in
virtual anonymity. (I think CompUSA is privately held.)
Here are Circuit City's directors and senior managers:
http://investor.circuitcity.com/directors.cfm
http://investor.circuitcity.com/management.cfm
If Circuit City's stock sinks any lower Vonage may buy the
company.
if you don't like it there are other little holes you can crawl into.
"My partner and I waited for hours in line"
How is that offensive or even close to "promoting their stinking sex life"?
Please get a life!
reminded of her, his, whatever's, significant other. Near made me
hurl. It was an absolutely unnecessary addition and one has to
question the motivation behind including it considering it bore
zero relevance to the story.
If you want to be an it, fine, do it in your own house during your
own time, but keep it the hell out of society.
And all you liberal politically correct hillary supporters who will no
doubt flame me for this comment can just go take a long walk of a
short pier. I won't be returning to read them.
As for CNet, I don't care how much you support her, his,
something inbetween's decision to emasculate herself, I will never
read another article from this person ever again. They're not even a
credible writer. And if they can't keep their personal lives out of
their stories, then you need to replace them with someone more competent and not so confused.
- good comments !
- by DatabaseDoctor December 22, 2007 9:33 AM PST
- Exactly what I see too. Its not isolated to a few, but to everyone who steps foot in CCity. If the CEO does read these, either close up or fire all the children and hire adults who care.
- Reply to this comment
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