Comments on: Say good-bye to Circuit City

With 155 stores being shuttered across the United States and an impending New York Stock Exchange delisting, the electronics retailer's days are numbered.

[sting7k]

I can see why Circuit City is dying, every store I go too is always a ghost town. The one in my city was here long before Best Buy moved in and it was never that busy. There are lots of problems I find with CC over BB;

1. In CC I can never find a register, they have kiosks all over the stores, some will ring you up some won't. Buying anything is a pain.
2. Employees can not be found. This ties in with #1, when I want to ask about something or need help I can't find anyone. Most of their kisoks/registers are never manned so I don't know where to check out.
3. Employees know nothing, these guys work on commissions and yet they know nothing about what they are selling.

Now BB might not have any more knowledgeable employees but at least I can find them when I need to find something and I know where the registers are and they have people at them. I can run into BB and pick something up quick (DVD, game, CD, etc.) but CC is like a chore to shop for anything. I am surprised they are even still alive right now. With a stock that isn't even $1 in price I don't see how they can be alive much longer.

[DatabaseDoctor]

This all started when CC decided to fire all its commissioned staff that knew their product inside/out. The reason I shopped at CC was to have someone explain the products to me, the pros and cons and help steer me to the best solution. That cost them money and the new owners dumped that staff in favor of teenagers who made minimum wage. Try and get someone at CC to even show you where the product is, let alone know what its about. Even the managers are children as the one at my store is barely 25. Children managing children. And you wonder why they are folding? It was written in stone a while ago.

Rest in peace.

[rbarajas82]

i can explain the ins and outs of products and in not on commission... not even when i started about 5 yrs ago... its a big part on the people we hire too... if they want to learn they will be we need to motivate them and thats were management fails... i can sell u anything from a dvd movie to a full home theater system to go with it... and im not the only one many associate have the same passion as i do we just keep getting overlooked... i dont know why

[Wiz Zee]

Crap. Now where am I going to go to get by DIVX (TM) player serviced?

[PhDMark]

As a part-time employee for over 2 years now (Yes, I really am a PhD), I have also been amazed at hour CC management does not function with any real understanding of how their stores work. I have worked with 4 Store Directors now and I ask them when they return from national meetings, "Did anyone from management ask you your opinion about anything?" Every time I received the same response, "No." How does CC upper management know what the #*&^% is going on in the stores when the ground troops are not consulted? How many of the people in upper management even came from the trenches? Maybe they spent too much of their time in MBA school instead of learning retail from the brick and mortar school of hard knocks.

I must say, that I have also been a customer of CC for many years before I started to work there part-time, and have always been treated as a valued customer. If customers are having bad customer service, that is more likely unique to that individual store and the store management than to CC as a whole.

ALL of the trainings I have been to over the past two years are almost exclusively about customer service. It is the only real advantage we have over Amazon, E-Bay, Best Buy or Wal-Mart. Their in-store training is fair, but most of the associates I have worked with do alot of research and learning on their own. I "lived" through the downsizing of all the experienced CC employees, and I also thought that not only was it stupid (getting rid of their experience!), but it was also shallow and just plain ****** business. They hurt people, and it didn't solve anything. For those of you who think CC should follow the BB management plan, where do you think Schoonover came from?

I really believe that CC should add some ground level troops who have worked in the trenches to their managment team and stop hiring and promoting "educated" dufusses from academia!

[ccmaster]

i see the same thing it is true even our dm cant sale to save his life even the firedog dm he could not install a program to save his life it is true us under payed worker know more than thay do

[seespottype]

The last time I was there to buy $1200 work of camera, the demo units were not powered, and unit I wanted wasn't in stock. The sales person offered to order to the camera for me. And I asked myself, how is this any better than a website? It didn't compete on price and it didn't compete on the sales experience. If I spent the same hour it took to drive there, talk to the salesperson, and return, I could have compared the offerings of multiple online camera shops and had the unit shipped next day directly to my house.

I suspect that's CC's big problem. They are running a business model that's 9 years too old. In a web world, that's fatal.

[Lissa78]

Have you looked at the list of stores they are closing? You'd think they'd have sense enough to leave one or two stores open in a major metropolitan area. Case in point - Atlanta. They are closing every single store. That's just a stupid move! Who closes all their stores with a large customer base?

[ofmyony]

Office Depot is not a bad electronics store. You can find good deals on many items and someone greets you as you enter and will guide you right to the area you want. They sell many of the electronic products that you are looking for and are generally pretty knowledgeable because of the other functions they perform.

They do not nag you but will be there if you have a question. Maybe a new player emerging if CC keeps falling. It is all about the management and employees and Office Depot is on the right track.

[chainek]

to PhDMark:

I was one of the employees who just got layed off. I pretty much just wrote up an arcticle on the internal circuit city forums explaining where all their problems comes from. Similar to what you just wrote. The moderator deleted it. Then banned me from the internal forum. I guess having some sense is not allowed and totally against their 'Integrity' part of the "North Star"

The people making the decisions have no idea what is really going on inside of the stores. And when they do manage to make a good decision they never follow through with it. Letting it flop.
While customers need helped, I'm told I need to walk around the store and scan tags.. if tags aren't done by closing then I cant leave. Then my priority just goes from helping customers to getting tags put out. Yes, I'll admit, I have purposely ignored customers to satisfy the requests of my managers.

I'm not going to write an entire article on the problems that they have. But will just put it simply: "They are set up to fail".

[rbarajas82]

the funny part is that years ago circuit city and best buys roles were reversed circuit almost bought out best buy but didnt i dont know why... and since about 2 years ago circuit city has been hiring bestbuy managers and pying them rediculous amounts of money to come over and bring moral down... why because people dont get promoted from within and why are associates going to work hard if they promotion is going to go to some outside clown that has a friend in the district office... what they should do is look at each store that is not doing well and ask why is it the people or the management? i know for a fact that its management i have witnessed it with my own eyes... and also people liek this guy who wrote this article maybe he should lay off of circuit and stop telling potential customers that circuit is done for... it has and affect and people are not going to want to shop with us at all let customers take the experience and see for themselves the type of customer focus some of these so called idiots can provide... i promise if they walk into my store not only will they find what they need but will leave with a smile on their face!!!

[inatl247]

Best Buy had a 44 Milli Ma Milli dollar lead on CCity and all those CC employees that shop in my store say this to on a daily bases " All that crap that you guys do and offer customers is not needed just buy it and get out is what I say, A man can you come outside and set my GPS up for me for free like it say on this sign?" it dosen't make any since to things the CC way (halfway) and yes that happened this Summer. The main thing is CCity was eating and not bringing nothing to the table. Home Theater Senior Robert J.

[cdawg12]

You've really got it up your ass for CC don't you? If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you have a large short position in the stock. Sure, Circuit City is struggling and the outlook doesn't look great for the company. Yet, why don't you do some homework before you stick a fork in this stock. With a book value of nearly $5 a share, and net debt of only 190 million, this one still has time to get their act together. At it's current valuation a competitor could take out the company for quite a lot less than it would take to get 500 countrywide brick and mortar stores going. Buy now at 35 cents and you have yourself a triple at minimum. Just too much value here.

[montanafats]

Do not bury the corpse just yet. Remember that in earlier days Circuit City took Lafayette Radio and Electronics out of bankruptcy and purchased them for the store sites. They made a huge success and it proved that with forward thinking and good management it was all possible. Now how about some forward thinking and new and better management to bring this name back to prominence?

[ddanckaert]

Don is such an awful journalist... His attributable causal scenario is purposefully provocative...

Bottom line, Circuit City's presence is desirable for competitive purposes (pricing, availability, deals, return policies, etc) and market selection. I wouldn't consider it out, but obviously they're going to have to be bought and overhauled.

I have long, long, long, hated buying at CC mainly because of their inefficient service operation. Long lines with clerks hanging about chatting. Inefficient checkouts, etc. I don't go to the store expecting sales people with knowledge, but I do expect them to enable me to get in and get out quickly. CC makes the buying experience a chore. On that basis alone, I'd go to BB.

That said, I don't want to remove CC from the marketplace as that just makes it less competitive, forcing me to online purchases (which I already do and will continue to do). Sometimes it's desirable to be able to go and actually look at a computer and TV or stereo. Also, the ability to return items to a local store is a major plus.

[812]

"high-margin appliances section"??????????? Try again. BB survives because they operate like Mcdonalds. Put up enough of them and you'll survive through volume. You don't really expect good service or much selections at McD's, but you know they're consistent. Same as BB. Actually, I think many of their employees are interchangable.

CC is probably toast, as is Ultimate Electronics... Unless they somehow combine forces. CC is too big for Ultimate to buy, and CC is in no shape to buy anything--including replacement stock from Sony. I Don't see a sliver lining anywhere.

[themillperson]

As the spouse of a CompUSA and now a Circuit City employee, this is so hard folks. Circuit City was not a joke....its employees were not mindless drones....they were people working hard to pull a struggling company out of the red. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful. Let's remember that all these people you are calling inept have families that are now struggling for other options, and the reason these stores are closing is NOT their fault. It's a bad economy - nothing more, nothing less. Let's ease up on the hateful comments please.

[MSSlayer]

CC stores are generally staffed with incompetent people, have lousy service, and even worse selection, yup must be the economy.

That sucks for their families, however, maybe these employees should find a different area to work in since many don't even have the low technical knowledge of your average, worthless geek squad dork.

[mycowsrock]

What does that mean for people who bought from them within the past year or so? I did not know they were having problems, I bought a laptop a year ago, and now what am I going to do? I personal do not care for best buy, I had purchased a computer a couple of years ago from best buy and they would not stand behind the product one bit. But I suppose you could say that about any company. So what am I going to do now?

[Ian_T]

I really want to know how many people on here have worked for CCITY and if they ever took the time to read into what the company was telling or keeping from its employees... first and foremost circuit was stupid they decided to hire corporate people from best buy not just bring them in on positions that didn?t exist but were created for them, they also paid them higher wages then what they were being paid at best buy. When they brought in those new corporate employees they also tried to make a huge transition which should have taken a year at the longest in the span of 3 months. This transition was to implement all the ideals and practices of best buy. Which all in all would make them both the same company seeing as how they have and have had the same corporate management.

As for the dude who says he could have saved circuit he?s an idiot and he?s probably better off talking to people without a college education. Circuit took a big loss when they decided to open 150 new stores when their stocks were already in the 3 dollar range and only going lower... the new stores were supposed to be a mix of the regular stores that only sells computers, car audio, TV, DVDs, video games, cameras, and all the other little things you might need. The other new considered CCITY stores were supposed to more off the basis of the way best buy is set up in a warehouse whole sale type of atmosphere.

The stores wasted allot of money switching computer systems which didn?t increase functionality of the store but made it slower because the management was too old to figure it out and the dumb people they put on the registers didn?t know what the hell they were doing either. The best part of circuit on its way down was they offered the vps and corporate people under them very large contracts in-order to keep them on the team. Most where paid in the millions going down to 250 thousands. so now think about it that ****** can say he could of saved them if they just listened and taught people about the products to help them explain them to customers, but then again how much would that have actually done seeing as how the people in corporate were dumb *****?? so who cares circuits going under I used to work for them half of the management just jumped as the boat was sinking and fled to best buy so they could get their job security back. so even if you hate best buy or circuit city in cooperate even though they say one or the other their practically the same company trust me I know I used to work for circuit and best buy and my managers worked with me in both stores... so everyone who has a problem with either can just stop whining their both the same damn company like it or not.

[chainek]

I have worked for CC over 2 years. Was layed off and given an extra 75 cents per hour if I stay and help them close. If I don't stay to help.. If I move on with my life and find another job then I get nothing.. So my worth to them is only to finish closing the store. It's a real dirty thing to do.

The stores are kind of a mix between good sales associates and bad. Some people who made it through the first mass fireing.. and then the new hires who are making minimum wage. They really don't care. Some of the people like me really bust my ass though. They change the floor model so that all associates have to sell in EVERY DEPARTMENT which is why many sales associates appear to be un-knowledgable. I've been barking about this for some time now. I know all their is about cameras and computers.. when I have to go back to car audio though.. customers leave pissed off because I don't know jack squat. If I don't try to help the customer then I get in trouble.. if I try to help then the customer leaves pissed. My plan was to keep my job so I tried to help the best that I could.

That and tons of other problems is what makes CC fail. Unfortunately I have to leave to go be a drone for the liquidators in about 5 minutes so I can't continue this message.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Where will the 40 year old virgin and his buds gonna work now ?

[AppleSuxLeo]

Fire-Dog sale !

[inachu]

I hope all the CC stores go out of business.
Not one emplyee ever treated me right.
Anytime I bought a pc from them they always just sold me the box and none of the software that is by law to accompany the purchase of the pc. They violate every microsoft agreement each and every time they do that.

[ccmaster]

there is no law out there that state that a pc must come with the software i can sell you a computer with ought the os is i want but if you bought the software then that is trew than you should have the keys to the software and a disk the law dose not say i need to give you what you did not buy and it is you falt for not geting the software no ours if you read the box it says 30 and 60 day trails i had some one get mad at me becous she threw her office disk and box in the trash she wanted me to replace it for here now i did not throw it in the trash no did i so why should i give her a new one with out paying for it first