Circuit City gets delisting notice from NYSE
Things are getting worse at Circuit City.
The embattled electronics retail chain was notified October 24 by the New York Stock Exchange that its stock listing price is so low it's on the verge of being delisted.
(Credit:
Circuit City)
According to a form Circuit City filed with the SEC Thursday, the NYSE said the company's stock was "below criteria" because the average closing price was less than $1 per share for the 30 previous days. NYSE requires any company's minimum average over that time period to be $1.
Circuit City's stock closed Friday down 4 cents to reach 26 cents.
Now that Circuit City has received the notice, it has six months to get the stock's act together. As long as the average 30-day closing price is more than $1 sometime during the next six months, it can stay listed.
Circuit City has 10 days to respond to the NYSE that it plans to get its stock back above $1. In the meantime, the company's CC ticker symbol will be followed by a ".BC" to show it's below continued listing standards.
The country's second-largest electronics retail chain behind Best Buy has been in turmoil since posting a huge loss at the end of 2007. The CEO recently stepped down, and the company is looking at ways to turn itself around, including shutting some stores.
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica. 
I, unlike those CEOs who make millions of dollars, do comparative price shopping. Best Buy sells their DVDs alot cheaper than Circuit City. Still cheaper yet is Walmart... Even more economical is Target. All that those CEOs have to do is have their retail mark-up department get up off of their seats and compare prices with other stores, like the rest of us do. Is it any wonder that Target is successful?
Regards!
It's hard for me to articulate just how much I despise Circuit City; their policies, their prices and their staff. On multiple occasions and at more than one store, I've encountered the same type of treatment: sales staff talking amongst themselves and then glaring at me like I've done something wrong when I ask a question. I just assumed that it was a corporate policy to treat customers badly.
I found it hard to believe that a large corporation could continue to operate when it treats customers so poorly. It looks like it's finally starting to come apart for them. Good riddance. </vitriol>
Twitter: @cjguest
i like cc and i feel thay will make it out there ,im welling to to spind $ 1.10 for one item there than go to wal-mart and buy (china ) prudoct for $ 1.00 its not about workers there its about quilety .
Then the CEOs got not only greedy but stupid. I'm told the mgt doesn't listen to anyone, they operate based on fear and that old oxymoron like mentality called "military intelligence". The fired CEOs got millions in bonuses for destroying their business. While they lost their market, and their stock is hardly worth the paper it is printed on. Corporate HQ is like some horrible bureaucracy, where it takes layers of mgt to get approval to get a ball point pen.
I get most of this from my college student friends who work(ed) at CC.
And guess what - their newest game is not only to hire more employees for xmas, but they are using all kinds of BS excuses to fire existing people making eg $10 or 11/hr, and replacing them with people making $8.25/hr. So this time, they hope to get less publicity about the firings, and avoid giving the fired employees any severance pay at all.
But what the dummies don't understand is that this has been noticed by the local church communities social justice groups, of which I am the loca; interfaith director and co-ordinator. And we talk all over the country about these kinds of scenes on our pvt blogs. This abhorrent behavior is mentioned in church teachings about social justice.. No wonder you can go into a large circuit city store, and find it has5-8 employees present, and 2-4 customers much of the time. While the local Best Buy will have about 8-15 customers on a slow day.
The management is getting what they deserve, except we need to outlaw employment contracts that give mgt people bonuses for failing, while ordinary people are fired and given nothing but a sign here, get out, and don't come back notice.
Nice guys. Too bad for the people who worked there faithfully for years. If the board of directors had any guts and decency they would throw out their failing mgt, and give them a gift card to Wendy's or Burger king for a going away present..
It is hard to believe they can survive in any similar form. They aren't number two after BB. They are about number 4, after BB, web purchases, the big box stores like Walmart / Sams club, Target, even eg Macy's with their IPOD vending machines, Radio shack, etc.
To bad for circuit city, but maybe a lesson for some other retailers who treat their employees like dung, terrorize them, while the mgt wonders what is happening.
1. Get rid of those rebates!
2. Hire real salespeople (NOT school kids) with experience in customer services!
3. Bring back the appliances line!
4. Expand wireless phone carriers rather than just only Verizon!
5. Price competiive!
As a consumer I will never shop price including rebates. Additionally if they lure me into the store with a rebated sale item, I really get steamed! CC has repeatedly gotten me into the store only to disappoint me into crossing the street to Best Buy.
For years, Circuit City put shareholders as their top priority - not their customers, and certainly not their staff. Their prices are too high, their tactics are either lacking (can't find help if/when you need it), or were subversive (e.g. getting sent to Rebate hell with their pricing, slipping in charges for "extended warranties" when the customer never asked for one, etc).
Sorry, but I find it very hard to find any sympathy for them. The free market is merely doing its work in grinding Circuit City out of existence - and only Circuit City can change that. Problem is, they won't/can't, so they'll simply die off like the untold numbers of other business ventures that were once awesome, then self-doomed to failure.
/P
To answer your question, yes, it IS wrong to want to be happy they are going out of business. Going out of business is not a good thing, for almost anyone. As bad as some people have have felt about some staff, there are plenty of people who do their jobs well, and could well be out of a job for a time..
There is absolutely nothing to be happy about there. I hope they pull things through, though it does look pretty bleak. I say this as a rep that works in several store locations part time from circuit city to best buy. And I know for a fact that the guys at Circuit City at my locations are not as you describe, but the damage may be done based on past experiences.
But anyway, that is my 2 cents. I find it a sad thing to see to see a business close up shop, even if you are getting rid of alot of bad, you get rid of alot of good as well. Same goes for Enron and the like.
I have no doubt that there are some good apples in there, but those people will be the ones that may have an easier time finding work after moving on from CC. But, you can't dismiss all of the negative posts on this article and others relating to CC...as an organization they were doing something wrong. I won't say that Best Buy is perfect, but if this is a case of "pick your poison" I'll take the Blue pill over the Red any day.
- by mssoot November 3, 2008 8:09 AM PST
- Personally, I'm surprised they hung on this long after Best Buy started up.
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(18 Comments)Everybody I know hated this store for years. The number one thing that drove people crazy was the way sales people hounded you as though they were working on commission which I think years ago they were.
That stigma never left my mind even years later after it stopped. One turned off is all it really takes, nobody wants to shop where there's a chance your going to be creeped out by being asked 5 times if you need help