Circuit City Closing all US operations

[Conch Republican]

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/16/news...ion=2009011611

Interesting read - Looks like Canadian Operations would stay open (eh)

Hmm, wonder what that means for my buddy working there ( well other then bad things) Last time he left there *left and came back* he got a nice severance package.

[TripleF]

WOW, not good news for sure.

[Kreth]

While I feel for the employees, there's a reason they're known as Circuit Sh*tty...

[doctorcue]

Well, personally I saw this coming for years. As a former Manager, the company waited too long to change. By the time CC started making changes; Best Buy had already set up shop from Coast-to-Coast. I remember being in district meetings in the late 90s with "Best Buy is coming!" being chanted. Yet, their response was to insure pricing was good. They never thought of the experience. Best Buy is just more exciting to go into. CC always felt like an old Sears (no-offense to Sears). By the time they changed the sales staff from pushy to more BestBuy-like... it was too late. At that point they were headed into the same place as Montgomery Wards Electric Ave, Goodguys, CompUSA, etc.

As bad as CC was/is; I think it sucks that now our electronics retailers are Best Buy, WalMart, & Costco. Sure there are Frys but not that many. Sure you can buy whatever you want off of the web; but something about seeing it in person makes a difference for me.

So long CC. I made a bunch of friends there & met my wife there. So it wasn't all bad. I do wonder how my TV warranty/extended service will be honored. Who knows???

[Dooge]

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-...,7115691.story

Some questions been answered on there.. it seems tha the warranty is still being covered by a 3rd party company

[cvm4]

I hate to see this happen. But the management just didn't seem too competent for the last couple years.

[Starscream]

Circuit City had a decent audio installation service, but I hated going inside if I planned on buying something. Had to wait forever in the checkout line, even if there were only one or two customers in front of me. Customer service is everything.

[JohnnyKay5]

Circuit City Bomb anyone?

[Sailchaser]

Customer Service is the key to every business and with the huge cuts in labor at most big boxes it will just be a matter of time before we see others fall to the wayside.

I feel bad for all those who lost their jobs, but to me it seems like Circuit City has had one foot out the door for the better part of a decade. That chain is one of the worst priced, IMO.

While I feel bad for all of the employees, I don't think that it could have happened to a better company.
Two years ago, my wife was let go from there during their "Restructuring" She and I both worked there for 10+ years. I luckily got a state job about 2 months prior to the cuts, otherwise I would have been gone too. When she was let go, she had been a manager, a lead and a trainer, and she was let go without so much as an "I'm sorry" or a "Thank you for all your hard work" pretty much a slap in the face and a shove out the door. They wouldn't even let her walk out unescorted, like she was some sort of criminal 9same with the other 10 people that were let go. Needless to say, we are still feeling the reprecussions of that, since she could only get a part-time job paying minimum wage, because places were not able to work with her college schedule.
But at least she got to spend more time at home with our son, who was only 3 months old at the time.
Rant over
Again, I honestly do feel horrible for the 35k employes who will now be without jobs. I do wonder though, what will become of the money that CC would not release to her that ws part of her "retirement"? She was told at the time that they could not release it to her since it was over $5K

[RGD.]

Actually I guess I am one of the few who preferred Circuit City over Best Buy.

I would normally order online then drive over and pick it up. Both places are close to each other - but Circuit City has a large parking lot - while Best Buy has an extremely small lot shared by about 20 other businesses. Half the time I have to park at the mall and walk across 6 lanes of traffic.

As for pricing - they always seemed to beat Best Buy. Just bought my wife a Toshiba LCD TV - lower price at Circuit City. Same thing for the Canon camera and HP laptop bought for my daughters.

In addition the first (and only time) time I ordered online for Best Buy - I needed a video card asap. Placed the order - only to get a message stating that it was not in stock - anywhere. Kicker is this: Since I had extra cash I used my debit card. Best Buy charged my card - and after calling the 1-800 number was informed it would be three weeks before my card would be credited. So yeah - out almost $300 bucks for 3 weeks. Pretty much just the same as calling them up and saying here - take my money and hold it but don't give me anything. Ended up using my credit card at Circuit City. Since then I have refused to deal with Best Buy. Guess I'm stuck now with ordering online from Newegg, Crutchfield, etc. from now on.

So I for one am going to miss them.


Ron

[CigaSkills9]

A sign of the times! I hate to see CC go, but I'm a BB person. Like everyone else has said, I feel for the families!

[Studebaker]

Circuit City was kind of the sentimental favorite for me. I bought my first Onkyo home theatre receiver from them in '00. Their sales staff did leave a lot to be desired in recent years though and I'd been going to BB more often when I wanted to buy from a big box store. I'm thankful for my job when they're dropping like flies all around.

[hotreds]

Best Buy and W#ally World seem to have pretty much taken over the field. Cinci has lost a bunch of electronics retailers in the past several years. Tough times, indeed!

[shilala]

THOUSANDS of stores have gone out of business this past year, and there are many more to go out of business this year.
Granted, some had a good hand in their own demise.
By far, the greatest impact on the downturn of the economy has been caused by gas prices. In the last 6 years the price has nearly tripled.
For sake of argument, let's say it's only cost twice as much over the whole term of six years.
We use 386,000,000 gallons of gas a day.
That is 845,340,000,000 gallons in the last six years.
Instead of paying $1,690,680,000,000 we paid twice that.
That means in six years almost 2 TRILLION EXTRA dollars went to pay for gas during Dubya the oilman's watch.

Now, all of a sudden, gas is about 30 cents higher than it was 6 years ago and it continues to drop fast.

The loss of two trillion dollars of money that's pumped back into the economy as folks buying stuff they don't need will cripple and kill LOTS of business.
I'm just hoping folks will place blame where blame is due.

For the sake of argument, and cause I rounded up, and because I know the numbers I figured up may be beat down by argument, let's call it One trillion.
Still makes a pretty valid point, and I have yet to hear any questions asked as to why it's been let to happen or why no one has asked why gas is now $1.50 a gallon.
I guess I'm just retarded, I dunno.

Oh, one more thing...
The gas prices have gone up in lots more places than the US. Lots of other countries are suffering even worse than we are because their economies are smaller. Some have completely collapsed.
Oh yeah...
We kicked up 588 billion so far to insure we get to pay double for protecting the oil, too. That'll put a dent in the economy a bit. At least that money created some jobs and fed some families.

[Tenor CS]

Can't say I will miss Circuit City. I had one close to me in Miami, and I was always perplexed as to why the line for returns was always 10x longer than the line for purchases.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Tenor CS

Can't say I will miss Circuit City. I had one close to me in Miami, and I was always perplexed as to why the line for returns was always 10x longer than the line for purchases.

Hehehehe.
I went to CC to see a laptop that I wanted to buy. It wasn't on display for some reason, but they had two boxed on the shelf. I wanted to physically see one to make sure I was okay with it (never saw one in person).
I was told I needed to purchase it in order to see it. I could do it right there and return it at the next counter if I didn't like it. Store policy.
At that moment Circuit City and I parted company and I've never been in one since. That was 6 or 7 years ago. I never did get to see that laptop.

[tchariya]

About 15 years ago I interviewed for a CC job selling computers at one of their new stores. Well, they put me through 4-5 interviews even with the district manager and I was given a verbal of 'we would love to have you on the team'. Two days later, I get a call telling me I was 'over-qualified' to sell their computers. I was desperate for a job to help make ends meet.

Oh well...glad I didn't join up.

I'm sorry for those who lost their jobs without notice...without severance.