Circuit City Closing

[MountainDon]

I went to their website to check on something and all I got was their closing announcement.

[StinkerBell]

http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/?fpn=circuit%20city%20to%20be%20liquidated&GT1=33009

[John_C]

I heard a discussion of the Circuit City situation on the radio before Christmas.

IIRC   When they were in financial trouble a year or so ago, the "restructuring" plan was to fire pretty much all of the store workforce that had any experience and replace them with new, minimum wage workers.  Almost overnight they had no one in the stores who actually knew anything.

Sad for the employees, current and prior, but they so needed to die.  I hope the execs get seats near the fire in hell.

[MountainDon]

That leaves Best Buy and Walmart as the two main players in national chain retail electronics. An oligopoly.

[John_C]

From an article I came across

".......in March 2007, Circuit City fired more than 3,400 experienced sales people and other staffers simply because they were making too much money. Management then hired inexperienced, lower-paid workers to take their place. Bad move. Really bad move. This short-sighted decision may have looked good to then-CEO Philip Schoonover, who collected a cool multi-million bonus that year for his cost-cutting brilliance, but I'm convinced that it drove shoppers elsewhere........
(An aside: The Wall Street Journal named Schoonover the worst CEO of 2008 for his managerial bungling.)  "


Article here
http://www.pcworld.com/article/157925/circuit_city_i_wont_miss_you.html

[NM_Shooter]

Don.. didja get your TV?

[MountainDon]

Re: management at CC. It's really criminal when the CEO and upper level management get bonuses by screwing everyone else; lower level employees and the marketplace both, IMO.


Frank, yes I did. But I got it at Best Buy across the road from CC. 

We went to CC and joined about 25 others waiting for the 10 AM door opening. At that point they had not marked down anything much. The main thing was that I had narrowed what I wanted down to three sets. Their shelves were bare on the two they carried. They actually had lots of bare spots on the shelves; it looked like a place that couldn't afford to buy merchandise to sell. As well, they didn't have either of the DVD-R's I was interested in.

So across the road we went. Best Buy had several of the Toshiba TV we wanted so we bought it from them. They had it on sale last week so it was even less than Sam's Club was selling it for. But Sam's was out of stock and would not price match/beat.

So now I can see all the print on the screen.    Up to yesterday we've been using the same Toshiba we bought in 1997. For the past year or so it's been getting more and more difficult to read things like the news ticker or closed captioning and subtitles.

I'm totally blown away with the quality of the HD broadcasts. Digital is an improvement over analog, but HD is a quantum leap. We do not have cable or satellite, just a roof top antenna. Trivia: The ABQ area has one of the lowest cable and satellite TV market penetrations in the country. That's because all the broadcast towers are located on Sandia Peak, a 10K+ mountain right at the east edge of the city. The city spreads out some 3500+ feet below. Direct line of sight from the towers to my roof is 13.2 miles. Super reception.

Anyhow, we now have an RCA digital converter box we don't need. As soon as the new DVD-R with a digital tuner gets here I'll craigslist it.

[Pox Eclipse]

I went to CC yesterday to see if there were any bargains.  Very few significant markdowns, none more than 10-20%, which is not even as much as a pre-Xmas sale.  I expect they will gradually increase the discounts each week until March, then what ever picked-over crap is left will be cut to the bone.

[MountainDon]

Don.. didja get your TV?

And I really like feeding the laptop screen to it!   

[fishing_guy]

These liquidations are handled by a company which buys the entire stock.  They are then free to (re)price the starting point at which discounts are taken.

They did the same thing with our CompUSA and Home Depot.  Same guys holding signs on the street corners.

Be careful.  Deals aren't what they seem to be.

[MountainDon]

I've never been one to be attracted by signs advertising 'percentage offs', because as you pointed out it all depends on what starting point was selected. It's the net price that matters and anyone who goes out shopping for something without knowing in advance the current street price is being foolish. I had checked all the major players in town as well as looking online.

It's sometimes good to remind people of the hazards of going by the percentage off though. On the other hand there are sometimes bona fide great discount sales. But once again, you have to have checked out the market in order to know.

Caveat emptor is still a very valid approach.

[NM_Shooter]

Same thing with a jewelry store in Cottonwood Mall.. going out of biz sale.  They would increase their percentage discount each week, but increase the "original" price as they were going along.  Ought to be illegal!