CC was commission based until 2003 and had people who knew their stuff. Then they went to hourly and laid off everyone who knew what they were doing because they were making too much money. Ever since then they've been Best Buy lite.
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Circuit City Seeks Approval To Liquidate U.S. Business
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CC was commission based until 2003 and had people who knew their stuff. Then they went to hourly and laid off everyone who knew what they were doing because they were making too much money. Ever since then they've been Best Buy lite.
Then:
I definitely thought that CC employees got commission on products as well. Why else would they be so pushy and overly elated when I would purchase more stuff? I can remember several times where I wanted a specific product and they kept trying to talk me into another, only to later find out that they are out of stock on the one I wanted (why not just tell me this in the first place?).
Commissions or not, BB is a much more relaxed place to shop. One thing I did like about CC is that they seemed to have much more flexibility on pricing, particularly for large purchases, whereas BB sticks to the posted price. When I bought a plasma display in 2007 (along with other things like a wall mount, xbox 360, etc.) I believe I got close to $400 off at CC just by asking for a discount.
Bait and Switch.
Circuit City was the master of this, they would put a ad out on the weekends offering a great deal on a TV or something, and only have 1 unit available. When the crowd got there we were to up sell them to better more expensive unit. Bait and Switch.
Circuit City was the master of this, they would put a ad out on the weekends offering a great deal on a TV or something, and only have 1 unit available. When the crowd got there we were to up sell them to better more expensive unit. Bait and Switch.
Planning to check a local one near me out tomorrow...hopefully I'll find some good deals
Bummer for the 34k people though!
Bummer for the 34k people though!
Someone didn't read the article...
This is sad, but not surprising. What surprises me is they just built a brand new, very nice looking CC near me which opened like a month ago. Too bad.
But it doesn't matter because anyone who knows anything about shopping at an electronics retail store (that lives in California) knows that Fry's is King. For those of you that don't know what Fry's is, think of CostCo but full of electronics.
Not quite true...they offered voluntary buyout packages to their 5000 headquarters employees in MN - there were no layoffs.
bad stuff when there's little good will...
This is probably my first post on Macrumors despite having been a member for awhile, but that I aside I decided to come out of the woodwork because I was really bothered by the tenor of some of the posts in this thread.
The comments regarding the "lousy employees" and "Yippee! Sale!" I think are pretty callous.
Yes, I know in these stores you are unlikely to find superb or knowledgeable sales people, but then that's the consumer's fault. You demand high performance at a low price with an almost open-ended return policy AND you expect every employee you talk to know the answer to your question. Sales people like that do not grow on trees. Furthermore it is not reasonable (nor is it economically feasible) to expect chain stores to hire 50 upper tier, knowledgeable sales staff at their realistic market value. The electronics world thrives on a very low profit margin and depends on volume to stay in business. Someone who is knowledgeable enough to pass your muster probably isn't going to be working at best buy or circuit city for $8/hour. There's an old retailer's adage that goes "Price, Service, Selection. Pick Two." Best Buy and Circuit City are Price and Selection. If you want service you need to find a local shop in your area that hires folks passionate about what they sell. No, you may not get the best price or even the best return policy, but you will get someone who knows what they are talking about. SHOP LOCAL!
Despite all this there most certainly are some quality employees that work for Circuit City and, perhaps more importantly all of the Circuit City employees are people who are losing their jobs.
Peace.
This is probably my first post on Macrumors despite having been a member for awhile, but that I aside I decided to come out of the woodwork because I was really bothered by the tenor of some of the posts in this thread.
The comments regarding the "lousy employees" and "Yippee! Sale!" I think are pretty callous.
Yes, I know in these stores you are unlikely to find superb or knowledgeable sales people, but then that's the consumer's fault. You demand high performance at a low price with an almost open-ended return policy AND you expect every employee you talk to know the answer to your question. Sales people like that do not grow on trees. Furthermore it is not reasonable (nor is it economically feasible) to expect chain stores to hire 50 upper tier, knowledgeable sales staff at their realistic market value. The electronics world thrives on a very low profit margin and depends on volume to stay in business. Someone who is knowledgeable enough to pass your muster probably isn't going to be working at best buy or circuit city for $8/hour. There's an old retailer's adage that goes "Price, Service, Selection. Pick Two." Best Buy and Circuit City are Price and Selection. If you want service you need to find a local shop in your area that hires folks passionate about what they sell. No, you may not get the best price or even the best return policy, but you will get someone who knows what they are talking about. SHOP LOCAL!
Despite all this there most certainly are some quality employees that work for Circuit City and, perhaps more importantly all of the Circuit City employees are people who are losing their jobs.
Peace.
33,000 + people out of work.
I can't help but think they "had their chance" after bankruptcy... they could have re-invented themselves. Maybe more of an online presence. Who knows. One thing for sure, they had no visionaries. And these days you are doomed if you don't.
I can't help but think they "had their chance" after bankruptcy... they could have re-invented themselves. Maybe more of an online presence. Who knows. One thing for sure, they had no visionaries. And these days you are doomed if you don't.
Yeah, it's called Amazon. This closing might really be what pushes the US govt. to institute a national tax on items sold on the internet.
CC couldn't compete. My guess is Best Buy might not be too far behind.
Do we note a trend here? The electronic stores are not doing well. When CompUSA closed I thought all the better for BB & CC. Now Circuit City is going down. As these stores close it just means less choice for us. I like to look & touch before I buy. Best Buy could very well follow CC down the road to oblivion. Just BB & Microcenter left for me now. I really like Microcenter. It's always been the best.
Pretty much true
Back in the day circuit city was the place to work for sales commissions. My dad went to school with this guy who later on got a job as a salesman at circuit city. This guy drove a new car (paid for) wore designer clothes and shoes, think stock broker look, pulled down about 65k a year regularly AFTER taxes, working sales at circuit city. This was back in the mid 90's when they were required to wear suits and ladies dresses or dress slacks and nice shirts blouses. THe product they sold was also higher or top shelf stuff. Somewhat like sony stuff used to be Good high end for a decent price but now you have to pay a fortune for anything Sony good or bad.
Best buys came along and showed them how its done. Well showed them a new way to sell and all CC could do was copy it, 5 years later. When i worked there no sales comissions on anything but Extended warranty and service plans crap. You wouldn't believe how many people wanted to get a Plan on an ACER I mean come on. I wouldn't even mention it unless they did.
BUT alas this is all academic now water under the old bridge.
Good bye CC!
Sears is still a pretty big competitor as well. They are geared more towards appliances, however they still have a pretty nice electronics department. I know they still pay their employees commission in the appliances and electronics departments. That tends to drive the sales people to be more knowledgeable, however it can also make them more pushy. I know someone that works there and he makes a pretty good paycheck, but he has to work his butt off selling.
The BBuy staff are a bunch of teens who don't know the difference between hard drive size and RAM (I would think teens are more computer savvy!) They're nowhere to be found.. sucks that CCity is closing.. got a lot of stuff from there.
That's really unfair for you to say this don't ya think? Maybe it's from your own experience but TBH a ton of the forum members here are in the age level of 12-18 (not me) and think they know every damn thing and think they have the answer to everyone's problems that come here with questions. And TBH they actually do.
Teens are the ones who pay the most attention to technology.
I told their customer service a year ago they'd be a dead company in exactly one year. I hit it on the head. Their bait and switch tactics so pissed me off I called them out on it and everyone I talked to had a bad and a who cares attitude. You could smell rotting flesh a mile away.
Unfortunately, they will be raising their prices up to MSRP first. Then gradually lowering them all while calling it a "sale." As for me, guess I'll continue buying online and at the Apple Store with the occasional Bestbuy purchase.
According to their FAQ link http://www.circuitcity.com/closed.html they're losing approx 34,000 employees from the 567 U.S. stores. On the same page it says they have 765 Canadian stores with just 3,000 employees. WTF?
Huh? It is the second-largest SPECIALITY ELECTRONICS retailer in the U.S.
Not the second largest of all retailers (as Best Buy is not the first of all retailers either).
Agreed.
It was nice going into CompUSA knowing there was actually an Apple rep on site.
best buy's next
I know some revel in the demise of CC, but for me it's karma. I worked for The Federated Group (not Federated Dept Stores) in California in the 80's when Circuit City wiped them out. I'd like to know what Best Buy thinks is going to save them? When's the last time you dropped a large chunk of change on electronics at a brick & mortar outlet (excluding Costco or Walmart)? You can't convince me that all the folks who work at BB have vast amounts of product knowledge that would just paying premiums over internet purchases.
I know some revel in the demise of CC, but for me it's karma. I worked for The Federated Group (not Federated Dept Stores) in California in the 80's when Circuit City wiped them out. I'd like to know what Best Buy thinks is going to save them? When's the last time you dropped a large chunk of change on electronics at a brick & mortar outlet (excluding Costco or Walmart)? You can't convince me that all the folks who work at BB have vast amounts of product knowledge that would just paying premiums over internet purchases.