All Circuit City stores set to close tomorrow

Circuit City will be going completely out of business and closing its doors at the end of the day tomorrow, ending their going-out-of-business a few days early.

According to the Great American Group, one of the liquidation firms in charge of CC, the retailer's $1.7 billion in inventory is almost done, with little to no products left in any store.

Some Circuit City locations are giving everything left in the store away for 80-90 percent off, but it is safe to say that anything of real value to anyone (TVs, Blu-ray players, laptops) have been gone for days or weeks now.

The large retailer, once the second largest electronics chain in the United States, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November of last year and was not able to recover despite a strong holiday season.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 7 Mar 2009 12:50

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31 comments

progrockt

Oh darn!
I'll certainly miss the days of high school sales people in the television department not knowing what an HDMI cable is, overly high prices and cashiers being "inconvenienced" by me interrupting their personal cell phone conversations to take my money.

Good riddance!

7.3.2009 13:23 #1

DVDBack23

Originally posted by progrockt: Oh darn!
I'll certainly miss the days of high school sales people in the television department not knowing what an HDMI cable is, overly high prices and cashiers being "inconvenienced" by me interrupting their personal cell phone conversations to take my money.

Good riddance!I actually have to agree 100 percent here..as little as I like to see 30k Americans out of a job in this environment, CC shot themselves in the foot when they got rid of "expensive" experienced sales people and replaced them with minimum wage, rude, inexperienced workers.

7.3.2009 13:54 #2

progrockt

Quote:I actually have to agree 100 percent here..as little as I like to see 30k Americans out of a job in this environment, CC shot themselves in the foot when they got rid of "expensive" experienced sales people and replaced them with minimum wage, rude, inexperienced workers.AMEN!

7.3.2009 14:03 #3

DSWarrior

I couldn't agree more with you guys. Circuit City was waaaay overrated....and I feel good watching it go...sadly there are tons of people left without a job because of it, but that's life. People work, people get fired, people find another job or live from the government...

7.3.2009 15:42 #4

bomber991

7.3.2009 16:07 #5

looser_ur

Originally posted by progrockt: Oh darn!
I'll certainly miss the days of high school sales people in the television department not knowing what an HDMI cable is, overly high prices and cashiers being "inconvenienced" by me interrupting their personal cell phone conversations to take my money.

Good riddance!
Hopefully you're not stupid enough to compare CC to Bestbuy regarding their "High school sales people in the television department" because if you think Bestbuy trumps CC in that respect well then.................there is no hope for you. Bestbuy truly has H.S. employees in every department with a collective amount of knowledge that is maybe a third of what CC employees had.

But I'm sure you're not stupid and aren't comparing to Bestbuy because then you clearly had not ever been one.

7.3.2009 16:44 #6

trexxus

Hopefully you're not stupid enough to compare CC to Bestbuy regarding their "High school sales people in the television department" because if you think Bestbuy trumps CC in that respect well then.................there is no hope for you. Bestbuy truly has H.S. employees in every department with a collective amount of knowledge that is maybe a third of what CC employees had.

But I'm sure you're not stupid and aren't comparing to Bestbuy because then you clearly had not ever been one.

Well maybe you had a decent store near you(cough)but the ones in my area pretty much blew chunks.I know several people from my old Compusa went to a few of them(St.Louis area)and it's not like that helped out what so ever.Outside of hating to see a few decent workers out of a job...GOOD RIDDANCE!

7.3.2009 16:57 #7

progrockt

Quote:
But I'm sure you're not stupid and aren't comparing to Bestbuy because then you clearly had not ever been one.What is Bestbuy?

7.3.2009 16:58 #8

joebloe12

Quote:Hopefully you're not stupid enough to compare CC to Bestbuy regarding their "High school sales people in the television department" because if you think Bestbuy trumps CC in that respect well then.................there is no hope for you. Bestbuy truly has H.S. employees in every department with a collective amount of knowledge that is maybe a third of what CC employees had.

But I'm sure you're not stupid and aren't comparing to Bestbuy because then you clearly had not ever been one.Hopefully you are not the stupid one, saying that Circut City actually deserved to stay in business with the high prices and the terrible customer service they had!

I know you would not be that dumb!

They deserved what they got and I agree with the majority that they shot THEMSELVES in the foot.

7.3.2009 17:40 #9

ceja_11

I was just there, there wasn't crap around, just DVD-R's and component cables. that was it. O well By by circuit city.

7.3.2009 19:37 #10

Ransack

This recession is taking a tool on the entertainment business and economy. People aren't even buying as much Televisions as they use too.

7.3.2009 20:26 #11

windsong

Quote:Originally posted by progrockt: Oh darn!
I'll certainly miss the days of high school sales people in the television department not knowing what an HDMI cable is, overly high prices and cashiers being "inconvenienced" by me interrupting their personal cell phone conversations to take my money.

Good riddance!
Hopefully you're not stupid enough to compare CC to Bestbuy regarding their "High school sales people in the television department" because if you think Bestbuy trumps CC in that respect well then.................there is no hope for you. Bestbuy truly has H.S. employees in every department with a collective amount of knowledge that is maybe a third of what CC employees had.

But I'm sure you're not stupid and aren't comparing to Bestbuy because then you clearly had not ever been one.I dont see a huge difference between Smurfs at BestBuy or spitwads at CC. Neither chain hires competent employees. But then, that is what they DO. They hire idiots so that they don't have to pay them much.

7.3.2009 22:35 #12

slickwill

I've always preferred Fry's over Best Buy and Circuit City because of the discounts they have on merchandise every week, which they publish in the daily news paper. However, there aren't that many Frys' stores compared to Best Buy.

7.3.2009 22:40 #13

P51ride

I work at a national retail office supply chain store and we always have customers coming to us from BB telling us what they charge for their computer services. One customer told one of our techs that BB charged him $ 200.00 to do a system restore on a laptop computer. This is $ 140.00 more than we charge. Another BB customer told us that they charged her $ 600.00 to install WinXP on two computers and she had supplied the WinXP discs. A new employee at our store confirmed that CCity sacked the "overpaid" experienced employees and hired a bunch of stupid kids who didn't know their A$$ from a hole in the ground and expect to survive. The last time I was in CCity NOT ONE associate ever approached me and asked if I had any questions or needed help. Crappy service and imbeciles on staff will kill a business quickly.

Best Regards

7.3.2009 23:58 #14

grkblood

if you need help go grab somebody. who cares if they dont ask you. its not their job to hold your hand during shopping. Also, its not like they are going to deny you assistance if you ask.

8.3.2009 03:12 #15

pensfan12

8.3.2009 03:55 #16

progrockt

Originally posted by grkblood: if you need help go grab somebody. who cares if they dont ask you. its not their job to hold your hand during shopping. Also, its not like they are going to deny you assistance if you ask.I wish it were as easy as that. Last time I was in CC, I actually approached the clerk in the TV department, asked if he worked there and got a very harsh "YEA"! So I asked him where the HDMI cables were that were on sale, he had no clue what they were. After much aggrivation we finally found where they were supposed to be and they were out of them. So I asked if any might be in the back, he sighed and said "he'll look if he has to". After waiting over 10 minutes I finally found him on the opposide side of the building (not even CLOSE to the back room)talking to another employee about the cool car he was buying. I asked him if he was looking, another sigh and he was off again, in the opposite direction of the back room. I followed him and asked "isn't the back room the other direction" he responded with "yea, but we're out of them". I asked if he looked and he snapped back "No, but I just know" (confident words from a guy who doesn't eve know what an HDMI cable even is!)Aparently the manager saw htis and asked to assist me, he actually went to the back and SURPRISE, found the cable in 10 seconds! (he threw the cable to me which I didn't apprecaiate since I was holding something else) I went to the cashieer who was on her cell phone (talking about dinner she made for her boyfriend the night before or something like that) after waiting over a minute for her to finish she told whoever was on the phone "I gotta go, I have a CUS-TO-MER (very sarcastically). She rolled her eyes, hung up the phone, slammed it down on the counter and gave me this "thanks for interrupting me look". The manager was at the other isle, looked over to me and I handed him what I was just about to buy and quipped "you just lost a customer! Hire some real help. I'm not putting up with this crap!" I wrote the main office and got the standard "we're sorry you had this experience BLA BLA BLA" form letter (I knew this was a form letter because the envelope and the content of the letter were correct, but the actual letter wasn't even addressed to me!

Like others said it's always a shame to see people loose jobs, but not these ones!

8.3.2009 05:02 #17

ogryzek

I visited my local CC three times over the last few weeks.

It actually amazed me that the store was packed with jittery customers rummaging through the remaining inventory. Most items were marked UP to their MSRP price and than discounted back down. In the end prices were still a little bit higher than what the store was advertising just before it went kaput. The funny part is that just across the street, Walmart was selling some of the same items for less.

Anyway, with general public trained like Pavlov's dogs to jump on any "going out of business" sale like there's no tomorrow, maybe every retailer should try the same fire-sale tactics.

8.3.2009 11:29 #18

skeil909

Even with the "so-called" huge discounts, computer parts, accessories, etc.. are still priced higher than Newegg's everyday prices.

In regard to Best Buy, in my opinion they are just as bad as CC. I'm not sure what keeps them in business. They also have inadequate customer service and sky high prices.

8.3.2009 14:26 #19

jony218

RIP circuit city, may you join CompUSA and PCclub in greener pastures. Only Bestbuy has survived the price war. Long live (finger cross) Bestbuy.

8.3.2009 15:49 #20

mike.m

Originally posted by slickwill: I've always preferred Fry's over Best Buy and Circuit City because of the discounts they have on merchandise every week, which they publish in the daily news paper. However, there aren't that many Frys' stores compared to Best Buy.I hate the people working at Best Buy, yet I still shop there. There truly aren't that many "knowledgeable" sales people in stores anymore. Whenever I shop, I never trust any "young" sales person. You should always do your homework before buying. For example, last boxing day at Best Buy I asked this teenager (working in the blu-ray section) if they had anymore Sony-S550s in stock...didn't even know what the hell I was talking about. It seems to me that best buy, future shop, and most electronics stores just hire a whole bunch of idiots off the street. I feel bad for most consumers, who don't know a lot about electronics; who get sucked into buying crap off some punk teenage kid who doesn't know a damn thing about what he/she is selling. Circuit City is out now; Best Buy might be soon if they don't make some changes before consumers realize what they are really doing to them.

8.3.2009 16:16 #21

nu2duo

Good riddance!!!!!!!!!! CC employees(not all but most) were f..n idiots. I had one super bad experience with them.
Back in 2004 my identity was stolen and the guy who took it went over to CC and purchased over $6000 in merchandise. This s.o.b was able to walk in the the San Bernardino Ca. CC and convince the sales rep that he was me...simply by giving him my account#. The f..n sales rep went over to the computer, typed in my name and account# and then proceeded to give away $6000. Oh, this was common practice because after this happened, I went over to my local CC and observed how some reps would just ask you for your name...pull it up on the computer screen...and proceed with the sale.
I found out 2 days after this incident and luckily I wasn't liable for their incompetence.
I even spoke with the store manager. He didn't give a damn about my identity theft and I basically ended up hanging up on him.
So anyway, f...u to those San Bernardino CC employees!

8.3.2009 17:05 #22

lawndog

8.3.2009 21:11 #23

Bucknekid

I had the WORST customer service ever in a Circuit City near me. I bought one of their "store brand" Nexx dvd burners. Dead out of the box. I boxed it back up and took it back. The lady at the service desk told me absolutely that I couldn't return it to the store but had to mail it to the manufacturer. I showed her on the box where it said "If this product is faulty return it to the circuit City in which it was bought." After auguring for twenty minutes and talking to her boss I finally was able to exchange it for a LG and get a refund. It was the last time I ever walked into a CC.

8.3.2009 21:43 #24

GryphB

Funny, never really bought much from CC, but then I bought a few things from Worst Buy, and Fry's seems to have a bad rep for products being returned for things either not working correctly or people just don't RTFM. Either way, customer service from both CC and Worst Buy sucks. I wouldn't ever get my computer touched by one of them.

9.3.2009 02:54 #25

joebloe12

Originally posted by grkblood: if you need help go grab somebody. who cares if they dont ask you. its not their job to hold your hand during shopping. Also, its not like they are going to deny you assistance if you ask.Have you even bothered to READ what other people including myself have went through at their stores?

If you would have bothered to read the responses, you would have seen that even WHEN people ask for help they are not GIVEN IT!

So enough with the flippant response that people should just find everything themselves! That attitude is stupid at best, especially when you are talking about retail service! If you are in retail and you cannot even be bothered to help someone who asks, you deserve what you get!

So enough with this crap about it not being there job, it most certianly WAS if they were an employee in that store....and I could care LESS what they were doing or what their position was, they could have gotten help for the people who asked if they could not give it themselves.

Though from what I and others on this board have seen at their stores, being on the phone talking to your girlfriend is no excuse for glaring at a customer who wants to just check out.

So in my opinion, the people that acted like fools and didn't want to wait on customers deserved what they got....standing in an unemployment line!

I just feel sorry for other employees who may not have been like that, but I have to say, I NEVER came across any "good" employees in Circut City!

9.3.2009 03:36 #26

maryjayne

The only concept that I liked about Circuit City was the ability to make a purchase on-line and then go to the store and pick it up. I only did this once for an item that was on sale that I wanted right away. Typically even with shipping, making a purchase from another online retailer is always cheaper than CC.

9.3.2009 12:36 #27

slickwill

Quote:Originally posted by slickwill: I've always preferred Fry's over Best Buy and Circuit City because of the discounts they have on merchandise every week, which they publish in the daily news paper. However, there aren't that many Frys' stores compared to Best Buy.I hate the people working at Best Buy, yet I still shop there. There truly aren't that many "knowledgeable" sales people in stores anymore. Whenever I shop, I never trust any "young" sales person. You should always do your homework before buying. For example, last boxing day at Best Buy I asked this teenager (working in the blu-ray section) if they had anymore Sony-S550s in stock...didn't even know what the hell I was talking about. It seems to me that best buy, future shop, and most electronics stores just hire a whole bunch of idiots off the street. I feel bad for most consumers, who don't know a lot about electronics; who get sucked into buying crap off some punk teenage kid who doesn't know a damn thing about what he/she is selling. Circuit City is out now; Best Buy might be soon if they don't make some changes before consumers realize what they are really doing to them.Yeah, I never rely on the sales rep for anything. I usually do my research online, and if Fry's just so happens to have the item, I just walk in and buy it without talking to a sales rep. The only time I talk to a sales rep is to ask where an item is or if anymore is in stock.

One time, I went into Fry's looking for a cheap 2gb Sony Duo, and the employee told me that the only one left in stock (of that type of duo) was a returned item. I asked if the item was discounted, and he said no because the item was tested and found in proper working order. After purchasing the item, the 2gb did work, but the Pro Duo to Pro adapter didn't work. I didn't bother taking it back.....not worth my time.

I really feel sorry for people who rely on Best Buy's Geek Squad, because they over charge for services that anyone can do if they just took the time and did their own research. For example, I heard that installing an optical drive costs up to $100 dollars, and having a Geek Squad employee come over to your house costs over $200 dollars.

9.3.2009 12:49 #28

looser_ur

Originally posted by ceja_11: I was just there, there wasn't crap around, just DVD-R's and component cables. that was it. O well By by circuit city.
Oh man I couldn't agree with you more. I checked out that place during their liquidation about 3 or 4 times and then found out early on that they hired a separate liquidation company and that the employees in the store were NOT CC employees. They needed to recover 70% of their losses and customers that went in there thinking they were getting a good deal were sadly mistaken. CC liquidators were robbing people blind and deceiving them.

CC always and I MEAN ALWAYS matched prices on everything. Now they didn't do so on many electronics because they carried higher end like Onkyo and Harmon/Kardon compared to BB's Sony and standard Pioneer crap. CC had older, more knowledgeable people and they ALWAYS ALWAYS answered their phones when you called in. BB NEVER does......especially departments.

Hey......people that preferred BB to CC were generally white trash or trash all-in-all. Sorry all you ghetto peeps.......I just call 'em as I see 'em.

13.3.2009 13:32 #29

cass_71

JEEEEZ! CC dies & everyone's ass is in a knot about whether or not they employed unhelpful/cluless high school students or some items were priced $2.00 higher than WallMart! It's the ECONOMY, stupid!

14.3.2009 18:25 #30

Mez

I did not think CC had competive pricing most of the time. Even during the 'fire sale' I did not find any buys. I don't ask salesmen for advice. I do think BB has more motivated employees.

16.3.2009 11:56 #31

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