Circuit City to close 155 stores

[TR0N]

Damn i had no idea they were in that bad of shape.
http://consumerist.com/5074161/updated-breaking-circuit-city-closing-155-stores
Now i hear they were in financial trouble but i wasn't expecting this.

[Turbo D]

That sux, heh. They recently opened up a "The City" in my neighborhood. I went in there and was swarmed by salesmen! Its a very fun store though; they have all the consoles hooked up and you can play for as long as you want. 

[PCEngineHell]

Already expected this to happen years ago. I worked for one for about a month then quit since I was moving. Their benefits sucked, as did the pay, work hours, lack of break times, ect. Overall they seemed to be a tad abusive to employees with the one sided "what can you do for us, because we are not doing shit for you?" attitude. I turned in notice that I was quitting, and notified them of my new address, and got jerked around about my last paycheck, with them at the store assuring me over and over again it was mailed out, only to find out they sent it back to corporate. I only found this out due to the fact I called their corporate location number. They themselves jerked me around for a week until I threatened to go to the labor board and file a claim for withheld wages. Then all the sudden they were all too eager to send my check express mail. Heard from a friend they did this to her boyfriend also in a similar situation. About a week after I got my check they made some national announcement they were going to be letting  people go in masse in a effort to try to keep stores open in a restructuring action, in hopes this would build up stock and investor confidence. Some corporate guy stated in a interview something along the lines of "people are more then welcome to reapply for their old position, or a new one, at a lower pay rate if they are rehired".

[ParanoiaDragon]

Hmm, my Circuit City doesn't show up on the store locator, looks like mine is gone, which doesn't surprise me.

[Duo_R]

one that I heard is closing didn't show up on the locator, so that looks like a good rule-of-thumb.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

They've been hurting for quite a while, so this doesn't surprise me one bit (their stock price has been in a steady decline for two years and below $1 a share since mid September).  The clowns in charge of that train wreck have implemented some of the goofiest ideas over the years in an effort to compete; not surprisingly, they haven't paid off.

[mobiusclimber]

Does this mean there will be tons of going out of business sales?

[Duo_R]

liquidation sales at closing locations

[Joe Redifer]

Too bad the 14 near me are all staying open.  I would have cleaned those mofos out!  Well, maybe.  Circuit City was just mainly low-to-mid range equipment.

I remember when Circuit City announced the mass-layoffs and the "keep the same job at a lower wage" mentality.  That's a huge "F-you" to any long time employees who really knew their jobs.  That really made me hate Circuit City.

[jperryss]

liquidation sales at closing locations

If it's anything like the CompUSA liquidation, they will mark everything up first.

[MissaFX]

All of their crapsucking stores are still open in Oregon...what a drag.

[SNKNostalgia]

I remember Circuit City opening up here just after Best Buy around 5 years ago. Now this is stupid... There would be some of the same products in both stores. Circuit City would charge $10 more than Best Buy and then you mail in a $10 rebate. This alone gave me the idea that these guys are fucking up. The movie selection is a little better than Best Buy. It sucks that the movie only stores like Reel and Suncoast are all gone. At least the reward rebates were decent at my Suncoast before it shutdown.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Now they're filing for bankruptcy (a.k.a. - an excellent way to get out of all sorts of contracts and agreements and screw some people over).

[nectarsis]

I remember Circuit City opening up here just after Best Buy around 5 years ago. Now this is stupid... There would be some of the same products in both stores. Circuit City would charge $10 more than Best Buy and then you mail in a $10 rebate. This alone gave me the idea that these guys are fucking up. The movie selection is a little better than Best Buy. It sucks that the movie only stores like Reel and Suncoast are all gone. At least the reward rebates were decent at my Suncoast before it shutdown.

Ughhh Cicuit City's by you must be/have been better than up here.  Their movie selection here (4 stores) PLAES in size/variety compared to Best Buy.  As for Suncoast, talk about WAYYYYYYYY over priced, average dvd was $5-10 more (and let's not even touch box sets, etc.) than ANYWHERE else.

[guyjin]

No wonder they're going out of business; they can't do math.

http://consumerist.com/5083182/circuit-city-liquidator-demonstrates-its-ability-to-do-math

[Nazi NecroPhile]

No wonder they're going out of business; they can't do math.

Even if they could, 5% off of a discontinued model ain't exactly a sweet deal. 

[Lord Thag]

Serve's 'em right, I say. I've had nothing but bad luck with this chain since they fired all their best people a few years back to save a couple of bucks. I even complained to the district manager once, I was so ticked off. Went in to buy a TV, and this zitty jackass kid who was running the department (which I was the only person in) talked to his girl on the phone for ten minutes before coming over. When I asked him the difference between two TVs, he just shrugged, said 'I dunno', and walked off. Lots of stuff like that. I defected to Best Buy when it moved into town.

Just goes to show you that you don't skimp on quality help in ANY customer service business. That's what kills them. Bust Buy, while still a chain, has much friendlier, more knowledgeable people, on average.

[Joe Redifer]

I thought Circuit City became way hip and way fly to appeal to all of the cool people out there by changing their name to "The City", though in my opinion it should have been "Tha City".  God damn I hate them.

Jay Leno had a good joke the other night:  What do you call a bankrupt Circuit City?  Radio Shack.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Anyone recall their DVD rental scheme known as DIVX (not to be confused with DivX)?  That six month debacle should've been their clue that the clowns at the helm were incompetent.

[Joe Redifer]

I recall that it made me hate Circuit City for a lifetime.  What a stupid idea!  I only ever when to The City as a last resort or to avoid crowds (as there never were any).

[blueraven]

The were consistently 10-15% more expensive on everything. I bought a Vaio k45 laptop and warranty from them when they did a price match deal 4 years ago, and the motherboard went out after 3 months. The repair departmment refused to honor the warranty due to "catastrophic repair" and I had to ship it back to the manufacturer. The motherboard they replaced it with lasted an additional 4 months, and the battery went dead as well.

They have worse customer service than Ed Debevics.

[guyjin]

[DJLobo]

 

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Why keep it?  It'll just get in the way when it comes time to burn down the store and claim the insurance money. 

[blueraven]

Is that a re-charge tag or a price tag?

Sad thing is, if they have a sign on the extinguisher, an employee probably already tried to sell one... or did.

[Duo_R]

Doesn't look good......

Circuit City CEO details bankruptcy proceedings, admits possibility of liquidation

by Darren Murph, posted Jan 9th 2009 at 1:28PM

Things have been a little rocky (to say the very least) for Circuit City since it filed for bankruptcy protection back in November of last year, and now the acting president and CEO has sent out a letter informing a select few (or the world, as the case may be) of what exactly is going / could be going on. In short, the company has just recently "filed with the Bankruptcy Court a motion that seeks Court approval for a process that formally puts the company up for sale." There's a lot of fluff after that, but the long and short of it is this: a sale could be approved before an auction begins (and its working mighty hard to make sure that happens), but if that doesn't go down by the 16th, the outfit will be " forced to liquidate" soon. We're not trying to be overly dramatic or anything, so we'll encourage you to read the entire, soul-soothing email posted just after the break before going into full-on panic mode.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/09/circuit-city-ceo-details-bankruptcy-proceedings-admits-possibil/

[guyjin]

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/01/16/circuit-city-ist-kap.html#comments

THE END.

[DJLobo]

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/01/16/circuit-city-ist-kap.html#comments

THE END.

Book it. They're done.

[rag-time4]

I should see if I can score a DVD / VHS combo unit before the stores around here are closed. I've got a $10 dollar gift card that I never used. I'm gonna try it. The website says they're still accepting gift cards.

[OldRover]

All the Circuit City stores here (the whole 3 of 'em) have announced liquidation.

[PCEngineHell]

The website says they're still accepting gift cards.

Legally they have to in just about any state if they were purchased from them, ect. Sometimes cards can expire, if they have a exp date, but somestates like the one I live in have laws overriding that, so here you can sue if they don't accept a card.

[rag-time4]

The website says they're still accepting gift cards.

Legally they have to in just about any state if they were purchased from them, ect. Sometimes cards can expire, if they have a exp date, but somestates like the one I live in have laws overriding that, so here you can sue if they don't accept a card.

I checked the card and it still has the full balance, so I'll give it a shot and see if I can find what I'm looking for. Was a bit busy today, but I'll try tomorrow.

[guyjin]

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/01/19/warn-your-friends-ci.html

Don't even bother picking over its bloated corpse.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/01/19/warn-your-friends-ci.html

Don't even bother picking over its bloated corpse.

Who are they kidding?  :

On the deals desk at the front of the store were Nintendo Gamecubes, offered "half price" for $50 each.

[rag-time4]

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/01/19/warn-your-friends-ci.html

Don't even bother picking over its bloated corpse.

Thanks very much for the warning! I won't make a big deal of it, but next time I head to my Dad's place I'll stop by the Circuit City that's on the way and I'll compare what they have to online prices before pulling the trigger.

[Joe Redifer]

CompUSA did the same thing.  They raised their prices and then took 10% off of that and people thought they were getting a deal.  You have to wait a while for the REAL DEALs to begin.

[nat]

FYE is also going out of business.

[rag-time4]

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/01/19/warn-your-friends-ci.html

Don't even bother picking over its bloated corpse.

Guyjin, thanks very much for thw warning! I finally made it to circuit city to check out the DVD/VHS combo units! They were only 10% off. Because of your warning, I went prepared with a notepad to jot down prices. It turns out the prices were on the extreme high end after a brief search on shopping.com

Glad I went prepared!

[SNKNostalgia]

FYE is also going out of business.

Shit!!! I just updated my FYE Back Stage Pass card. They do have some good deals like Kyuss: Circus Leaves Town for $5,which sells anywhere else for $11 or more. They get those deals for some CDs here and there. I guess I should get my moneys worth out of that $15 I spend. I tend to buy music on the spot at times since I am impatient of getting CDs, but Amazon or other online stores are the way to go when I see some CDs I always put off.

It is funny all the FYEs here used to be Sound Shop 3-4 years ago.

Added: Listen to more Kyuss!!! 

[nat]

All the FYEs here used to be The Wherehouse, which closed/sold all their stores except one in California apparently.

[guyjin]

I hate to link to kotakwhore, but:


http://kotaku.com/5158829/tales-of-horror-from-the-circuit-city-liquidation

Circuit city are selling broken returns.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Circuit city are selling broken returns.

That'll buff right out.  Sounds like the buyer and Circuit City fell victim to reshrinking and/or a disgruntled employee (now why should they be disgruntled?).  Just another reason why paying with a credit card is nearly always a good idea, I suppose.

P.S. - It reminds me of Walmart's troubles with rockin' Ipods and real rocks. 

[quoth09]

Circuit city are selling broken returns.

That'll buff right out.

Lol, I severely hope you are being sarcastic 
It looks like a shredder went om nom nom on that disc! 


I should hunt down the ones in my area, and see what I can find. I hear they have slashed prices quite a bit now. Besides, I have a coupon from my Discover Card that is specifically for Circuit City stores, that I just talked to Discover, and they said that Circuit City is REQUIRED to accept the coupon despite the fact that Circuit City stores say they aren't accepting any coupons besides TV converter box coupons from the government. 

I can apparently file a complaint regarding the issue with Discover if Circuit City will not take them - that is what the phone rep at Discover told me, so we shall see.

BTW, has anyone tried calling the locations that are still open? I have called all of the ones within a 30 mile radius, their phone system still works, but when you hit 0, no one will answer the phone.