November 2, 2008

Another business run into the ground - Circuit City

Chalk up another one for clueless dipshit managers -- Circuit City is shuttering 155 stores From The Consumerist:
UPDATED: Breaking: Circuit City Closing 155 Stores
According to anonymous insider tips, Circuit City is closing 155 stores and withdrawing from 12 markets. This will be officially announced tomorrow at 8am, says our source. A scan we received of a letter distributed to CC employees helps corroborate the story. The tipsters say that store employees were told this morning. No information was provided at that time about severance pay. Employees in certain departments, like car installation, and Firedog, will likely be out of a job within 48 hours. Warranties will still be honored. A Consumerist commenter on this post says this story is true, and a few posts in Google Finance forums also attest to the store closing. One post there says the store closings will be effective 12/31/08.
I liked them a lot more than I like Best Buy. They had 660 stores all told so this is just a bit more than 20% of them but still, for a retailer, this is major. Doesn't help that their stock has been in the terlit for the last couple of months. I was in the Bellingham branch in September trying to find a network cable and it took forever to flag someone down. Stood around looking at the cameras on display (they had some high-ticket items there -- $500 to $1K) and nobody wandered over to strike up a conversation and maybe make a sale. I guess the writing has been on the wall for some time now and the employees are just going through the motions. One of the commenters in the Consumerist said that their primary source of revenues has been the sale of extended warranties. Posted by DaveH at November 2, 2008 6:58 PM | TrackBack
Comments
Post a comment









Remember personal info?