Posted on 12/30/2007 10:44:19 PM PST by B-Chan
The Washington Post had a good story on the dealings of the electronics retailer Circuit City. Unfortunately, it was buried in the business section where no one will see it. It should have been plastered at the top of the front page.
The basic story is that last March, the wise men who run Circuit City came up with the brilliant idea of laying off their more senior salespeople, who get $14-$15 an hour, and replacing them with new hires who get around $9 an hour. It turns out that this move was not very good for business. One of the reasons that people go to a store like Circuit City, rather than buying things on the Internet, is that they want to be able to talk to a knowledgeable salesperson. Since Circuit City had laid off their knowledgeable salespeople, there was little reason to shop there.
Apparently Circuit City came to this same conclusion earlier this fall and tried to hire back some of the people it had dumped. In any case, things have not gone well for the bottom line. The company is now losing money and its share price is down more than 75 percent from its value earlier this year.
We all know what happens when you mess up in the dog eat dog world of big business -- you get retention awards (that's because your stock options aren't worth anything). The Post reports that Circuit City's executive vice-presidents will get retention awards of $1 million each. That's 35 years worth of pay for one of sales clerks who earned $14 an hour. And that's just the bonus.
This touching account of Santa Claus visiting Circuit City's executive suites belonged on the front page of the Post and every other newspaper. What better way to get in the Christmas spirit?
LOL "capitalism".
This kind of thing happens all the time. Sometimes it amazes me how our economy keeps going.
It might suck at times like this, but have you got a better idea?
Nardelli did the same at Home Crapot.
That strikes me as really stupid.
When I go to home depot, I expect a knowledgeable person in the aisle. If I don’t get one, I won’t go there.
Not that socialism is any better. I support a Distributist, Solidaristic economic model — an economic system centered upon small businesses, private enterprise, and a market regulated by guilds — as a moral alternative to a system rigged in favor of pirates like the ones who wrecked Circuit City.
Yes. I support rigging the economic game rules to benefit small entrepreneurs, family farms and businesses, and other individual and smallholders of private property. The joint-stock corporation as we know it today is nothing more than an economic strip-mining machine.
Go to the socialist FEMA or the DMV or the government schools to buy all your stuff instead of capitalist Wal-mart, the capitalist mall ,the capitalist internet etc. if you think capitalism sucks and government planning works so well then.
Go to the socialist FEMA or the DMV or the government schools to buy all your stuff instead of capitalist Wal-mart, the capitalist mall ,the capitalist internet etc. if you think capitalism sucks and government planning works so well then.
Sorry but capitalism works. I can buy anything i could ever need or want in the capitalist free market especially on the internet. By the way Google is a private capitalist company too as is Intel which makes you able to use your computer.
Any government planning just interferes with capitalism.
The problem is that corporations are government creations.
They need to create a “knowledge desk”. Let the ones whom know what they are after go and keep the “Knowledge Desk” for everybody else. Sheesh, does every company require this advice?
Maybe FEMA, a government, or a small business can do the following which Toshiba, a corporation, has accomplished NO I don't think so: http://www.gizmag.com/toshiba-scib-super-charge-lithium-battery/8506/
December 13, 2007 Toshiba have stunned the world with their announcement of what's pretty much the holy grail in Lithium battery technology – the Super Charge ion Battery, which recharges up to 90% of its energy in just five minutes, and has a lifespan of over 10 years. Slow charging has been the key hurdle to public acceptance of battery-electric vehicles as viable distance travelers, so this breakthrough has all sorts of implications for the automotive industry as well as being a very welcome upgrade to a whole host of other portable devices.
Corporations are not owned by a state so it is capitalism.
Can an individual not own controlling stock in a corporation?
I don’t think government-planned economies work well at all. I’m against the whole idea.
I’m for a private enterprise system in which the rules are written to prevent the concentration of capital in the hands of large joint-stock corporations and to promote the distribution of capital among small property owners, individual entrepreneurs, and family businesses.
The capitalist system produces great wealth. However, wealth is not the highest good a society should aim for. Righteousness, justice, and freedom are all more to be desired than all the toys Wal-Mart offers. A system in which incompetence, dishonesty, and stupidity are rewarded (and competence, honesty, and intelligence are punished) is not a just, righteous, or free society.
Maybe FEMA, a government, or a small business can do the following which Toshiba, a corporation, has accomplished? NO I don't think so: http://www.gizmag.com/toshiba-scib-super-charge-lithium-battery/8506/
December 13, 2007 Toshiba have stunned the world with their announcement of what's pretty much the holy grail in Lithium battery technology – the Super Charge ion Battery, which recharges up to 90% of its energy in just five minutes, and has a lifespan of over 10 years. Slow charging has been the key hurdle to public acceptance of battery-electric vehicles as viable distance travelers, so this breakthrough has all sorts of implications for the automotive industry as well as being a very welcome upgrade to a whole host of other portable devices.
When I go to home depot, I expect a knowledgeable person in the aisle. If I don’t get one, I won’t go there.
i’ve been going to Lowes, which is out of my way. that’s where I find the former HD employees.
I've worked for stupid upper management before, and no it isn't pleasant, nor do they ever get what they deserve, but stupidity lets the little guy take on the big guys and win.
A high living standard (i.e. material wealth) is not the highest goal to which a society should aspire.
Yes, corporations are privately owned. But they are so heavily regulated by the government that it’s much akin to Fascism.
Either way, it’s the government that set up the rules and regs that allowed that nonsense at Circuit City. The criminals in charge get their golden parachutes, and the stock holders and the employees get the shaft.
Stockholder suit for malfeasance & fraud?
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