Circuit City Bankruptcy Sends Landlords Reeling

Media Buyer Planner ^ | November 12, 2008

[Scarchin]

Circuit City is WAY down the list when I’m shopping for electronics etc.

Free markets work.

[MrB]

OH YEAH.

We’re going to be just as polite to 0bama as the left was to us and GW Bush the last 8 years.

Have you seen these bastards calling for unity now? Now that they’re in power, they don’t want divisiveness and dissent, but it was OK when they weren’t in power to criticize and demean everything.

[Petronski]

I think Best Buy warned of trouble because they KNOW they're going to undercut Circuit City all season long so as to deliver the coup de grace.

After that, though, Best Buy basically has no nationwide big-box brick-and-mortar competitor.

[Petronski]

Have you seen these bastards calling for unity now?

Fascists always call for unity. It's a defining criterion.

[mlocher]

Free markets work.

If they make it through bankruptcy, will the store be renamed to "Circuit Village"?

[bornred]

He tried to buy it back in 2003 but was rebuffed.

So, he just ran CompUSA into the ground instead...

[PapaBear3625]

If Circuit City is dependent upon Holiday Sales, it’s curtains. Holiday Sales this year may be the most dismal in 40 or 50 years.

Who is going to buy anything expensive at CC, knowing that if there is a problem with their purchase they are hosed? To overcome that, CC will have to sell their current inventory at cost or below. Also, what supplier is going to ship to them?

[texas booster]

No, Slim owned a majority interest in CompUSA that was liquidated.

Tiger Direct purchased about 20 stores and the rest are gone.

I still can't believe that they didn't keep the Honolulu store open. Top grossing store in the chain for a long time.

[dilvish]

Companies go out of business in good times too. Both Linens N Things and Circuit City have been grossly mis-run companies for a while. For Linens n Thing the problem was deciding to go toe to toe against Bed Bath and Beyond a company with 10 times the revenue and not doing anything to separate themselves as different, heck even the store layout was the same. And Circuit City’s history of firing senior sales people (ie the people that actually knew what they were doing) has been long analyzed.

Don’t take the failure of two poorly run companies as indications of trouble. CC has definitely been doomed for a long time, they just had enough in the bank to delay it until now.

[sanchmo]

The mall owners should convert bank holding companies, and get in line for the free govmt cheese.

[Dysart]

I've got their unity right here.

[MrB]

I had someone the other night say
“I wouldn’t have been that upset if McCain had won”

My response was “McCain winning wouldn’t have been a threat to your very way of life.”

[misterrob]

Who really needs another place to buy consumer electronics? There’s Best Buy, Wal-mart, Costco, Sam’s Club, Radio Shack, tons of local/regional centers and internet retailers.

[antiRepublicrat]

I got some good deals when my local Linens n’ Things closed. It’s a strange mixed feeling, happy saving money with a going out of business sale, but wondering how the employees are going to make ends meet when it’s over.

My local Circuit City is still operating normally. I hope I don’t get to take advantage of another such sale.

[mvpel]

They just built a brand new Circuit City in Amherst, NH. It hasn't even been open a year yet. It's so new it doesn't even show up on Google Street View, which came through southern NH during early 2007.

Here's the Google Maps view of what's now a shopping plaza anchored by Circuit City.

Bummer.

[bamahead]

Consumer advocate Clark Howard was discussing yesterday the impact of CC's decision a year ago to layoff all experience employees and hire minimum wage workers as a big step toward their downfall.

http://clarkhoward.com/liveweb/shownotes/2008/11/04/14384/

Nov 04, 2008 -- Circuit City decision to let employees go costs them big Going back to May 2007, Clark went berserk about the Circuit City CEO who decided to fire experienced employees and managers in order to cut costs. Clark was outraged at the inhumane way the company treated loyal longtime employees.

It didn't take an analyst to see what the result of the move would be: Customers walked when they couldn't get any decent help in the stores. Now Circuit City is barely alive and Clark doesn't see how they'll get out of this jam. After all, many suppliers aren't shipping merchandise to them anymore -- because they know the company is on its last leg.

Retail is entirely self-cleansing. If you don't meet the needs of your customers, you cease to exist. Circuit City is simply getting what it deserves.

Remember, you're nothing without your employees. Businesses have to romance their workers, so that their workers will romance the customers. Managers should use specific individualized positive reinforcement when dealing with employees. Clark compares it to the process of raising a child; you've got to nurture, encourage, support and discipline that child with specific examples.

[doug from upland]

Circuit City has plenty of Chinese crap.

[pissant]

I know. That’s why I said it. Gonna have to find a new place to make your purchases that support the People’s Liberation Army.

[proudpapa]

Lots of room for a few homeless shelters.

[Doohickey]

No, you’re thinking of the already defunct CompUSA.