I knew Circuit City was in some financial trouble but never really knew the extent of it. I wrote the place off a long time for several reasons:
- In store help was terrible – I’m not sure if employees were just of the grain that didn’t care, or if the salaries/incentive plans were bad, or if there was little or no training. Bottom line, it was always very difficult to get or a straight answer from anybody in the store.
- SmartPost has to be a scam, right? – I wrote this place off after a slew of disappointing web orders I made. I’ll admit it, I purchase things at the lowest price I can find them. CC had a few things I was looking for and had the best price for them online. To this day, I am not entirely sure that I understand the FedEX/USPS shipment method called SmartPost, but my frustration mounted to dangerous levels as I tried time and time again to track my packages. If you’ve had any dealings with SmartPost, then you know what I am talking about. If you have not, then count yourself among the lucky. I really hope that the CC demise is also the demise of SmartPost. I cannot believe that is a legal form of shipping based on the sheer deceit of the whole thing and I could stand on this reason alone to take joy in the news this morning.
- Prices were too high – Whereas CC sometimes offered good deals online, I can’t recall ever getting a good deal in the store. In fact, I often found items at the store marked up 10%-20% from what just about everyone else sold the item for in store, or online.
I really want to rejoice in the fact that a company that has “wronged” me so many times has finally reaped what it has sown. I love to see companies that have been mismanaged go down. And one thing I know about mismanagement is that it is rarely a secret, so someone on the planet could have stepped in and done the right thing at some junction in the store’s downfall.
Truth be told, I could just have bad luck with the place. And as I think back to simpler times when Circuit City was one of the few mainstream electronics store a kid could go to, I am thankful to have good memories to look back on. So a big thank you goes to the person who started the company with a sound vision and a desire to get people the electronics that they need. And a big thank you goes to whatever parties are responsible for ruining the company; thank you for not letting down the good guys and proving yet again that the bad guys will get theirs in the end. Unfortunately, those responsible have probably already cashed out and it is the 34,000 employees that are about to lose their jobs that will ultimately suffer in the wake of this event.
Circuit City’s website has been updated and it spookily doesn’t have anything to sell you-
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