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Circuit City: And Now It's Dead

i.gizmodo.com — Today, after 50 years, Circuit City no longer exists. A moment of silence is in order.

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 10, 2009

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  • DeathfireD, on 03/10/2009, -16/+563Why is Snoop Dog working at Circuit City?
  • trolleyfan, on 03/10/2009, -2/+364The only surprise is that it took a recession to kill it.
  • motang, on 03/09/2009, -4/+331R.I.P. dear (expensive) friend!
  • FaceEraser, on 03/10/2009, -7/+269Give Best Buy a chance. I'll disappoint you eventually.
  • HeDiggMe, on 03/09/2009, -24/+245***** this store. Every Circuit City in PG County, MD assumed I was a thug trying to shoplift, with their "random" inspections and hawkish observation. I'm sorry I couldn't dance on their grave a little longer.

    Never had a problem with Best Buy.
  • DorXtar, on 03/10/2009, -15/+197Good riddance.
  • bcassner, on 03/10/2009, -4/+179Hopefully Best Buy will learn from Circuit City's mistakes. You can't charge high prices, rude sales people and poor return policies and expect to stay in business.
  • Ascus, on 03/10/2009, -1/+152Across the street from the (now former) Circuit City is a new mom an pop computer store that actually has people working there that know about computer and had decent prices. No loss leaders but no $45 cables either. So out of the shadow of the monolithic company, new companies will thrive.
  • sungoddess808, on 03/09/2009, -15/+153I tried to shop at Circuit City years ago, but their lack of customer service gave me much incentive to walk out of the store and shop elsewhere. =)
  • DeanO1589, on 03/10/2009, -0/+136Times are tough all over man.
  • JasonCox, on 03/10/2009, -1/+110Ok, moment of silence over, now back to shopping at NewEgg.
  • inactive, on 03/10/2009, -2/+90I just go to CC and BestBuy to play with stuff and then buy it online for less. The only problem is if BestBuy goes out of business, I will have lost my electronics showroom.
  • PhoenixAvatar2, on 03/10/2009, -9/+93I let them do it because I generally try not to be an ***** to people.
  • UselessTrivia, on 03/10/2009, -5/+88Why are you reading a Gizmodo comment thread AND a Digg comment thread about the same article?
  • inactive, on 03/10/2009, -3/+85Best Buy sucks too. 20 teenagers walking around doing nothing and only 1-2 registers open with a line a mile long to check out.
  • inactive, on 03/10/2009, -6/+83Actually that is the reason I LIKED Circuit City. Why can't I just stare at the TV's for 10 minutes without some pushy sales guy coming at me every 30 seconds like Best Buy?

    If I want help I will go ask someone, i'm not a child.
  • Nothlit, on 03/10/2009, -1/+77So you had to wake up at 9:45? Horror of horrors...
  • shadus, on 03/10/2009, -4/+73While I feel sorry for all the people who lost their jobs in all other aspects its pretty much-- Good Riddance to horribly overpriced crap. Best buy was cheaper and best buy is over priced. After they made their changes to sales at circuit city you couldn't even get service. It's like their business model consisted of: Make all competitors look good on price, annoy the customers with bad service, and fight about trivial returns, PROFIT!!
  • Crazysticks, on 03/10/2009, -4/+66Best Buy doesn't have to learn from anything. They have no competition now. Unless you count wal-mart.
  • inactive, on 03/10/2009, -2/+64Why does snoop dogg carry an umbrella?
    For drizzle.
    http://www.instantrimshot.com/
  • mhuggins, on 03/10/2009, -3/+64I didn't read that comment on Gizmodo, and I still had the same thought. Amazing how multiple people can think the same thing, isn't it?
  • raydeen, on 03/10/2009, -1/+60Well at least he's honest.
  • Naryuu, on 03/10/2009, -13/+721 down 1 to go... looking at you, Best Buy
  • inc595, on 03/10/2009, -7/+57what, no bailout?
  • diblasio, on 03/10/2009, -7/+57I love you internet tough guy! <3
  • astrotrain, on 03/10/2009, -1/+50Radio Shack is horrible... no where near the quality they were 30 years ago, when you could walk in and look for actual electronic parts.

    Now if you go in, and ask if they have 10k resistors, they look at you, and wonder what you are talking in a foreign language, and then try to sell you a cell phone, or a Comcast internet.

  • cejones, on 03/10/2009, -0/+42I do the exact same thing. Local brick and mortar stores give you the ability to test out the products, and figure out which model you really want...

    Then you go online and always find it much cheaper even with the shipping and zero sales tax.

  • secrity, on 03/10/2009, -9/+50Do you work at Best Buy? If so, do you make it a habit of disappointing customers?
  • handheldchimp, on 03/10/2009, -29/+69Why are you reposting a comment from Gizmodo?
  • jefjefjef, on 03/10/2009, -1/+40It's not that those salespeople are pushy--they get reprimanded if they don't contact a customer within 10-30 seconds (whatever it is) of them walking into their department.
    They don't make any commission off their sales so it's no real skin off their back if they don't sell anything, they're just trying to do their jobs.
    Tell them you're just looking and most will back off and leave you alone. Unless they're one of the few crazy salespeople who masturbate to the number of sales they made that day.


    Also--you wouldn't believe how many customers will actually complain if they have to wait too long before being contacted.


    Yes I used to work at Best Buy. No I'm not super loyal to the place but I just think there's two sides to every story.
  • nicktheawesome, on 03/10/2009, -1/+40First thing I thought of.
  • zuiquan, on 03/10/2009, -6/+45A moment of silence? I don't think so. They sucked and sucked hard and it's amazing they were able to stay open as long as they did.
  • cor315, on 03/10/2009, -0/+37lol this is how missing a t means so much
  • shadus, on 03/10/2009, -15/+49I refuse random inspections, I also refuse to show my receipt. If you know I committed a crime, call the cops and arrest me, if not then prepare to meet my attorney for illegally detaining me.
  • apothekari, on 03/10/2009, -0/+30Back in the 90's they were a good place to buy electronics with a knowledgeable sales staff and excellent service. The secret then was that their sales folks were commissioned so they had incentive to make sure you were happy.
    When they took that away in the late 90's ALL their employees that were any good left en masse and the place became a *****.
  • NCSUspoon, on 03/10/2009, -0/+30Circuit City died today. Somebody knows why. Somebody knows.
  • vocalyouth, on 03/10/2009, -10/+40To anyone who is saying "glad they're gone", "i'll piss on their grave!", "no wonder they are going out of business, the prices of the liquidation sale are higher than best buy!", Apparently none of you had even attempted to actually shop there in the past few years, as the prices were very frequently lower than other big box stores and they also would price match any local competitor. Also you don't understand the concept of a liquidation sale. Once the "going out of business" sales start, cc was no longer in control of the company or the prices. A third party comes in and marks everything up to full MSRP and then starts taking the discounts off of that. So in reality you could have bought a lot of the stuff in the going out of business sale way way cheaper had you actually shopped around there instead of going directly to best buy or newegg.

    The fact that it seems like a ton of tech savvy people didn't think to even look there anymore is more of the real reason why they are going under, though, I guess. Whatever, I have bought a lot of stuff there and always got pretty good deals and while there were some morons at my local store there were also a lot of friendly associates who were there for a long time and really knew their stuff.
  • pathouston22, on 03/10/2009, -1/+29Best Buy is a rip off compared to on-line. Plus tax.
  • Biscuitz, on 03/10/2009, -2/+28Maybe he's the same guy?
  • strictnein, on 03/10/2009, -0/+26Your years are off a little bit. Circuit City dropped commission sales in Feb of 2003. I know, I was there and was one of the four people not fired in my department.

    They basically let go of anyone over 30. Now, they didn't quite say that, but after the company meeting where they informed us of the change, there were no salespeople over 30 left.

  • Residents, on 03/10/2009, -1/+26As much as I didn't like circuit city, at least it was a competitor for best buy. The only time I ever go in best buy is when I want to make a large purchase (which is rare) but I want a local store so I can take it back if I have problems. I hate even thinking of going there but the competition is wearing thin to their applause.

    Retail in general is harder and harder because the internet can beat all their prices. The internet companies don't have to maintain a store front for the most part, that reduces costs greatly on the infrastructure alone not even to mention staffing. Retailers make their big bucks on the smaller items, like the $20 USB cable that costs them $2 or the $60 HDMI cable that costs them $12. As the price goes up, in general not specific, the margin goes down. Even if they make $200 on a huge TV, they still had to ship it there and stock it taking up measurable space, etc. All I ever buy at retail stores is the big stuff as a result of that reason, plus bigger things are easier to return to the store than worrying about shipping out to newegg etc.
  • inactive, on 03/10/2009, -4/+29Best Buy sucks just as much, if not more.
  • inactive, on 03/10/2009, -0/+25TOO MANY TIMES, these companies are so concerned with the bottom line that they forgot who is giving them their money: The customer.

    When you forget your customer and bow to the almighty dollar (your investors) instead of creating a sustainable business model, you are destined to go out of business. And yes, sometimes it takes an economic swing to knock the supports out from under the business.

    It was probably in the last 10 years that these companies became so unstable that any economic anomaly would do it in.
  • stenhard, on 03/10/2009, -1/+26Long ago my wife and I were at Circuit City shopping for a microwave. I had already told 2 sales people that I was just looking when the third salesperson walked up. By far the most overbearing of the three (I'm guessing they had gotten together and decided "Let's send in Vinnie...he's a real closer!"), he started talking about how great a certain model was at popping popcorn. When we began to leave he practically demanded we stay while he went to get a bag of popcorn to demonstrate. Once he got back and started the demo we again turned to leave. When he protested that it wasn't done and "didn't we want some popcorn?" we reminded him that we'd told him in the first place we were only browsing and no...we didn't want any popcorn. We left him standing helplessly in the aisle with popping popcorn playing as our exit music and the smell of hot buttered sales failure hanging in the air. Never went in there much after that.

    Now that they're closed I wonder what happened to Vinnie. Sure hope he hung onto that bag of popcorn.
  • Khast, on 03/10/2009, -0/+23Circuit City when it was originally started was great. When the original CEO retired, the company went through massive restructuring, becoming what we knew it as. It was mismanaged to hell. Hopefully businesses in general learn from this mistake. You can't live on the legacy of a good business, if your business model changes.
  • secrity, on 03/10/2009, -7/+30I prefer to piss on CC's grave rather than to give it a moment of silence.
  • bnl771, on 03/10/2009, -2/+24It's PG county... What do you expect?
  • ippey, on 03/10/2009, -3/+25Convenience for impulse shopping. Not everyone can fly to a shop in Manhattan to buy a new camera.
  • lejake, on 03/10/2009, -5/+27It's hilarious that people want all these electronics retailers to fail, like they take pride in it. Don't you realize that you'll just move on to complaining about the next one? Is it also hilarious when sole proprietorships fail? All companies originally started as Mom & Pop shops...don't forget that.
  • LJas, on 03/10/2009, -6/+2890% of that store was full of expensive, useless crap.

    Later, CC!
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