Future of Circuitcity.

[Smokey]

Have both Bestbuy and Circuitcity within mile of where I work and anytime I pass by both stores, BB parking lot is full of activity while CC parking lot seem like a ghost town. And it seem to be national trend as their profits have fallen.

So was wondering since business is so bad for Circuitcity, do they have a plan to stay afloat?

Since they got bad publicity last year for firing their best employees for cheaper labor, it seems they been going down the hill ever since.

[blackraven]

Same here in my town. Internet business is killing them.

[Smokey]

Internet business is killing them.

Not to mention Walmart is sitting one block away

Maybe CC should use the same strategy as Target chain stores use when they had fierce competition with Walmart, and move to higher end market. It seem to be working for Target stores.

[bobsticks]

I am on a personal boycott of CC for customer service reasons...and I'm not "that guy".

[filecat13]

There's no compelling reason to go into Circuit City. The last few times I went--over a year ago--I walked around a bit and couldn't find a single thing that interested me. It used to be I could at least find something on sale that I might be half interested in, but not any more. Overpriced, limited-selection, boring merchandise sold by ignorant, unprofessional salespeople is not attractive to me. Plus, I got really tired of the three or four person knots of unkempt employees too busy talking about "OH MY GAWD...!! pointless juvenile experiences to bother to help me when I actually wanted help.

While I'm no more in love with Best Buy than CC, usually I can actually kill some time there looking at some CDs or DVDs, or maybe checking out a refrigerator or something. I have a Best Buy gift card that an employee gave me two Xmases ago that I still haven't used, so it's not like Best Buy is filling me with desire, but at least I don't get the feeling that I HAVE TO GET OUT, which is how I feel after five or six minutes in Circuit City.

[JSE]

Circuit City sucks. The layout sucks, the service sucks, their service sucks, and oh did I mentioned their service sucks, etc.

It's such a hassle to buy anything there. You have to track someone down and make them take money from you and then you have to go harrass another person to actually go get your purchase from the back. At least with best buy, you find an item, you pick it up and take it to one of many checkout counters. And get this, there is actually someone at the counter waiting to take your money! I know, revolutionary.

Besy Buys are cleaner, better stocked generallly easier to pruchase from. I always feel dirty going into a CC. They just seem like an 80's throwback and the grey and burgundy walls just scream excitement!

The bottom line is I can almost always find what I need at Best Buy. It's about a 50/50 chance at CC.

RIP CC.

[jamison]

Circuit City does suck... Best Buy is better but not by much.
after researching HDTV's I decided to go to Best Buy to purchase a Sony bravia XBR4 Tv and an 80 GB PS3 with motorstorm. First off the salesperson didnt even seem interested that I was forking out nearly 4 grand of my hard earned dough for this stuff. then they couldnt find the tv in stock... 20 min goes by and no one has an answer... I go to leave the security guy at the door asks me if i found what i was looking for... I said im looking for decent service and your company sucks at it.
so i go to circuit city across the street. in contrast to best buys parking lot circuit citys parking lot is empty.
I find the same TV and the 80GB ps3 for pretty much the same price give or take. same thing as other posters 3 or 4 people sitting around in a huddle talking about the football game and not waiting on me. 20 min later I asked for the manager... I ask him why his employees were more concerned about a football game than my spending 4 grand. he says ill take care of it... 15 min later im still sitting there with no one helping me.. I go home all peed off. ended up i bought them both on amazon.com and saved nearly $200.00 I had both items in less than a week and free shipping to boot. that was the first time ive been in a circuit city in a year... ive been in best buy probably ten times in the last year and never bought anything due to bad service.. never again.

[JSE]

Circuit City does suck... Best Buy is better but not by much.
after researching HDTV's I decided to go to Best Buy to purchase a Sony bravia XBR4 Tv and an 80 GB PS3 with motorstorm. First off the salesperson didnt even seem interested that I was forking out nearly 4 grand of my hard earned dough for this stuff. then they couldnt find the tv in stock... 20 min goes by and no one has an answer... I go to leave the security guy at the door asks me if i found what i was looking for... I said im looking for decent service and your company sucks at it.
so i go to circuit city across the street. in contrast to best buys parking lot circuit citys parking lot is empty.
I find the same TV and the 80GB ps3 for pretty much the same price give or take. same thing as other posters 3 or 4 people sitting around in a huddle talking about the football game and not waiting on me. 20 min later I asked for the manager... I ask him why his employees were more concerned about a football game than my spending 4 grand. he says ill take care of it... 15 min later im still sitting there with no one helping me.. I go home all peed off. ended up i bought them both on amazon.com and saved nearly $200.00 I had both items in less than a week and free shipping to boot. that was the first time ive been in a circuit city in a year... ive been in best buy probably ten times in the last year and never bought anything due to bad service.. never again.

I tried buying my Samsung 52" LCD at Circuit City and ended up buying through Amazon. Same story as yours, saved several hundred dollars and had it in my house in less than a week.

[Feanor]

Have both Bestbuy and Circuitcity within mile of where I work and anytime I pass by both stores, BB parking lot is full of activity while CC parking lot seem like a ghost town. And it seem to be national trend as their profits have fallen.

So was wondering since business is so bad for Circuitcity, do they have a plan to stay afloat?

Since they got bad publicity last year for firing their best employees for cheaper labor, it seems they been going down the hill ever since.

Actually CC isn't in Canada in it's state-side format. CC owns "Source One" here; Source One shops used to run here under the Radio Shack name but haven't be owned by the parent Radio Shack for decades. Radio Shack wanted put it's license fee away up for use of it's name and CC told them to bugger off. Nowadays Source One still carries some Radio Shack stuff but much less than previously. Their prices are too high; Source Ones are mainly located in malls and their main strategy is to attract passers by with gimicky items.

BestBuy and it formerly Canadian-own subsidiary Future Shop are active in Canada in approx. the U.S. format. Accordingly, both are a principal source of rudeness and misinformation for Canadian consumers

[Mr Peabody]

I can't believe you guys buy electronics from Amazon I went into CC last summer on a Saturday because they had the Samsung BD-P1200 in stock and I wanted it then so I could play with it. I know Amazon had it on special at about $457.00. I went in stood around looking at the unit for a long time and looked at other BR players, the price of the BD-P1200 at CC was $599.00, I even switched everything around so I could see a picture, even though I was over there looking at the machines, messing with their stuff, no one ever came to help. Finally I practically tackle some guy crossing the sales floor and tell him Amazon's price and what would they do on their price, he says, "management don't allow us to match web prices". I would have been willing to even pay a bit more to get the unit that day but they wouldn't even try. So guess what, I had to be patient and bought the unit from Amazon.

BB in my area has improved over the last couple years, at least now when I go into the store some one always asks if they can help me find something. I don't buy much from them, usually it's a computer part or something. Neither are even a consideration if I can find the item some where else. There's a Radio Shack near by who has a guy that works there who is always really nice and trys to help, so I try to give him business when I can. I try to find accessories there and last year I bought a portable DVD player for my daughter there.

Actually, I have a bit of a grudge against BB over a stupid extended warranty. I paid like $3.00 for an extended warranty on a CD walkman. It was for a child, so I say what the heck. The thing breaks, when I take it in they ask me, "do you have the headphones?". I'm like no one said when I bought this to keep the headphones, do you know how much money I spent on headphones so far for this kid, just give me the player an keep the headphones. "Well we can't do that, we no longer have the EXACT model". Actually this was around the time I was looking for a BR player and they were the only ones who had the Sony S300 in stock, so over a $25.00 walkman they lost a possible $499.00 sale and any potential other sales from me. I told the manager if they can't even bend to honor a warranty on a $25.00 item how and the world would they expect anyone to trust them on a larger ticket item. I think this is an example of bad management for the text books.

You'd think if a large corporation was paying to keep the doors open at these places some one would want to make it worth while.

[Woochifer]

I sometimes wonder the same thing, but compared to BB, CC does not need nearly as much customer volume to support their stores. On average, CC stores are about 1/4 the size of a typical BB, though on a per square foot basis, CC generates about half of what BB sells per square foot. BB is definitely cleaning CC's clock, but CC's advantage with smaller store sizes is that they can situate themselves into smaller markets. BB has to be more selective about where they locate their stores due to their large footprint.

I think CC has a somewhat tenuous niche between the ubiquitous Radio Shack and the more formidable Best Buy. But, they do somewhat differentiate themselves by carrying some lines that Best Buy does not. I don't shop that often at CC, but I have gone there to find specific items that BB and other stores do not stock.

I'm just more in the habit of going to BB. They have more DVD exclusives (the steelbook cases on some new releases that get sent only to BB stores are really cool), and like JSE mentioned, the stores are typically cleaner and better organized. CC's newer locations have done away with that drab 80s-vintage plum and chrome look, and definitely make more of an effort to be inviting. But, it seems that BB employees are generally better trained to at least be courteous if not necessarily knowledgeable.

[Mr Peabody]

Good point CC does carry a few better lines in my opinion, like Onkyo and HK. They have Polk which I would prefer over BB's Klipsch and Bose. However, BB has turned the table in markets where they have the Magnolia hook up.

I didn't realize BB had exclusives but compared to Amazon, BB's prices are embarrassingly high on movies, especially Blu-ray.

[oaqm]

edited for my own amazing display of stupidity. have a nice day.

[L.J.]

Good point CC does carry a few better lines in my opinion, like Onkyo and HK. They have Polk which I would prefer over BB's Klipsch and Bose. However, BB has turned the table in markets where they have the Magnolia hook up.

I didn't realize BB had exclusives but compared to Amazon, BB's prices are embarrassingly high on movies, especially Blu-ray.

BB has had alot of B1G1 sales on BR. I bargain hunt and I've actually picked up quite a few titles from there. I picked up Pirates 3 BR for $14.99 about a month ago.

[Woochifer]

Good point CC does carry a few better lines in my opinion, like Onkyo and HK. They have Polk which I would prefer over BB's Klipsch and Bose. However, BB has turned the table in markets where they have the Magnolia hook up.

Actually, CC dropped all of their Harmon Intl. product lines last year -- JBL, Infinity, Harmon, etc. In their place, they picked up brands from D&M Holdings, including Denon and Boston Acoustics. I really don't understand that move, since BB's Magnolia subsidiary already fills out a huge amount of its product lineup with the D&M brands. You'd think that CC would compete better by differentiating themselves from BB.

Onkyo, Polk, and Hitachi are some of the brands off the top of my head that CC carries that are not carried by BB.

I didn't realize BB had exclusives but compared to Amazon, BB's prices are embarrassingly high on movies, especially Blu-ray.

BB, CC, Target, Borders, and Wal-Mart all have exclusive bonus features with some of their new DVD releases. It's basically their way of trying to pull DVD shoppers into their stores. Typically, these extras include an exclusive bonus disc -- e.g., CC had this for the Apocalypse Now dossier edition, BB included one on Master and Commander and many others, and Target included one with 24. BB frequently throws in steelbook or rectilinear packaging (which I particularly like). Other items might include the screenplay (Target exclusive with Devil Wears Prada), an exclusive comic book (BB exclusives for Superman Returns and Batman Begins), a beanie cap (BB throw-in for Coach Carter), or the original book (like when BB's early copies of Friday Night Lights came bundled with the book). These things might not mean much to most consumers, but to hardcore collectors (which all these stores are trying to attract in the first place with their week-of-release sale pricing) it might be just enough to pull them into Target instead of Best Buy or vice versa.

Also, I would not call BB's prices "embarassingly high" because that's not the case across the board. (Check Borders' regular prices if you want to see "embarassingly high.") For new releases, BB often undercuts Amazon during the week of release, and their rotating sale prices can also go significantly lower than Amazon. This week they put a bunch of their gangster pics on sale for $5, and last week, the theme was romantic comedies.

I will admit though that BB's Blu-ray's prices are definitely on the high side. I suspect that this will change as the market matures.

I rarely buy DVDs at full price from BB. I'll either buy them on the week of release when the prices are lowest and some of them come with those aforementioned bonus features, wait for a sale price later on, or wait for a Reward Zone coupon. Same thing goes for Borders -- I wait for a coupon or sale price before ever buying anything there.

[Mr Peabody]

I agree, picking up D&M products is a puzzling move. There must be some kind of discounting that D&M does for the retailers similar to what Rockford does because with CC carrying D&M means almost every stereo store in my town has Denon. If it wasn't for everyone having Denon I would probably pick it up over HK. It definitely has brand recognition and a good rep. Denon used to be associated with semi-specialty stores but I guess they are opting for the dollar signs. It's also a puzzling move for Denon as the "CI" series receivers has a host of installer features, including some of them being able to be adjusted from an installers office desk. Who's going to do this from CC or BB.

I must have seen the Wal-Mart exclusives and not even realized it. Whenever we bought animated releases for the kids at WM I usually bought the package with the soundtrack. I don't remember seeing those dual packages any where else.

[pixelthis]

Why is the pickup of D&M such a puzzle?
The quality of harmon products has stank lately, what would YOU rather have, a Denon or a Harmon? I thought so.
Places like sams club undercut places like CC a great. deal, which isnt difficult
since they charge full retail.
CC has been run poorly lately, but it probably doesnt matter much, the future of a lot of retail is online.
THIS CUTS OUT THE MIDDLEMAN, and saves a great deal.
THINGS LIKE CLOTHES, groceries, etc have an advantage, but items like electronics
are a natural for sale on the net.
Of course if you buy stuff on the net dont complain in the future when the only thing
you have to go by when making a decision is a pic and a review, because there wont be any stores to look at stuff before you buy it

[Woochifer]

I agree, picking up D&M products is a puzzling move. There must be some kind of discounting that D&M does for the retailers similar to what Rockford does because with CC carrying D&M means almost every stereo store in my town has Denon. If it wasn't for everyone having Denon I would probably pick it up over HK. It definitely has brand recognition and a good rep. Denon used to be associated with semi-specialty stores but I guess they are opting for the dollar signs. It's also a puzzling move for Denon as the "CI" series receivers has a host of installer features, including some of them being able to be adjusted from an installers office desk. Who's going to do this from CC or BB.

I don't think Denon has a choice but to aggressively move some of their product into the big box chains, because those specialty stores that you mention are disappearing rapidly. For years, Denon did fine thru a network of indies and regional specialty chains like Good Guys and Tweeter. Problem is that Good Guys (and other similar chains) shuttered all of its stores, and Tweeter has withdrawn from most regional markets, including those that it entered after buying up local electronics chains. This leaves Denon with far fewer outlets to choose from, so pushing into CC is one way of maintaining market share.

I've also seen that D&M Holdings is making a play to become a large CE conglomerate like Harmon International. For Best Buy's Magnolia subsidiary, it made total sense to turn much of their floor space over to D&M's brands because they one suppier can fill out a significant portion of their product lineup. Magnolia's other major supplier is Sumiko, which distributes Pro-Ject, Sumiko, Sonus Faber, Vienna Acoustics, Primare, and REL, all of which are available at Magnolia stores (not necessarily all at the Best Buy locations).

The move makes no sense for CC unless as you say dollar signs were involved. IMO, JBL and Infinity are much stronger speaker brands than Boston Acoustics, but then again, specialty speakers are not as huge a market as other components that Denon produces.

[Mr Peabody]

Sonus Faber is owned by the Italian company that recently bought ARC. I didn't realize Magnolia had Primare.

Pix the reason it was puzzling is because if you are in business you want to offer something different to the public than what everyone else has and if you picked up in my post I said everyone in town practically carries Denon. Why have several different stores selling the same thing? What if all the car dealers in town sold Chevy?

[Rich-n-Texas]

I can atest to the fact that CC carries Onkyo. Only problem is, they didn't have anyone available who understood their auditioning room enough to switch to the 805 so I could listen to it.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Why is the pickup of D&M such a puzzle?
The quality of harmon products has stank lately, what would YOU rather have, a Denon or a Harmon? I thought so.
Places like sams club undercut places like CC a great. deal, which isnt difficult
since they charge full retail.
CC has been run poorly lately, but it probably doesnt matter much, the future of a lot of retail is online.
THIS CUTS OUT THE MIDDLEMAN, and saves a great deal.
THINGS LIKE CLOTHES, groceries, etc have an advantage, but items like electronics
are a natural for sale on the net.
Of course if you buy stuff on the net dont complain in the future when the only thing
you have to go by when making a decision is a pic and a review, because there wont be any stores to look at stuff before you buy it

So I guess now we're going to have to live with the fact that we're going to be yelled at during all times of the day, huh? How sad.

[Mr Peabody]

I can atest to the fact that CC carries Onkyo. Only problem is, they didn't have anyone available who understood their auditioning room enough to switch to the 805 so I could listen to it.

Sort of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? Another example of a company with some one asleep at the wheel.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Yup. They might as well not even be selling them. Makes one wonder what the manufacturers are thinking when they choose retailers like CC to get their products into the household.

(Did Wooch already answer that?)

[mbbuchanan]

bb and cc both suck.here in California we have a place called frys and they suck too. the problem is these jobs used to pay well. when i worked at cc when i was fresh out of high school, it was a good job to have and you could make really good money if you were good at sales. well after a while the corporations started to cut back commissions and spiffs (spiffs being a little extra incentive to sell a certain product) to save money. next thing you know they cut out commission altogether. now even if a retail chain even has any body on commission they are not making nearly what they would have. when the only people you can hire are teens and college kids and others who are not really giving a **** about a job because they could replace the income somewhere else easily,then you get the service that you get these days. look around and you will notice that this applies pretty much any where the average shops, and sadly even car dealerships are rapidly following suit.

[mbbuchanan]

average "joe" is what i meant to say. oh well it looks like this thread might be dead any way i probably came to late to the party. my hatred of these retail chains though, has compelled me to ***** to the air