I knew this was a matter of time and I am glad I took my 2 year pay severance and walked about 4 years ago. I feel very sorry for all the people that are about to lose there jobs. And to lose your job in 3 days with out any notice. This should show you how messed up a company is to do that to there employees. They knew they were going to do this months ago. So have them work till you can get your lawyers straight, make sure that no one can sue you then dump them right before 2 major holidays. This is circuit city fault from the start. 4 years ago when I was a road shop manger they started reformatting everything. It started as a small snowball and rolled its way down to a big as messed up moon size of a problem. How in 5 months do you call everybody in and fire people that have been there for years as full timers and were expert in the fields of what they were selling. example. In our computer department we had a great worker that knew computers like the back of his hand. He could answer any tech questions with a reason and why there was the problem. He knew every part of the computer. hell the guy was a computer. Time at location 8 years. Pay 23 a hour. What happened to him. FIRED. Sent home with a severance check. dammmmm. Thats a good thing to do. Come to work the next day there is some red head chick with glasses in his spot, Part time. And guess what. She did not know her hole from a hole in the sink. No ideal on how a computer worked. You should of seen how the department dropped. Customers took it for a joke and went else were. Hell her returns were thru the roof. They tried to cope by hiring some kid that thought he was bill gates and the god to computers. Just because you can turn it own and open windows thru the start menue does not make you a expert.

Next was my department. They expected me to fire installers that knew what they were doing. Mecp certified, and had years of work experiance or drop them down to part time and cut there pay. Then hire part timers that work up one morning and wanted to be the next unique auto. I interveiw 20 people. Asked to see there work and you would think that they came from the spaghetti factory. Not installers but wire connector installers. Circuit city thinks that they an send all there installers to the back of the building. In this seceret room for e-learning. This room has magic powers that transform regular people into full certified installers. hell in a week you can stay in this room for hours click on this screen and be a cheif alarm installer. Presto. Here is a new 07 nissan maxima. Can you please do a remote start? This room taught you how to do everything, Sell computers, tv's, dvd's, Home audio. wtf.

Sorry for the rant. I just fell out of bed when I heard this. I am not ragging on any cc installers here because I worked with some of the best and there was alot of talent in some. But alot had no skills or should of been allwoed ot touch a car let along a pager battery. This company has ran thereself into the ground. And I seen it from the start. This why some corparate stores fail. People in a board room with numbers can not and will not make a company like that last. Best buy has one of the best programs going. Why because there board rooms go into the store. They learn what customers want and take the time to learn feedback. cough, cough. If you work at CC take this as a warning and look somewere else. If they did not warn there other workers. What do you think is about to happen to you. Cover ur azz. The ecomony did not do this. They did. /

 

its sad to hear about corperate companys throwing away good help, for cheaper wages.. and on top of that, eliminating jobs.. regardless of severance checks... thats a job that was eliminated.. for a part timer... some eager high school graduate that isn't concerned in feeding a family, or building his retirement savings.. or for that matter medical.

not to get into it too deep... its sad.. even with the economy with jobs hard to find as it is, now you have good stable american jobs cut down, to save labor, and make it harder for the working american.

its hard enough shutting down factorys due to out sourcing, but eliminate american jobs, and replace them with temp positions... yeah, our economy is bouncing back, and american's shouldn't worry.. right.

im just glad we have 2 award winning presidential canidates that will fix everything...

 

The only thing I think I would buy from CC is a tv. I never buy anthing from them. Best buy at least ocassionally has sales that make shopping there worthwhile. And CC's product line is crap. They used to carry higher end home audio now they carry junk. Same in car audio. And they want full retail. I don't neccasarily agree that the people make the store. At least not anymore. Nowadays your competing with online stores so being social and personal is less of a commodity. People have figured out how to do things with less interaction. Myself I'll rarely talk with a sales rep I do the research before I walk in a store and I already know what I want.

As a manager I would have probably judged your performance by how the department is doing. If your worth as much as you think you are then the numbers of that department should go up. And if they ever go down then I better see some action by you to make them go back up. Just showing up for work and expecting a paycheck because your good at what you do doesn't neccassarily make money. They are not in bussiness to keep you employed.

 

I feel what both of you guys are saying. CC could of been a great company. I was fine with them till they tried to make a million bucks off 15 cents. And treat there employees like dirt. Alot of people that shop stores really have no ideal on what there buying. I glad alot of people do rechearch on items that they buy. But alot don't. So its good to have someone there that knows about product. You can't sell what you don't know. Alot of people did not know that CC and there car audio store back in the day was really two diffrent stores. Thats why you had a store manager, a roadshop manager and media manager. Each had there own dm manager too. It was way better this way because you had people that understood what was going on.

 

It really sucks, I've been with the company for almost two years now. I've seen the company fall apart slowly.

 

I was with CompUSA for almost 4 years. I knew they had problems running the place because they tried to run it like a car dealership. Get the most $$$ for equipment, sell a warranty, and some internet service. Feed on peoples wants is what we did. They tried restructuring the company, hired new managers, and brought in new ''programs". They also cut wages yet did not have a way to retain good workers. I think Circuit City was considering buying CompUSA at one point. Instead they sold the store fronts to a liquidation company and put all their future in internet sales. We found out about it and were told we would remain open for one month.

Long story short, CompUSA was run very poorly from top to bottom. And the tech e-stores are a lot of the reason why. Look out Circuit City, you might not make it either.

 

yeah i was an installer at CC and honestly the e learning crap is the most bullshit ever. they threw me along with 2 other ppl just into the bay to start working. luckily i had a little bit of experience to keep myself from [freak]ing anything up, but they seriously thought those e learnings made you certified. i am not by any means a super great installer, but i can do the basic stuff most customers ask for. the ppl i worked with however i wouldnt let change my wiper fluid. they broke sooo many things....

 

it sucks.. its all about money, its all about proffits, and the its not the DM's fault.. or the store managers.. they're getting these orders from up top. its the VP's, the investers that demand higher returns, and unfortunatly it has to come from somewhere..

localy, ive wanted to find stereo and auto alarm service. but i live in the san bernardino area, and its one of those shittiest parts of so cal, and the private owned shops are so damn ghetto, i wont even buy parts from them.. its rediculous.. ane we all know the reps of the BB's and CC's... so it kinda sucks.

i had desmon-wrx-killer-sti-eater put a remote start, back up battery, internal siren, and im more than happy. i know it was done right. and thats all you can ask for.

i don't feel safe paying top dollar, and letting someone take my car in the back... and "pick" it up later... forget that.

its to the point, if you want it done right, you have to do it your self. they're arn't too many Desmon's around... certinly not easy to find.


Modified by wrx-killer-Sti-eater at 11:52 PM 11/4/2008

 

yeah its sad that a company has to go down the hole that was once good and actually treated customers and employees fairly.
I work at best buy and its a great company one of our installers worked for circuit city said he loved it then they started doing all the cuts a few years back and best buy picked him up and he said that best buy is alot better held together company.
Its sad seeing a at one time great company go away they did have good products and a good road shop and i loved the idea of a seperate store set up for the road shop

 

They closed 122 stores... which isn't all of them.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDM_Ej &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">They closed 122 stores... which isn't all of them.</TD></TR></TABLE>

But that's a lot...155 by dec 31. (maybe more after that)

Circuit was a great company back in the 90's. Record growth,great staff,etc.
I had a great time there...but them I saw policy changes that didn't make any sense.
The product mix was all wrong...the training model was changing (back in '98 I had a "lively" debate with a roadshop VP in richmond on why the e-learning traing program
was flawed). Its so many factors...poor leases,weakened ecconomy,failure to reinvest/recreate the biz model.

I wish those who work their the best...I can feel their pain...been there done that. Its a lesson I never forgot.

 

yeah...the bestbuy that im working at is looking to recruit some installers from cc..

im a installer at bb...and i hate it here already.
retail business like these are hella crooked...[freak] all of them

 

fwiw I used to work circuit city part time back in 03 and I enjoyed my experience, I was selling digital photography equipment and also pulled some headway in the pc department. It was a nice little check on the side I enjoyed having and helped me pay my debt off. But when the holidays were up I left high and dry and never returned there again, even to say hi to old friends.

 

what locations did you guys work at? and yeah e-learning is BS and it progressively gets worse. holiday season at my store gets crazy with 5 of us now theres 3 and they wont let us hire any of the guys that worked with us before who had tons of experience and they just toss new guys in who know nothing who we have moved to the sales floor within a week. the whole process is flawed and in most cases theres nothing you can do about it i cant wait to get a new job but having circuit city as a reference to my experience is hindering more then helping.

 

0711, Berwyn.

 

ouch this is bad news http://www.katu.com/news/business/34201094.html Bankrupt. All of our companies are faling this is horrible. Only a matter of time before mine is hit. Everyone go out and buy a new CPU

Only company left in my area is best buy and there product selection sucks also.

 

Just seen on the news this morning that CC has filed for chapter 11. 94

 

Yeah, made me sad to hear this news...I guess i'll start looking for another job just in case they decide to shutdown my store..

 

Hopefully the guy found a job paying more, sounds smart.

I have to say I just don't shop B&M anymore for anything, the whole move to online stuff has really hurt these companies, everyone wants the lowest bottom line (including me) seriously the only time I buy from B&M is Black Friday and to window shop.

As for car audio/alarm installed stuff, I don't trust any of the big names (curcuit city, magnolia hifi, car toys), like you said I've heard too much about complete idiots doing the installs, it scares me. If I were to let anyone but me touch my stuff it would probably be a local shop more geared to audio/installs that's been around for a while and you can obviously see has business and even then I'd be extra careful. I've seen too many idiots working with that stuff to find the cheapest place and pay the "$69 installed alarms" etc, no way.

 

Im in a PA store, I've been told by our district manager that no stores in PA are closing down. My store reaches our goal every month and has been only open for 5 years. But CC will atleast last until they get outta bankruptcy, then they might tank...

All I know is I'm happy my job is part time and that my fulltime job will support me. Well that and I need to buy some car audio stuff at cost before they possibly tank, lol.

 

Yeah I'm closely watching how this plays out.....

Circuit could survive this...heres how:

- Close all stores outside of the Richmond VA. Have a few retail stores in that area
and become a internet business. It has worked for crutchfield and tire rack.

 

no i really dont want to lose my job before i find a new one...it could just close all non profiting stores and privatize itself but too many cooks in the kitchen i guess so all the corporate people wont agree. i need to start looking for a new job

 

Man...it's been forever since I last went to a Circuit City. IMO, those greedy upper management are 100% at fault for the company's failure.