The Photograph That Pretty Much Sums Up Circuit City
Reader Adrian emailed this photo of the Circuit City in St. Peters, MO.
Adrian says:
The store was mostly empty of inventory with people filling up carts of the most random stuff. So they have vast sections of the store covered with caution tape labeled 'Service Defective', which kind of sums up the shopping experience of Circuit City. Also excuse the fingers in the photo.
Perfect.
Post a comment
Comments:
I'm surprised that the tape is on the INSIDE of the store!
I thought this was going to get a yawn from the thumbnail and headline, but this is priceless.
The employees should wear these as belts too.
@IT-Chick:
And actually, I want a belt of this, maybe a headband, so I can wear at work while users are bothering me while I'm reading Consumerist.
Customer Service Go!
'Service defective will be their entry in the Hitchhiker's Guide.
It's sad to see people get laid off but that store sucked! Bad Service + Bad Selection = Corporate Fail. Enter Nelson Muntz...HA HA
I remember seeing that tape at the Chesterfield Commons (Chesterfield, MO) location about a week or two after they declared bankruptcy. The only difference was that the Chesterfield location used a ton more tape and actually created "X"s with the tape.
I am actually surprised that Circuit City has anything left. There was not much left about a week ago when I visited the Mid Rivers Mall (St. Peters, MO) location.
i want to get a roll of that tape and put it around my boss's desk so everyone will notice how much work he does
it makes me feel good when i see a company like this one going down in flames. i had been to numerous CC's in the past and every time i was greeted by uninformed workers with bad attitudes.
i just love how fast they went out of business. should be a lesson to other businesses... alienate your customers enough and they will find somewhere else to shop.
someone hammer the last nail in the coffin and lets cover this one with dirt.
Apparently the Xbox 360s just got their prices dropped in the liquidation sale last weekend. A friend of mine saw a $300 setup going for $179, and another friend went to buy one. By the time he got to the store, some guy had come by and bought all 20 or so of them.
Another reason why these sales suck. A few people swipe up all the good stuff, leaving the junk behind for everyone else.
I went about five times and found one decent deal - they had a $1999 Bose setup marked down to $799. It was a display model and I almost bought it, but I didn't. Everything else sucked. I even found a printer that I had been looking at but it was $20 more than MSRP. The explanation - Our MSRP is different than others'.
WHY does such a tape exist???
To say that the service at Circuit City was defective is to imply that they offered some kind of service once upon a time. And that's simply not true.
But the photo is PRICELESS!
I came over from Fairview Heights to open this store in 2005. I remember Issac Bruce of the Rams running through a tunnel of employees, slapping hands on his way to the back of the store to sign autographs during the grand opening.
It's very sad. Sad for the employees, and the good management (yes, there were a few here and there) that remained. But go to hell, Circuit.
@Homerjay (insert star here): Specifically for Circuit City.
Ironically, that's the honest to God's truth, If I Recall Correctly (IIRC).
@Homerjay (insert star here): They were planning ahead for their inevitable destruction?
Probably to wrap up returns on broken merchandise so it wouldn't get put back out on the floor, but I like my first explanation better.
@spoco: Not that a $2000 Bose setup marked down to $799 is necessarily a good deal.
It wouldn't surprise me if you could get a significantly better sounding setup for $800 or so.
@Pink Puppet: But why add the word "Service" to it? Wouldn't "Defective" suffice for broken merchandise? It just seems like a weird term to me.
Maybe it means "Defective: [This thing needs] Service[ing]"?
But then they ran out of left-brackets and the right-brackets were on backorder.
This is priceless. I wasn't even aware that such a tape existed. I must have a roll of it.
I went into a Circuit City just recently to see if they happened to have any Guitar Hero sets left for the 360. I didn't find any but I didn't stay long enough to really look much either. The store had a gross aura about it. I felt like I had broken through the window of a flooded storefront amidst the aftermath panic of Hurricane Katrina. Like some sort of scavenger picking at the remaining scraps while a company suffers. It was really bad. There was practically nothing left, except for DVD's, music, a bunch of HDTV's and some video games mixed in. I ended up leaving the store after approximately 5 minutes.
Unfortunately I didn't see any of this cool tape. They used the yellow tape instead that said "Caution" or something to that effect.
The dumbasses at the Somerville, NJ store were throwing a football across the store, right in front of the big TVs. Nothing worth buying.
They did have a Logitech G9 Laser mouse that was marked 70% from $225, which resulted in a price a few dollars less than what Amazon is selling it for. Strangely, Amazon shows the list price as $99, and when I went into a Circuit City last week they had it marked down 30% from ~$115. I'm not sure that it's legal to use a "before" price when you've never attempted to sell the product for that price. I'm pretty sure Kay-Bee Toys and Kohl's have both been smacked down for that.
@ameyer: Without any question, you definitely can. BOSE is nearly entirely marketing rather than quality driven... only their car audio is worth looking into.Even with that, the only time you can get passable audio is when the system is designed for [and included in] the car.
@ameyer: Very true- Fry's has generally awful service and yet I still shop there because of the true value they provide- mail order discounts and B&M browsing.
Two out of three isn't bad.
I will not excuse the fingers in the photo.
@asplodzor: Even then there was a comparo on Fifth Gear not too long ago that pitted Bose against Bang and Olufsen setup options in the same model Audi A8. The Bose setup lost in SQ, but was $5K cheaper than the B&O; both are on hype though.
@spoco: CC did not budge from the price of a laser multifunction printer I was interested in, so I bought online (Amazon). But for a deal on Bose equipment, maybe on their aircraft headsets, not so much on their 3-2-1 or Acoustimass garbage.
Can I please buy the tape?
Well once the store finally closes, they can wrap it in the special "EPIC FAIL" tape
Where will Chuck work if the Buy More is closed?
@illtron: That guy could have been running a mom and pop game store, or a booth at the flea market. I know there's lots of folks at the flea market in my area that go to just these kinds of sales to have cheap goods to hock at retail on the weekends.
I found one deal at the Paducah, KY store (first round of closings) Video games were down to 40% off and had been very picked over. Nothing worth buying until I found where some employee had stuck a new Lego Batman game for PC in with about 50 copies of some Final Fantasy game for the PS2.
@Repossessed_Posse_Pirate: Buy More is a parody of Best Buy which is physically located inside an old KompUSSR. Nobody wants to parody crust 'ol Circuit City.
The CEO is Circuit City is responsible for all of this. Fired all the best employees, etc. The man should be sued by former shareholders to pay back his salary of the last 5 years!
@JeffM: Selection, Service, Price. Pick two.
Circuit City decided to pick none. To be fair, Newegg has all three. I guess they took Circuit City's share.
To be used in those occassions you run out of the "CRIME SCENE" one...
Went into Best Buy yesterday in San Diego, this tape was literally at the end of every aisle in big Xs. No deals at all, disappointing.
"Bose. Better sound through marketing."
Bose isn't a good deal at any price - even 60% off.
Go listen to some real speakers at a real store (not Best Buy... a REAL store).
Better yet, go to a jazz club and listen to an acoustic performance. That's what it is supposed to sound like.
I just got off the phone with American Express Security. I live in Seattle and don’t travel much..
Tonight, March 3, 2009, someone tried to buy clothing from a retailer in Switzerland using my account.
The last transaction I made with my AMEX card was on Saturday, Feb 28th at a Circuit City that was closing the next day.
Coincidence you say? Hmm… interesting. You guys do the math.
I think some one who’s job was ending was skimming account information and hawking for a few bucks on the net as a big “F-U” to the rest of us who were not losing their jobs.
Shopped at CC lately? Watch your credit card or buy cash.
BTW the one thing that my local CC had an abundance of was “S” video cable. The one connection technology that is disappearing from the market place. They could not give the stuff away!
Bose just plain sucks. They started sucking when the decided to go mainstream as an option of sound systems in new cars.
They were considered high end at one time like B&O. Niche market.....specialty and high price. Appealing to the masses killed their quality.
@Trey Mahaffey: 'it makes me feel good when I see a comapny like this one going down in flames' yeah, isn't it just great that thousands are losing their jobs and incomes?! Try and think about the bigger picture here. You have had bad experiences, so it makes you 'feel good' to see people out of work? Just kind of petty.
i actually got a great deal here in hattiesburg, MS on the TV mounts that hang from the ceiling.
i got 5 of them for $100. got the component cable too...
those mounts are going for about $250-300 a piece
@Trey Mahaffey: Well Trey whenever it comes time that you lose your job too try to remember that good feeling you have!
Defective by design.