Circuit City Lays Off "Over Paid" Workers
Thursday, March 29, 2007 by Zoomba | Discussion: WinCustomize News
It seems that those poor electronics store chains just can't get a break lately. BestBuy misleads consumers with their intranet site, CompUSA is forced to close over half of all of its stores nation-wide, and now Circuit City has to lay off about 3,400 "overpaid" employees. The goal is to replace them with lower-cost workers as part of their cost restructuring plans for the company. These people, representing roughly 8% of the company's overall workforce, will receive 4 weeks severance pay, and be allowed to re-apply for their old jobs at a lower pay rate, after a 10 week hiatus.
This comes after the company already closed 62 of its stores in Canada and seven in the US.
On top of these restructuring efforts, Circuit City plans to outsource it's IT Operations department to IBM, cutting another 130 jobs.
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Koasati
Reply #22 Friday, March 30, 2007 9:05 PM
Labor Unions.
Reply #22 Friday, March 30, 2007 9:05 PM
What happenned to old Henry fords ideal of producing good stuff with a workforce that could afford to buy it?
Labor Unions.
Nadeon
Reply #23 Saturday, March 31, 2007 9:26 AM
Reply #23 Saturday, March 31, 2007 9:26 AM
I've read the replies here and they seem to go willy nilly in all direstions. First off, Circus Shitty does not manufacture anything. It's basically a warehouse operation with a retail front end stuck on. Their "stores" are nothing more than showrooms with order takers. Even their web site is a searchable database on line catalog. Best Buy is the same. Adding lots of glitz doesn't change what you are. I appologize if I hurt anyone's feelings, but lets not trump up reality.
Recently (December) I was in the market for a laptop. I searched high and low at all the major players (New Egg, BB, CC etc.) and not a few minor ones. I came away struck by the fact that Cicus Shitty was very obviously having trouble staying competitive. Their selection was poor, on line and in store, and the sheer number of "out of stock" "unavailable" items listed on the web would have sent me into a selling frenzy if I owned their stock. Remember, this was December, a peak selling time for most retailers.
They are not a service industry either. Their computer repair operations are not on site (except for some minor repairs; 20 20 did an expose' on this several years ago showing how inept they were even at that). Why do you think they sell service plans? They get a percentage of that market, and get price reductions on their next vendor order.
The bottom line is they are struggling to remain competitive and need to cut costs to boost available cash for inventory. What's insideous about this, is it's public, and sets a trend for this type of operation. Best Buy does it with a little twist that has them in hot water with a lot of states attorney generals; advertise an item at a sale price, have limited quantities available, post out of stock/back ordered signs and emails for on line orders; wait until the sale expires before restocking or 30 days for on line orders (automatically cancelled after 30 days) and restock at the original price ( I verified this with Western Digital on availability of a hard drive BB carried). That way they can retain their niche facade of being product knowledge experts by retaining a higher paid sales staff.
Remember these guys are not experts in the merchandise they sell. They never were. They are the guys that forced the smaller "expert" shops out of business with the "big box store" concept. They struggle and tank when the real "big box" guys like Wal Mart and Sam's Club start carrying their merchandise lines. Sam's Club had lines of HP laptops for example that CC and BB etc did not. Smart move on HP's part. But when CC and BB couldn't move their flagship lines, ta da, Sam's Club now has access to the "HP Store" (HP web site tailored for indivdual retailers, think web hosting). Sam's Club and Walmart are better at mass merchandising (not advertising) and have a bigger bank roll. And they don't pretend to be product knowledge experts or tech support. They simply sell what you want to buy.
Now, yes I feel bad some good sales people are getting screwed by corporate America once again, but that's the name of the game in sales, buying and selling. What a concept.
Recently (December) I was in the market for a laptop. I searched high and low at all the major players (New Egg, BB, CC etc.) and not a few minor ones. I came away struck by the fact that Cicus Shitty was very obviously having trouble staying competitive. Their selection was poor, on line and in store, and the sheer number of "out of stock" "unavailable" items listed on the web would have sent me into a selling frenzy if I owned their stock. Remember, this was December, a peak selling time for most retailers.
They are not a service industry either. Their computer repair operations are not on site (except for some minor repairs; 20 20 did an expose' on this several years ago showing how inept they were even at that). Why do you think they sell service plans? They get a percentage of that market, and get price reductions on their next vendor order.
The bottom line is they are struggling to remain competitive and need to cut costs to boost available cash for inventory. What's insideous about this, is it's public, and sets a trend for this type of operation. Best Buy does it with a little twist that has them in hot water with a lot of states attorney generals; advertise an item at a sale price, have limited quantities available, post out of stock/back ordered signs and emails for on line orders; wait until the sale expires before restocking or 30 days for on line orders (automatically cancelled after 30 days) and restock at the original price ( I verified this with Western Digital on availability of a hard drive BB carried). That way they can retain their niche facade of being product knowledge experts by retaining a higher paid sales staff.
Remember these guys are not experts in the merchandise they sell. They never were. They are the guys that forced the smaller "expert" shops out of business with the "big box store" concept. They struggle and tank when the real "big box" guys like Wal Mart and Sam's Club start carrying their merchandise lines. Sam's Club had lines of HP laptops for example that CC and BB etc did not. Smart move on HP's part. But when CC and BB couldn't move their flagship lines, ta da, Sam's Club now has access to the "HP Store" (HP web site tailored for indivdual retailers, think web hosting). Sam's Club and Walmart are better at mass merchandising (not advertising) and have a bigger bank roll. And they don't pretend to be product knowledge experts or tech support. They simply sell what you want to buy.
Now, yes I feel bad some good sales people are getting screwed by corporate America once again, but that's the name of the game in sales, buying and selling. What a concept.
starkers
Reply #24 Saturday, March 31, 2007 10:17 AM
In Australia.....government legislation that allows employers to stick it to workers as they see fit/wish.
With the lower end of the socio economic scale constantly on the rise here, with people being forced out of their jobs or to work for much, much less thanks to lil Johnny's warped sense of fair play, more and more people are being priced out of not just luxury items but basic necessities of life.......
Even some of our (former) middle class are barely living above the poverty line thanks to the greed of banks and corporations....the gov't not acting to keep some semblance of balance and stop the bracket creep between the haves and have nots getting out of control.
Reply #24 Saturday, March 31, 2007 10:17 AM
What happenned to old Henry fords ideal of producing good stuff with a workforce that could afford to buy it?
In Australia.....government legislation that allows employers to stick it to workers as they see fit/wish.
With the lower end of the socio economic scale constantly on the rise here, with people being forced out of their jobs or to work for much, much less thanks to lil Johnny's warped sense of fair play, more and more people are being priced out of not just luxury items but basic necessities of life.......
Even some of our (former) middle class are barely living above the poverty line thanks to the greed of banks and corporations....the gov't not acting to keep some semblance of balance and stop the bracket creep between the haves and have nots getting out of control.
Dr Frankenstone Jr
Reply #25 Saturday, March 31, 2007 11:02 PM
Reply #25 Saturday, March 31, 2007 11:02 PM
I shop Newegg (online). Circuit City feels like I'm in the middle of a trading pit.
Dark-Star
Reply #26 Sunday, April 1, 2007 8:52 PM
Reply #26 Sunday, April 1, 2007 8:52 PM
Newegg rocks, what more can be said! Excellent shipping, wonderful selection, great prices. 
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Reply #21 Friday, March 30, 2007 7:06 PM
What happenned to old Henry fords ideal of producing good stuff with a workforce that could afford to buy it?