If you haven't heard, Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today. One of two things will probably happen: they'll survive for a while as a vastly downsized company then fail or they'll get bought out by some private equity firm that'll screw it up so bad they'll have to bring in the liquidators. Why, you ask?
It's funny that you and I know why, but the so-called experts have run the company straight in to the ground. Service, plain and simple. To wit:
1. Last years stunning mass firing of thousands of (mostly) fairly knowledgable non-commissioned salespeople, replacing them with 8$ an hour cashiers who don't know XM from HD, 7.1 surround from star 69, or megabytes from microwaves. If I wanted that level of "service" I can go to Walmart. Customers? Fuck 'em.
2. High pressure pitches to buy overpriced "protection plans" that were an exercise in futility in that nothing was covered, complete with....
3. Indian call centers. Nothing says contempt for the customer like a script-reading automaton you can't understand.
4. Service departments that don't service. Even if it was covered they couldn't fix it. I had a Tivo that had to go back three times before they gave up trying and replaced it. They spent more than the Tivo's cost on shipping alone.
CC claims the credit crunch, liquidity issues, and competition have forced them into Chapter 11. Bull. Best Buy is doing fine, thank you very much.
Why? The salestaff (usually) has a clue. Their management thought "Gee, customers LIKE to talk to someone who can actually find their ass with both hands and knows a pixel from a pixie stick." Voila! Profits.
Few people can walk into a big box store, face a wall of dozens of (item name here) and make an informed purchase decision. Buying a $2500 Flat screen TV isn't anywhere near the same as buying batteries. Radio Shack has forgotten that, and so has CC. I'm not betting on either of them remembering anytime soon.
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