I started this rant last night and kind of realized it didn’t make much sense. However, eagle-eyed reader SteveJabs headed down to CC and confirmed my suspicions: there are no deals to be had at Circuit City.
I thought I would meander over to the City of Circuits today and see what all was going down with this “blowout selling.” As predicted they are screwing people over on many things but I decided to highlight on the two biggest I found right away. The first one I noticed when I walked in was the following, it is an EVGA 512Mb Geforce 9600 GT card. It is priced at $229.99 with 10% off making it an even $270. That raised flags to me. Hell, you can buy a GTX 285 for less than $100 more on Tigerdirect. Anyways, here attached is the picture backing this up. And here is the same damn card on B&H for $132.50
The second thing that my roommate noticed when we went to the battery rack is that they are charging different prices for the same exact Energizer 16-pack of AA batteries and absolutely REFUSED to accept the lower marked price. I attached another picture showing this. It’s really tough to read the model numbers since i took the picture on my iPhone. Apple sucks like that sometimes. Anyways, you can see that the model numbers are the same. I’ll go back and take another picture if need be. But they refused to accept the lower price. Either way I just went to radio shack and got a 20pack of duracell batteries for 10 bucks.
Here’s my take: Electronics pricing is flat. Although we may be in the worst depression since Vlad the Impaler began tearing the heads off of his fiscal enemies, electronics still cost the same. Online pricing has made running a big box store pointless. Maybe you’ll get some loss-leader deals at the front of the store – a DVD player for $50, for example – there is no reason for Best Buy to sell components. The liquidators can actually make more money selling online later than selling in stores. It’s this sort of rapacious behavior that got CC into this mess in the first place.
I feel for the folks who worked at Circuit City, I really do. But there’s no reason to visit the store anymore, for deals or otherwise. Let it go away. There are plenty of places we can go for electronics where quality and price are at least on parity.
wow . . .
you’re retarded.
Thanks Jonathan, you read my mind. The idea of this post is right, but the writing is moronic.
I on the hand appreciate Biggs post, thanks for the heads up and slander on that POS company circut shhitty.
My CC in west central Fl. is offering 10% all TVs, & HDs, 30% off some power accessories I could see on the other aisle. I walked out after seeing a 1tb raid 0 drive for $300. I bought a 2tb off newegg last night for $240.
Obviously you don’t feel for Circuit City ex-employees if the only thing you care about is getting a low-price.
I’m a Circuit City Tech Sales (ex)Employee, and I find it amazing that 34000+ people are not unemployed and all you care about is the price.
I had a customer come up to me the first morning of our liquidation and complained about how the store was overcrowded and how we were understaffed. THE MORNING OF OUR LIQUIDATION. How would you feel in the morning meeting, your boss says, “Sorry, you’re all fired.” and immediately opened, expecting you to have a smile on your face, while you realize you can’t pay your rent anymore.
WELL SORRY IF OUR PRICES AREN’T LOW ENOUGH, YOU SHOULD BE GLAD THERE ARE GOOD PEOPLE STILL HELPING CUSTOMERS. STOP COMPLAINING. OBVIOUSLY WE HAVE IT WORST OFF.
You’re right. You do have it worse off. However that by no means leaves room for the company to try to get one last screw out of everyone before saying sayonara.
I’m not fed up about the prices. I’m not angry about them. I submitted this because I think it’s stupid and it’s worth pointing out. Just because 34000 people are being let go doesn’t mean that a bunch of customers should get screwed in the butt on a video card that is obviously well over $100 marked up.
If I were you I would try and stop dwelling on the anger and try finding a new job somewhere.
*hugs* I feel for you buddy. My store was one of the 155 closed. It sucks. Circuit City was a damn good place to work for.
If only all of you cheapies shopped there in the first place, then yall wouldn’t be getting ripped off.
@ ed
So you are whining because we did not shot there? hah! if you guys were to have provided real help when the customer needed the help you wouldn’t have been out of the job. I am glad CC is out and going down, their service sucks and they are always looking at you as if you stole something. Bunch of idiots, muffin top girls that are always thinking they have the skills to sell but lack service to the customers. This is the same reason i thought about Comp USA and look at them now. Now go get a job at McDonalds maybe they’ll send you to McDonalds University.
Daryl C.
We are cheapies? in my world that’s called not getting screw by your corporate douchbag. I don’t think that the pricing had much to do with Circuit City going down, it all had to do with the customer service.
Why are you guys so shocked by the mark-ups? Circuit City has handed their stores over to liquidators, and that’s what liquidators do – try to get them most money for the inventory they can, period. One of the liquidators also handled the Linens ‘n Things going-out-of-business sales. They just slapped new, higher-priced stickers over the older ones, which were still visible.
Let the buyer beware!
Do you think that maybe it costs more at the store because maybe they have to pay for the rent, overhead, emplyees, transportation costs, etc? Circuit City and a lot of other big box stores were around a long time before the internet was. Therefore there business model was patterned after what at that time and for a very long time there after was the norm. The internet changed that. You cheap ass. How dare you criticize a company for trying to turn a profit in spite of the exorbitent overhead that a lot of big box stores are paying right right now. CC and BB and HHG are in business to turn a profit, not to break even. Maybe they would still be in business if cheapskate low-lifes like yourself didnt go into their stores and waste the sales associates time and the time of real paying customers by asking him all of the technical questions about the products that they carry, the training i might add which was payed for by these “rapacious” big box stores. Then after getting all of the information you need from the sales associate you leave and go buy the same thing for far less at an online retailer which doesnt offer the same specialzed services, Q&A etc that CC, BB HHG and the other box stores offer, and have literally no overhead and very few employees, benefits, insurance etc to pay for. I am proud to be in the employ of CC for as long as they have left. They provided me with opportunity to make money for my family. I thank, not criticize them for that.
He deuchbag if you happen to know that it was not too much the price but the service. They had horrible service. But then again price does count, being that Best Buy is not going down and is maintaining for the time being. They have superior service to CC. Now as for asking the Circuit City Reps for help, they were really bad at it. Never knew a thing about what they needed to know and always had the puzzle look and had to go ask other people for help. I Know a few of my friends that were employed by Circuit City and they definitely didn’t know jack. Circuit City having specialize service is nothing but bullshit, actually go to New Egg and you definitely get more help than at Circuit City just by the reviews. So i am sorry if you deuchbags lost your jobs but you should have done your job when you had the chance.
Hey Moron, if you bothered to do any research then you would see that Best Buy is not maintaining anything. They are actually losing there shirt right now. CC went under because of poor management. I will agree that most part timers don’t know a lot about the products they are there to sell. But that is anywhere that hires high schoolers, not just CC. Full time employees, you know the ones who are actually being affected by this, are the one who go through the training and take pride in their work. But once again if you did a little research then maybe you would see that even a vast majority of financial experts say the company model was a good one. It failed due to poor management. I.e. Phil Screwover, etc. And by the way Best Buy’s customer service sucks and gives change. Remind you of someone? Maybe a maternal figure of yours? Oh, I’m sorry, was I not supposed to make a personal attack back? I guess its ok for you to do it right? Also you are basically saying that your friends don’t know jack. So, are they ok with you throwing them under the bus just to sound high and mighty on this blog or do you just hang out with them because you are of like minds. hint hint. Do they also have the same problem that you do spelling words correctly?
My son works for Circuit City and he doesn’t set the prices or the rules-the liquidators do, however, the customer are treating him like crap because they want a cheaper price. He has lost his job and has customers talk to him like dirt all day. How fair is that? I agree that there may be some issues with sales prices but it is not the employees fault!!!!!! Also, if the vultures that are there picking prices would have gone in BEFORE then 35000 people would still have jobs. TRY TO BE NICE TO THE EMPLOYEES OF CIRCUIT CITY THEY JUST LOST THEIR JOBS!
From what I could tell no one was buying stuff after the liquidation either. No one wants crap that is marked 50% up. And CC prices were still high before the liquidation. I’m sorry that your son lost his job… he’ll find another I’m sure. It’s rough when anyone loses their job. But trust me, that is still no excuse to complain about someone complaining about way overpriced prices.
Complaining is one thing being down right nasty to a cc employee and calling them names is something completely different and uncalled for!
Can’t we all just get along? No, seriously – I (hope I) see all of the sides of this. Retail is a harsh, underpaid job regardless of circumstances because people just don’t care – everyone feels entitled to bottom dollar because that’s what’s been driven into them during a lifetime of watching commercials. Welcome to consumerism. Is it evil? I don’t think so. Is it fun for the grunts working the counters? No way – it’s a lot of work and abuse for the money. (I can say that because I’ve been there.) That’s just the way it is and I’m glad I’m not working retail anymore. I shudder at the idea of unemployment, too, and I definitely sympathize. I also agree with those of you who see the liquidators’ point of view. The right price is the one the market will bear, so of course they’re going to mark everything up to minimize losses. The customers who didn’t do their homework will buy everything and gleefully walk away thinking they got a great deal. Nothing wrong with that. The rest of us who notice the disproportionate markup will wait for prices to come down, but we should expect that selection will be limited. We’re not entitled to low prices, so while we can/should recognize that prices are high, we shouldn’t be surprised, either.
It sucks, but that’s life. (Saying that while sympathizing with all parties involved)
Keep in mind you were no longer at a “circuit city”. The liquidator owns the store and is complete control of the pricing. It is common practice in liqudation to bump the price up to suggested retail, and take a small discount from there. As time goes on slowly make bigger and bigger discount till everything is gone.
If this were still a circuit city I imagine your expeiance would have been dramatically different. Liquidators dont give a @*#$ about customer service. Its all about getting as much as you can from what inventory they have. So STFU and quit you bitching.
Circuit City has no say on how to price. And the price is set to the retail or the highest price out on the market not a couple of weeks ago, Its the liquidators decide the price.
I don’t understand. It seems that most of you have too much money and should send it to me. how about this. you tell me what you want. i will buy it for you and add 25% to the actual cost. I mean no bid deal right? I am just trying to survive in today’s world. Every over priced company/store should be threatened with going out of business. then they would have to compete for lowest prices, stearing away from the “millionaires feeding billionaires” theory.
BURN CC…BURN
And trust me CC ex-employees it not the end of the world, I know. Have a wife, three kids, and a house to pay for, then get laid off. Then come crying. till then, suck it up!
Well I am a small business owner and I could care less if all the big box stores close. They are set up to destroy all the small businesses, so why should I care when the shoe is on the other foot. I hope Home Depot goes next!