The Decline of Circuit City...What Happened?
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- Circuit City used to be the largest electronics store in the United States, yet today they no longer exist. This video talks about the company's history while highlighting what I believe to be the most significant reasons behind its decline.
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True story: I was experiencing depression after leaving the Army, and a Circuit City customer service employee took the time out of their day to spend a few minutes talking me through my choices and next steps in life. They gave the best advice I ever got, and only a few weeks later I was on a bus to college for the second time. Got a degree that actually set me on a good path, and never looked back! I wish I could thank that dude personally.
Even if you can't, telling others about it is good too. Pass it on, help others, keep the chain of good things going!
That's awesome!
What was advice?
@@robertdesi6368 A combination of "You have to spend money to make money (I was terrified of college dept at the time) and how you sometimes just have to take a leap and put everything on the line.
that is so special
I worked at Circuit City at the end of their life when I lost my job in the financial crisis in 2007, I was laid off for earing too much but was hired back when they realized no one in my location actually worked as hard as I did, I went back because the economy was in the toilet and that was really the only thing I could get, but they hired me back at half of my salary and made me hourly, then restricted my hours more and more to the point I was only working 4 hours a week.
The right at the end we would have customers ever day asking what we're all going to do when we lose our jobs, we weren't told anything, we would ask management and still "its just media rumors", one day I repeated that to a customer who said there is literally a liquidation banner over your store front, I went out and what do you know we were closing down with still no word from management, next day we were all fired from Circuit City and then the liquidators hired us back at minimum wage, worked us into the ground to shut the place down and refused overtime, and still had the nerve to tell us we weren't selling enough extended warranties..... no one wanted one because they would be worthless in a few weeks but we were told to lie and sell them anyway.
Good riddance in my opinion!
😮 WOW. I hope you’re doing much better. That was crazy and a lot to go through. I’m sorry that happened. One of the worst things that could happen to a person is when you’re hearing rumors about you losing your job in the public finds out before you do.
Wow what a whirlwind! I was really invested in your story 😅I hope you’re doing alright.
@@magicallyme96 I hope he’s writing stories. I’m sure many people could relate to him in this scenario.
Rats going down with the ship...
Best Buy is following in the footsteps of Circuit City
The fact that any identical item at Best Buy and Circuit City was near guaranteed to always be more expensive at Circuit City didn't help either.
One of Circuit City's main mis-steps with computer sales is their price for the computer alone would be at least two pages in. The price they showed on the front had a computer, printer, security software, and Microsoft Office in a bundle. I saw customers go in say "Best Buy is cheaper," then walk out.
Agreed. I also think the decision to get rid of appliances was a big factor in their decline.
They missed out on the housing boom and significant revenue from appliance sales.
@@Loganpaul4life Well, to be fair, Circuit City died with the housing boom in the 2008 recession.
@@eddiebrock8639 It did, but it was already on the decline, and the decision to stop selling appliances (which had previously been one of their most profitable categories, ironically) was part of that. They were also one of the largest sellers of appliances in the country before that, I think in second or third place. Why the heck they decided to kill the goose that laid the golden egg is beyond me.
Which is shocking considering I wouldn't consider Best Buy to have great prices.
Firing your best sales people is an exit strategy.
I remember the last time I went into a Circuit City because it stands out. I had taken the time to select a microwave with some help from the salesman (who seemed to hate his job). We were at the register finishing the purchase when the salesmen told me I needed to purchase a warranty because this microwave was going to break. His story was that the glass carousel was going to shatter within the next two years so i needed a warranty to protect myself. I was honestly shocked and asked him if he had any microwaves that would not break & he said no, all microwaves break & I needed a warranty. But he basically convinced me that all their microwaves were crap, so walked out of the store confused and without buying a microwave.
Had a car sales person tell me the same thing. I left!
Wow that's wild. Good thing for his honesty
@@RedragonReviews Dunno about honesty, appliance warranties are 100% profit for the retailer.
@@MindHunger I agree. It's more like a very bad sales pitch. They are trying to sell you on the warranty while not realizing they are making their product out to be really bad quality! This is why most warranties nowadays are sold under the assumption that they cover all accidental damages... This way they don't have to say their product is crap, they just say the warranty covers the users stupidity. But then the fine print says otherwise
@@RedragonReviews But it wasn't honesty, the sales reps are under IMMENSE pressure to sell the warranty. I know for a fact that they were told in many cases, if you can't sell it with the warranty, it brings the numbers down, so it's better to not even sell it at all.
Circuit City also made you feel irritated because of the employees nagging you about warranties even after you said no over 9000 times already
Better get the warranty if you're buying these new, junky, appliances. You'll need it, but good luck getting quick help.
As someone who worked there once upon a time, I can tell you the managers *never* stfu about trying to push service plans on customers. It was effing obnoxious and was one of the reasons I left. I got as tired of hearing about the damn service plans during meetings as customers were tired of hearing about it during sales pitches.
I was a CSA at Circuit City in the late 90's. Even though we were not commissioned, we got incentives for selling warranties and credit card apps.
This must be why the word warranty is so ingrained into my head. I get Vietnam flashbacks from hearing that word
Sounds like GameStop.
I worked for circuit city through college and the pressure to sell everything plus a warranty was more than it needed to be.
Was your penetration not good in warranties? Getting the sale was easy if you asked the right questions and put them to the right product that fit their needs.
@@stevemoore6853 Steve, you sound like my old manager.
@@jh1328 lol I learned from the best. They had me train in the district at 19. I would have been saying it to you too if I was in your region.
Yeah, circuit city sucks. I worked for them in the last year or two. Selling warranties was big, A district manager said the product isn't the laptop, the product is the extra services like extended warranties and maintenance and antivirus programs. The Antivirus programs were expensive as I knew free alternatives were available on the internet.
I remember the store manager had a little coaching paper on closing the sale and would watch you and if you didn't get the ESP and maximum penetration on accessories he would come ask you what happened and write out his spiel.
I had a Circuit City card with around $1k debt on it when they closed. The debt was bought by a different company and I was sent to collections. I was up to date on payments, but they sent most people to collections right away. I called them and had a payment plan ready to go. I never sent them one dollar after hearing how disorganized the collections company was. They never contacted me again and the debt wasn't on my credit report. I have no idea what happened, but the debt disappeared.
that’s the dream - one time i bought a TempurPedic mattress cover that wasn’t charged to my CC until like a week and a half after it was delivered - i thought i beat the system and it was a really fun week lol
I've had a lot of local video rental shops closed with me still owing late fees. Basically in my late teens / early 20s, I would go to a video rental shop for a while, but if eventually I kept a video too long and got a late fee, I just switched to another rental shop rather than paying the fee. In one case I had a video checked out that was *not* late, but when I got to the shop to return it it was closed and out of business.
@@CamdenBloke I heard that the practices for closed video rentals changed when Movie Gallery / Hollywood Video closed. After that closed years ago , there was a huge investigation by all the state attorney generals over collections of unpaid late fees. In the movie gallery case, some of the collection agencies were adding $75 in collections fees, adding interest, and issuing negative credit reporting. Some of the customers didn't even know they owed the debt until they applied for loans or credit cards and were denied because of bad credit from the late fees reported to the bureaus. After the investigation, the collections agencies handling these accounts agreed not to add any extra fees, interest, and reversed the credit reporting, and agreed to investigate any inaccurate or disputed claims raised by consumers. They also said that the maximum fee owed shall be the balance of the daily overdue fees or the price of the item, whichever is lower.
Same thing happened to me with a Sears Card.
I got my first cell phone from Circuit City in '99. Back then you could basically pick out which number you wanted (the last four digits anyway) and would typically be available within one of the prefixes the carrier had assigned to them. Still have the same number after all these years.
You can still do that, at least on Google Voice.
Circuit city is solely responsible for me becoming a successful person. I used to install car stereos for them many years ago. When they began to close their stores I decided to take some of the clientele I've built a report with over the years. I started my own car audio business and it spread from word of mouth at the beginning. Thanks to them for giving me the skill and the drive I so desperately needed. God bless you all. 🙏 merry Christmas 🎅 🎄
Edit : I'd also like to thank Jerome and Jamal for their excellent translations of our earlier customers over the years. Without them I'm not sure how we'd be where we are now with 5 locations.
Ya, at that time, almost every mall had 3 or 4 stores that did that, so even if the circuit wasn't around chances are you would've still done it
Be proud my man! Be proud that you had the ambition to learn something useful, that had a future, and integrating into a successful business. This is how it's done folks!
That's so American🦅😎
I remember buying a 10 disc changer from CC as a college student around 1997. Since I was broke, my friends helped me install it ( load CDs in trunk of my Buick Regal) and used a corded remote to control the changer from the front seat. Those were the days 😂
@@Santos.LHalper your mommy is calling you, so clean the litter box and take your dishes upstairs to the kitchen.
I did an interview for circuit city back in the late 90s and they did not hire me because I told them that the DIVX format was ridiculous and I would not be able to sell it, that was one of the questions that they ask you to determine if you were going to be hired or not. I could not in good faith sell something that I knew was useless.
You did the right thing. I could not live with that on my conscience if I had to sell this. Considering they never got into laser disc, that makes it especially scuzzy of them.
I’m sorry man.
Funny story, I worked as a food server for a few years, and honestly, I never attempted to sell a dish that I don't like. Managers didn't like it, but I didn't really care what they think.
I could never work at GameStop and similar predatory stores that demand employees try to scam customers. Having most of your paycheck based on pushing products you know are trash drains away at the soul.
@@lopoa126 yeah, I used to work at olive garden, and there, you need to push appetizers, dessert and alcohol. Because this is the managers bonuses. Pretty fucked up.
I worked at Circuit City and I got in trouble for helping customers. 3 times. I worked in the computer department, and I would see someone in a nearby department that needed help. So I would go help them. The first time it was in phones, next time it was in cameras, and the 3rd I don't even remember... maybe video games... but I would go and help them, then come back to the computer department, and my department manager would be upset that I left my department. I would tell him, "there was no there, and they saw me and asked me." And I was told in the future to call the front desk for help. I called that BS of a front customer service desk, they would sound annoyed that I kept calling them for help, and no one would ever come to assist the customers. That is not how any business should run. The worst time was when I saw a customer who was angry because she waited 30 minutes on an employee to help her, and she started screaming out loud, "why is no one helping me?" I saw a group of employees, including that employee she was talking about, standing around in a circle on the salesfloor just talking and laughing. I apologize to the lady, told her this was a horrible store, but that I would call for a manager to help her. I don't even know if one ever did. One of the worst retail locations I ever worked at.
IIRC some departments made crap for commission so they didn't(couldn't) staff them well or those that were supposed to be there learned they could wander into other departments and try to help customers with TV or Appliance purchases to make the higher commissions (or try to split between reps, hey I helped them you just rang it up let's split the commission fee 50/50). I worked at CC but I could understand why people hated to shop there and Best Buy while return percentages were probably WAY higher, people would rather just grab what they want and not be bothered.
same thing happened to me. PC sales and all.
That must have been absolutely awful.
Your jackhole boss felt threatened by your initiative. He was going to pound down the tall nail at any cost.
This happened to my then fiance at a Circuit City in Tampa. I'm like wtf is wrong with those people.
I was a CSM then a Ops Mgr from 96-02. It was a great job at first. They had a great Mgr training program. I learned a lot. Worked at 4 different stores during my time. After the Divx failure then their exit from major appliances, I could see the writing on the wall. Division leadership became oppressive. I remember store visits with our DM & HR. It was like a visit from the Gestapo. They went through drawers in the store & offices. Questioned you on why every single item was there. Went over employee timesheets with a magnifying 🔍 and grilled you on why any employee punched even a few minutes late from their break. They nitpicked everything!!! Effing horrible. Way too stressful also with the constant schedule changes. One day open, next day close. Working all the holidays was just exhausting. Started really hating Christmas. No quality of life. Took a year to find a new job and left. That was 20 years ago and I'm still working for the same company I left CC for. I still have fond memories of most of the people there and met my wife there. She was a hottie sales counselor. 😉
I left in '98 when they made the decision to move to CarMax. At least you got a good woman out of the deal. I shouldn't have been such a Corporate Schmuck ✌️
She was? I don't know man, that statement could get you in trouble
That sounds like my story except I worked there from 1990 to 1998. It seems going to an outside contractor for appliance delivery was also a poor move. Definitely true about the attitude of district management.
Lucky you man!
@@souljahroch2519 Circuit City NEVER Recovered from DIVX. It only took 10 years from that time for the company to implode and go belly up.
I was hired by the city in September of 1985, technically as Christmas hire at the new super store in St Matthews, in Louisville Ky. It was the best company I ever worked for. The excitement of that first Christmas was unbelievable, we had people 10 deep at the VCR wall. I SOLD OVER 100,000 in merchandise and made $6,000 in December. Our managers constantly encouraged us to treat the customers with respect and courtesy. Their motto was “make a friend.” I worked for them for 20 years, leaving in 2005 when things really became chaotic. All the good sales people had been fired and service was no longer “state of the art.” THE BIGGEST REASON for their demise I believe was the elimination of the appliance department. This sent a message to the consumer that things weren’t going well. Anyway i was promoted to sales manager and the as a store manager. The Wurtzel family who started the business were great people, we even had a pension plan which today helps in my retirement. I will always remember with fondness the many people I was privileged to work with. They were head and shoulders above the typical Best Buy clerk. 0:02
Awesome! The 80s RULED. I remember going to CC for the first time as a little 5 year old tyke in November 1988. My Stepdad(Then 25) brought a '44 Fatback Zenith from the Sausalito,CA location and I vividly remember seeing two College Age brothers helping him via Dolly wheel and lift the Giant Set onto the back of the '85 Toyota 4x4 Pickup he drove at the time. ALL three men successfully lifted it onto the back. And he drove back home to Novato at the time with it with me in the Front Seat, he actually tipped both guys $5 each for helping him. For you to have started there in 1985 when this Startup Chain was REALLY taking off especially during the Home Video Craze of the mid and late 80s, it must have been Magical!
I also FONDLY remember the "Where Service is State of The Art" Campaign when it launched in the Mid Autumn of 1989. To Consumers at the time, it seemed Futuristic. The 80s were coming to an end and everyone was REALLY looking forward to what the new Decade.
I ALSO remember how it felt at Circuit City by 2005. It felt like CC had DEVOLVED and were now a step ahead of Radio Shack. That they Couldn't even compete with Best Buy.
I agree with you on the appliances, I worked there at that time. It was a housing boom in progress while we handed it over to Best Buy over free delivery, consumers want to buy everything at the same place for delivery/installation convenience. So sad to lose the best place I ever worked at.
😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊a
I've been to that store! I'm from eTown, so i had to travel to Louisville to shop at CC.
Circuit City has a special place in my heart. My dad was a regions manager for years, and we moved around so much when new stores were opening. That store provided a lot for my family growing up. But ultimately he decided to leave, and in the mid-90s, we moved to where I currently reside. I appreciate the video and wonder what my dad will think when I send it to him.
Great comment. I’m curious to know what your father thinks. Thanks!
Pls Keep us updated on what your dad says. Great story , thanks for sharing
Would like to hear what your dad's thoughts are!
You know, Circuit City was one of the best electronic stores I ever go to back in 2004 or 2007 when I was like 10 or 12 when I go there to look at my favorite games honestly. Man, this store really takes me back. It really does. Where did the time go? It's possible that it might comeback soon, but we all know it won't happen because of it's bankruptcy.
That would make you in your 30s or hearing it. Are you still living at home ?
Two hours ago If someone would’ve asked me if the company man had already made a circuit city video, and if I had seen it, I would’ve, with ALLLL the confidence and certainty in the world, said “Yes”
How could I have been so wrong 💀
Maybe you might have confused it with Bright Sun Films video on Circuit City. I know I did.
I thought so too. I'm shocked that this is the first time he's covered it.
@@thaliabirrueta8456 Yup, I'm subscribed to both, so I agree.
same
Same. I’m fairly certain I somehow conflated it with the old RadioShack one lol.
My dad worked for Circuit City for 10 years as their main home theater expert. One of the many top sales people for context. He was the first CC employee in his district to sell a VCR and he made really good money. He was told he would need to go to hourly from commission or be fired. He took hourly but found he would have to do hourly work such as being a cashier. He didn’t stand for it and quit. I didn’t really think about it until this video but his store was in a shit location compared to the newly opened Best Buy. Great video and I loved Circuit City for its selection and prices but the store always felt “old” compared to Best Buy.
Circuit City salespeople were also insurance salespeople. They hard sold extended warranties for all electronics. The salesperson failed to convince my grandmother that we *needed* an extended warranty for the VCR that she was buying for me -- the very first VCR that I would ever own.
The last time I ever went to one was to buy a memory card and batteries. They tried to sell me insurance for the batteries…
Ex circuit city employee here... you are spot on. There were awards for number of warranties sold and dollar amount of warranties sold
That is they made extra money ( employees) I remember two employees got arrested at the store because they stole over 10k from customers for credit card fraud. They would steal money from each customer who did the warranty hoping they would not check their card purchases
@@adamhector831 And the commission for selling them was way more than that of the actual product.
Those extended warranties are what caused me to stop going to Circuit City. My son wanted a laptop, so his grandma and I went there to buy one for him. The salesman suggested the extended warranty, and told us that if we got it and there were any problems with the laptop, we could return it, "no questions asked." I didn't always do the extended warranty thing, but in this case it seemed like a good idea since my son was only 11 and kids can be accident-prone with expensive electronics. A few weeks later, maybe even a few days, the laptop start shutting down randomly. I scanned for viruses and stuff, and it came up clean, so we took it back to the store. Far from "no questions asked", they gave us a complete and total runaround, and told us that we'd have to go through the manufacturer since it was still under the original warranty. Funny how they left part out when they were selling us this thing. So we'd arrange service with the manufacturer, who would glance at it for a nanosecond, claim they couldn't recreate the problem, and send it back to us. I'm not sure how this was eventually resolved. I do know at one point, the original warranty had expired and then we were going through Circuit City, but I'm not sure if they even fixed it. I think at that point, my son may have become enough of an expert to fix it himself.
After that, I never set foot in Circuit City again, and started going to the Best Buy that had recently opened in the area. I also never bought another extended warranty. It was a shame, because not too long before that, I had finished my basement and wanted a nice sound system for down there. The salesman was very helpful and we were able to put together something that wasn't the most expensive, but wasn't cheap junk that would sound terrible either.
Circuit City got me into PC Gaming. Circa 2002
Bought a game (some pirate game) my parents home pc couldn't run so the sales guy convinced my mom a 300$ AGP card was going to help me make better projects for school.
The dude explained how coding was going to be the jobs of the future and a faster PC was going to ensure I got a great job.
I went to business school and can't code any language but boy is my steam library worth a few grand 😂
Damn that dude was right lol!
Sid Meier's Pirates?
@@rartu same thought probably tbh
your steam account is worth 0. you wont find a buyer for a steam account. try again buddy
@@ChickenMcThiccken OP was making a joke, bruh
I went to our local Circuit City every now and then. Was surprised to see the store going out of business so stopped back in and noticed that all their “going out of sale” prices were higher than the regular prices. They were too lazy to take off the original price stickers and just ran a black marker over the sticker but you could see the original price. Such a scummy thing.
I remember the fake sale price too. I was eager to get some deals when they were closing, but was disgusted by the supposed sale prices, which were, indeed, higher.
Having been through this, what happens is that another company actually buys all the stock and liquidates the stores. Gordon brothers comes to mind. All that pricing black marker stuff is totally by design. But it has zero to do with the actual company that is going out of business.
Liquidation was handled by a third party, they get to set prices as long as everything is gone by the deadline
Happened to me too. Went to their closing sale, and found a spindle of CD-Rs was $50. Same spindle at Fry’s Electronics was $15. Nothing was worth buying.
I was working at circuit city right all the end. What a lot of people don't realise is almost everything was on sale. 90% of items were set at approximately 10 to 15% less than manufacturers suggested retail price.
When the liquidation company took over everything was jacked up to full retail price and about 60% of the remaining stock in the store was sold for more than it would have been months earlier.
in the mid 2000s i worked for both circuit city and best buy part time in central Connecticut at the same time and the two stores were directly across the street from each other. i did cell phone sales for CC and stock for BB and the experience working for both was night and day. the GM at CC sent daily emails threatening to fire people over stupid stuff meanwhile BB had a much more team building focus to their workforce approach. the difference became clear as day when I witnessed the GM of that CC checking out at that BB while I was walking into work that day and ducked around the corner so he didnt see me. it was quite comical when I was worried about him catching me working for best buy meanwhile I was like wait, what the hell are you doing in there?!? lol
I actually drove to Dallas for orientation which was quite far away. I walked out eventually because I was not going to continuously pressure customers. The whole thing was about if they refuse to buy this, then keep on asking. If customers want something, they'll ask or just buy it. Ask if they need help. Let them know you're available if they need something. That's it. Circuit City employees were trained to bug you basically and I find many people don't like that. It's at least part of the reason.
I used to love going to Circuit City with my mom as a little kid because, for whatever reason, you could play the free games installed on their computers, something you couldn't do at Best Buy. It was the only time I liked going shopping with my mom because she had a tendency to take a while looking for things so I could just pass the time over at the computer section and play games until she got done. I was very sad when they shut down.
I worked as an Operations Manager in the mid to late 90s. They had a good Management training program, where they flew us out to the Corp Headquarters in Virginia for intensive training. In my 5 years there, I learned a lot about people management, inventory control, P&L analysis, Loss Prevention etc. Unfortunately, the writing was on the wall when Best Buys opened locations locally... Things were most definitely changing... By 1999 I learned all I could from Circuit City and entered a completely different industry (IT). While working there, I took advantage of their stock purchase program. When I left, I sold all my shares of Circuit City and CarMax. Fortunately, I made a bit of cash during the sale, which allowed me to get a decent start in life. Overall, I'm thankful for Circuit City giving me the opportunity to work for them and for the trust they gave me.
BTW, I still have some DIVX discs in my entertainment cabinet. 🙂
prob should have kept some of that carmax
@@Sircivus So True, but at that stage in my life I was looking to buy my first house so I wasn't thinking that far ahead.
That's really cool, my dad was a salesman so it's neat seeing it from management
Used to work at the Gaskin road store In Glen Allen right by headquarters. Beautiful company all through the 90s and early 2000s
I worked at a store in Georgia that had like $180,000 per year loss. A lot of it seemed to be internal theft because other employees told me vaguely about "TVs walking out of the back door" and such. It was actually in a pretty nice area. When the management had photos up for some event, people wrote "thief" next to the assistant store manager's name. It was a fairly young lady who was always boasting about "how much they paid her" and of course would have had knowledge of the camera systems, keys and access to all areas, etc. Another store in Camp Creek, Georgia, other employees were telling me that like half of that store got arrested for walking out with merchandise and they supposedly had to close it for a while until they had enough help secured to close it down. They were sending in someone to basically mark stuff down to slowly clearance it. At our store, Firedog employees altered the sign to say "Fired" with the dog jumping through a hoop of fire. In the Car Audio area, even after they closed down, employees were trying to do installs for cash without the managers knowing. Some of the employees who did the home installs outside of the store stole the tools and were reported to police. It was just a big mess. Then the company promised a lot of people a bonus if they remained with the company until closing. I finally got a tiny bonus, but it took months. I had a hard time finding a job after that, too. I wish that I would have just quit. A lot of people never got their bonus. This company was awful in general.
I had a situation like that too. A friend of a friend worked at Circuit City. Pay cash and he had an impressive home delivery service (using Circuit City trucks to boot) for rock bottom prices. I was too chicken to take up his offer but I saw other acquaintances do it and the guy running the scheme made no secret about what he was doing.
Just curious what store you were at? I was at the Memorial Drive store - Stone Mtn.
Sounds like there was a lot of internal theft. Bought a Mac Mini there. At least I thought I did, when I got home and opened the box, there was a spindle of CD-Rs in there instead. Called the store, they said come in and they'd take care of it. Went to the store, the manager instead wouldn't take it back, saying it was our word against theirs.
Ended up calling corporate and getting the refund, but what a headache.
I used to work at Geek Squad/Best Buy that was next to a Circuit City and the best memories I had was the friendly rivalry we had when they started to employ Firedog employees. They wore black polos with neon green trim and collars and had those PT cruisers. We would go to their cars and leave Geek Squad pamphlets on their vehicles and would walk around Circuit city in full Geek Squad uniform. Always going to the firedog counter and ask for help and test their knowledge. They got a kick out of it but some Circuit City managers asked us to leave usually. They would do the same to us with our Geek Squad Volkswagon Bugs and coming to our store. We all had fun and enjoyed the rivalry and took them out when they finally folded. Good Times.
Love your videos @Company Man and congrats on the 300th vid. Also wanted to point out but I remember seeing somewhere that Circuit city was being sued by a California based company for stealing the name FireDog. We joked with the circuit city guys about it but not sure how true it may have been. It has been a while since then.
Yeah it was like rival gangs encroaching on each others territory. At my store we almost got into fights on the sales floor.
either one sucked. GeekSquad didnt know their ass from their elbow , FireDog was just braindead. couldnt pay me to use either one. ask GS how to fix a Master Boot record or GPT problem, their answer is going to be a reformat, reinstall windows
I remember getting my first DVD player at Circuit City. The Matrix had just been released to home video, and I wanted it on DVD and vowed to buy a DVD player at the first store that had it available on DVD (many stores only got in 2 or 3 copies of major releases on DVD at this time because the format was still brand new). Circuit City was the first to have it, bought it and a nice new DIVX / DVD player. The replacement plan got my attention, because they said "you can literally take this thing outside and drop it and the replacement plan will cover it." Well, I didn't do that, but a year later Circuit City contacted me and said "hey, DIVX is dead, that player you have is crap, your replacement plan says you can bring it back and get your original purchase price in credit to a new player if you want." Hells yes!
It was amazing, though, that a company so built on the future of tech was so behind in it. Their credit card system was antiquated, they still used the "print out long receipt, put it on a signing pad for you to manually sign" system that their competitors had abandoned 5+ years before. Then the big sign that they were through came when they released all employees with any seniority so they could hire kids at minimum wage. All the knowledgeable employees that could make sales were gone, replaced by kids who didn't know their ass from a hole in the ground.
in 2008 I worked at a restaraunt 2 minutes from the CC headquarters. It turned that area into a ghost town overnight. Everyone was just gone. It was really sad.
I know right? It feels like people stopped supporting the store because of its bankruptcy.
I was with Circuit City from 92-97. We were very customer service oriented, and I loved being able to educate the consumers on the differences in home audio components and was also cross-trained to sell car audio and video equipment. The company also allowed me to transfer to pursue a music dream to Nashville, helping open a brand new store in 1994, and then back to my original store in Brandon, Florida. I have nothing but good things to say the company. Our stock was also soaring at that time!
That's Tampa Bay area right, for Brandon?
@@PokrPro21 yes, it is.
I read the book the former CEO wrote (he was long gone before the rot set in) called "From Good to Great to Gone" and the ending was sad. It appeared that less than a dozen managers had destroyed the company. Best Buy and the competitors weren't the only reasons. From being the top retailer of appliances in 1998 & 1999 to being a skeleton of itself in the mid 2000s. I knew a girl who worked there right out of high school from 1984 to 2001 and to this day she will say it was the best 17 years of her life. She also left when red flags starting happening such as the ending of commissions and the ditching of many of their technicians
Forgot to mention that this is one of the videos I had also asked for a while back. Congratulations on 300 excellent presentations of company lifecycles! I wouldn’t have my MBA without your excellent summaries and analysis of companies. You are inspirational as well as informational. Thank you for all of your hard work.
I’m sure you wanted to mention it because you believe that you made this video happen, but. Firstly there were probably dozens of people on each upload asking for it and secondly he was eventually going to get around to CC at some point regardless of viewer interest.
Well except for the Cartoon Network one
@@SPFLDAnglerfr an exaggerated amount of people had requested same video 🤣
#2 hits hard. In my hometown, Circuit City was a long time staple but was located BEHIND our big mall to the point you couldn't see it unless you were driving in that area of the parking lot or the road adjacent to it.
When Best Buy moved into town in the mid 90s, it got an incredible location overlooking the 101 freeway, right next to our city's massive auto mall and also-then-new shopping plaza, and just two exits down from the other mall in town. In other words, it was right in the heart of where people were doing errands and couldn't miss it from a multitude of directions.
Our Circuit City never stood a chance after that.
Similar story here. Growing up, my local Circuit City was in a theoretically ok location, on a major street right by a freeway interchange for a major mall. ...But it was kinda tucked back where you couldn't see it very well from the freeway, and city laws said they couldn't build a tall sign. Meanwhile the Best Buy was actually a longer drive from the interchange -- but SUPER VISIBLE from the freeway (no tall sign needed), and right next to the back side of Target (easy to find from the interchange, since you could see the way to Target from the offramp).
The former Circuit City has been a Whole Foods grocery store since 2011 or '12. And the Best Buy is still open where it's always been. 🏷
I had my Dreamcast, Sonic Adventure, PowerStone, House of the Dead 2, and a light gun preordered from them for 9.9.99. Worked 2 years mowing lawns and odd jobs while I counted down the days. That’s my only real memorable experience with CC. 10/10
That's too funny, I also vividly remember dreamcast stuff at circuit cut. I used to get blank cds there and look at steroes... I remember getting a spindle of between 50 and 100 cds and being so excited lol. I'll have to explain cds to my children
My vivid memory of that store was going there when it was closing down and buying Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green
Ok yeah that's a cherished memory right there. That's awesome :D
@@Catenfur We brought NBA Jam T.E. for Genesis from there in September of 1994.
Nice. On 9-9-99, my brother came over to my parents' house, woke me up, and we drove to the mall to pick up his Dreamcast.
I worked at circuit city during 2003 when they fired all the best salesman, managers, and everyone making over certain hourly. We were the most profitable store in the Midwest and overnight we went to bleeding money. We all knew it was the end at that point.
In Kennesaw Georgia there was a Circuit City building that lay abandoned for years. They finally replaced it with an LA fitness but I’d never forget the one and only time I went in there. Huge and full of electronics. Ignited my passion for tech that I follow to this day.
Worked there from 99-04. Made a lot of money in Home Audio, cross trained for Video and 12 Volt. Made the move to Roadshop/12 volt in sales, then moved to be an installer. They did the lay off and I barely made the cut. I was transitioning into a management position and they brought someone else in instead. We were expected to do sales and install. Install what you sell. Management wanted me to share my tools with other employees and I told them absolutely not. I had Snap On, Matco, and Mac tools, not cheap. We were told no OT, take breaks as scheduled, and only to work our schedules. I got moved to part time after the so called assistant manager took on more work than he could install (which I had already had booked for him). I was lowered to 2hrs one week and 3 the next. I put in my 2 weeks notice and management begged me to stay through the holidays. I told them only if they brought me back to full time. They did not and I basically did what I wanted from that point on. I quit the day before Thanksgiving and that was the end of CC for me. I remember the restructure, the lay offs, the trainings, the family we built in our store, and all the fun times. Circuit City 4201/501
I was today years old when I found out that Circuit City still has an online store off all things. The one in my home town was empty for years and it has been repurposed by two different grocery stores in it passing. I have fond memories of shopping there was a young man buying music and computer hardware.
Either we have the same hometown, or Circuit City's must be perfect for grocery store conversation, because that's what happened to the one in my hometown. First as a Fresh Market and now an Aldi.
@@eaglescout1984 We have the same hometown.
Rich family? Everything was overpriced Not too many people can say they shop there often hints of reason it died
I think the online store is called Tiger Direct or something like that.
Circuit City's online store never even used it but i remember buying CD's, computer cards microphones et-cetra from their as a kid.
You forgot Walmart. On black friday when Circuit City had its major TV sale that often made them bank every year Walmart started selling TVs at a loss just to outsell Circuit City.
walmart, BestBuy,target all have their own in house brands. Black Friday is a scam anyway. BF tv's are garbage one off's- check the model numbers. you wont find that model number prior to BF or after. cuz once BF goes, they ditch that model
I worked at a Circuit City for 6 years as a kid. Right up to the day the store closed.
It was the best place I've ever worked. The best staff lounge, best management, great bonus system, great pay, good benefits/discount program, etc. Never once hated going to work.
That said, especially at the end, it quickly became a time capsule. Entire sections dedicated to VHS videos and Cassette music at a time when DVD was beyond just the 'norm' and and blue ray had already come out. They had like 4 full rows of boomboxes when it was embarrassing to still have one. It was like half the store was in current times while half was in the past. And everyone wanted to work in the 'current times' section.
There was a last ditch effort at the end to turn things around. Part of this included adding a car audio + install garage portion of the store. Pimp my ride had ended 3 years prior and the fad was already done.
As someone who was not yet an adult at that time, I wish I could step back in time and grab some of those now vintage electronics.. I never know what I might get from a thrift store now, but it would have been awesome to get a boombox and other things before they died off completely. So far as media, I went from VHS directly to digital formats on PC and skipped DVDs. I can thank the PSP for that, as I had to learn how to use all the software to compress video into a format it would run.. which became just a HDD media collection
I worked at CC’s Music Dept from 97 to 99. Often had to explain how DIVX worked. Employees were given what I considered a good discount which I used to buy a lot of electronics before I left. Still have the Stereo Equipment today.
A yes the awesome stereo discounts! Also cellphone plans! Had Verizon & Sprint for only $15 a month!
I worked at ccity in 2008 and to this day it’s the most fun job I’ve ever had.
Me too around the same time. Right before they closed doors
I worked at the Circuit City in Huntington Beach (CA) in the late 80's. I think your analysis about that time at CC (knowledgeable sales staff, customer service) is accurate. I think another factor in CC's demise was the fungibility (i.e., same product no matter where you buy it) of the goods they sold. This has greatly affected Best Buy as well, but basically Amazon...as well as discount chain stores (Costco, as you mentioned)...did them in. Good work.
I was there for the big FIRING and it was a mess. They had all the employees come in and sit in a meeting. All the sales staff were pulled to the back individually and given an option. Here is your last paycheck as a commission salesperson and if you want to stay on this is your new hourly pay. 90% of the sales staff choose the road. oh and at the meeting, there were like 15 new employees that were straight out of high school. I was the Car audio manager and had no clue this was all going to happen only the store managers were clued in. Truly sad because Circuit City was a great place.
In 2018, Circuit City attempted an online reopening. I was on the dev team working on the feature that allowed users to purchase service as a SKU, installing TVs, audio systems and the like. The idea was to make your purchase, and then you can choose to have it installed or set up for you after delivery. It was a cool system that API'd to WorkMarket to sell the job to a qualified installer, but like WalMart grocery delivery, over-estimates the number of people that want a stranger in their home. The website still exists, but service as a SKU is no longer supported.
I checked the site out. Some of the prices on TV's are nearly 30% higher, than Amazon. At least Best Buy was smart enough to realize, that they needed to partner up with Amazon.
That was not the "Circuit City." It was just some company that bought the rights to the name.
"If you think I'll allow a sex predator to wander around my house and touch my underwear, you got another thing coming" - Four Christmases
@@VaporheadATC
Yeah, last I remember hearing the website was owed/run by I thought a Canadian company of some kind.
... Grocery delivery is *massive* and growing ...
I bought my first PC at circuit city back on 1999. I played so much X Wing Alliance on that bad boy. And it had a CD burner (an expensive option) so I could make Napster CDs for all my friends.
i still play that game today lol
Holy shit, Napster CDs! I remember after I got my first CD burner, for Christmas I gave out coupons to all my family and friends for a free mix CD of their choice with whatever music they wanted. I don't remember if any of them cashed them in, but you're bringing back memories. Merry Christmas!
Speaking of service....The decline of "Service Merchandise"
I liked that store alot.
Sir or Ma'am, you done took Jerome ALL the way back!
i’ve been waiting for that one for so long - it was the first place i ever played Donkey Kong Country
It was my best friend's first job.
@@ubl76ub and Dolgin's
I worked for circuit city during the decline. The decision to stop selling appliances was probably the worst decision they made, especially with the timing of the recession. It’s very difficult to sell someone a new big screen TV (very expensive back then) when they’re worried about the economy, especially if they have to buy it on credit. A new refrigerator is a different story. They’ll gladly apply for credit for a necessity, often get approved for more than they needed, then leave with a refrigerator and a TV.
Very fair assessment. I remember in the late 80s going into Circuit Citys as a kid and basically being ran out. They were in malls here mostly and we would hangout at the mall all afternoon and to closing at 9pm lol. Once they figured out you weren't going buy anything you were a waste of time and not welcomed. Other stores welcomed us because eventually we bought stuff but we were children of the 80s. We would look at our options in stores for months before buying in most cases. It was basically our internet. In the 90s in steadily changed. Circuit City employees would be outside the stores running remote control cars and such trying to lite anyone and everyone in the store. It was kinda sad by the late 90s actually. They were so desperate for customers it was uncomfortable.
I definitely remember the difference between the mall at the end of the 80s and early 90s and the mall by the end of the 90s.
Practically unrecognizable from what it once was. I remember when stores like RadioShack really started losing steam you knew something was really wrong. And by the time all the Sam Goodies and sun coasts and similar stores closed the mall was just a husk.
I worked at Circuit City from 06 to it's closure in march of 09 and loved working there. I started out selling MP3 and media like movies and game. but got moved back to the warehouse when they dissolved that position and loved it. I became friends with several people i worked with and kept in contact with them for several years after the store closed.
I remember when they got rid of the commissioned salespeople. I also remember them as the first to discontinue selling VHS tapes. The last thing I recall is, unlike Best Buy, they had a layaway program, which is how I bought my last, technically unneeded, VCR when I realized all of my TV and audio equipment was of the brand Sharp...except for the VCR. I remember it was top-of-the-line, but only cost $88 plus tax. However at the time I couldn't afford to buy it all at once and was glad they had layaway available.
My college roommate worked at CC when they stopped commissioned salespeople. He got an hourly rate that was equal to his average commission. So he was able to work less for the same amount.
Damn, now that you mention layaway, is there ANYONE that does that anymore? Best I can think is maybe any remaining KMarts, but those are few and far between. :Va
@@Caterfree10 I'm not 100% and I refuse to ever step into one but I THINK Walmart may have brought back layaway at least for the holiday period? Growing up with just our mom, we didn't have much and I know my mom relied on layaway especially during the Christmas season.
@@InfectedChris same with my family tbh. I remember a ton of Christmas and birthday presents being bought on layaway bc we often couldn’t buy outright.
And lol fair enough for not wanting to check Walmart, I completely understand. |D
@@Caterfree10 There are some places like Big Lots, but not many. I think a lot of companies realized they could make more money offering financing through things like affirm or their in-house credit cards, rather than offering layaway as a courtesy. They'd rather sell you something on credit, record the sale today and move product out of the store, as opposed to waiting several months to record a sale and store old inventory for no extra profit.
The sales floor and pushy staff felt like a big Radio Shack. But I did like to browse the store occasionally. The worst thing they did for me was paying at the register and picking up the item around the side. It was an annoying wait, the warehouse guys seemed like unprofessional goons and sometimes the box was damaged or a return, leading to more hassle. I just gave up on them for BB.
That’s some what funny in a way back n 2003 where I lived I wanted to get one of the first digital tv converters in my area. So I drove 30 miles to town after hearing that Radio Shack ‘s catalog “ said” they “ had” a digital tv decoder in their store so I went to the RS in the mall asked the “ college kid” salesman who told me they didn’t have them but they didn’t produce much of them and were on discount and his own words were “ if you could find a store with one” ( I saw this as false advertising) so I went shopping around to 3 other Radio shacks none were Available nor did they even know what they even were! So as a last resort I went to Circuit City and right there in the store was the decoders so I bought one immediately and carried it home hooked it up to my new projection tv and was the first one on my block to have HD tv Circuit City always was there for me as Radio Shack was clearly on the decline but sadly at least for me 5 years later they shut down .
What a extreme coincidence. I was just on their website last night and then you came out with a video today. Wow. Thanks for this video. Love the history lesson. I miss having multiple options.
@@locheyoutube5252 thanks for the reminder
Happy 300th Man, ever since ive discovered this channel, ive loved the content
The concept of learning about the rise and falls of companies has always fascinated me for some odd reason and i often keep coming back to this channel for more.
tbh, im kinda surprised you only now covered circuit city, but nonetheless, here to 300 more videos!
I know right?
Im noticing a trend, most business that have aggressive salespeople pushing warranties and credit cards seem to end up in trouble (Officemax, Circuit City, Radioshack, Gamestop, etc) when will they learn?
businesses*
Best Buy pushes warranties and credit cards. The reason why companies do it, is because it is a large source of their profit.
@@DarthVader1977 This. I was at an AT&T corporate store a few weeks ago and the employee told me they make very little from phones sold. They make most of their moolah from all the other stuff like activation fees, data plans, warranties and accessories.
It was inevitable for so many retail stores to close down once online shopping from Amazon and eBay became the norm. I'm seeing it with my local Best Buy. I only visited it after 2 years and they changed the interior layout completely. They have less stuff.
Best Buy will eventually be headed to the same direction as RadioShack, Circuit City, K-Mart, Mervyn's. Even Apple retail stores are struggling since the pandemic. Most consumers shop online now and use apps like Amazon, eBay, OfferUp, Mercari, and Poshmark.
Gamestop was doing fine until someone realized they could make more money by killing the company.
@@Dec4AllTimeAlways Can confirm. I worked at Office Depot in the technology department for a while in my early 20s. Computers, printers, scanners, etc. had such razor thin margins it didn't even really matter if we sold them at all. They were just an opportunity to sell accessories. We made more on the cable, toner, and paper to go with a $1000 laser printer than we did on the device itself. The big cash cow was the "extended warranty." They are basically 100% profit. Most people either forget to activate them, forget they have them, or forget how to use them if they need them. I hated selling those things because I knew what a racket they are.
We were hourly, not commission, so I didn't see that directly, but I finally figured it out by what metrics they cared about us hitting and what they pushed us to "recommend." (i.e. sell, even though we weren't technically "salesmen")
I worked at circuit city as an associate and eventually department and assistant store manager from 2003-2007. It had its ups and downs for sure. I was a big part of the launch of firedog towards the end and travelled to different AZ locations to help setup and run their computer repair and installation stations. After doing that, I knew that it was a horribly planned out idea and saw the demise was imminent. I left circuit city 9 months before they closed all their stores but had a lot of friends who were there til the end. RIP CC
I used to be a firedog supervisor for Circuit City, and I ended up in one of the 'The City' locations. I have lots of stories about the way the company was maintained on its way down. It got to the point to where every employee was required to be cross trained in every department and it wasn't uncommon to only have one employee per department, even during the busiest times of the day.
I also recall the weekend before the company filed bankruptcy. We were all required to be at the store at 8am to watch a live video of Schoonover, the CEO talking about how rumors of bankruptcy were floating around. The video was him insisting that we weren't filing bankruptcy and to make sure to tell customers that their insurance and service plan purchases were safe. So we spent all weekend dispelling those rumors only for CC to file bankruptcy the next week XD
This was a great video, and as an insider I can say that there were definitely more issues that led to the collapse than are here, but this does cover a lot of them.
Bought my first computer there. The salesmen was helpful in telling me what I was getting.
I went only once, I remember everything being sperated and workers constantly asking you if you need help, looked clean cut and they had damn near everything you'll need for anything electronics based
I remember when every section had it's own checkout as well, which actually caused an issue when I put together my sound system. I already had a tv for that area, but I still needed a DVD player, a VCR (this was back in 2002 when people sometimes still used them), and a sound system. Each of those was in a different area, so instead of making one huge purchase on my credit card, I had to make three that were fairly big. The sound system was the most expensive, but even the VCR was like $70 back then. I'm sure some of you know where this is going. The first two purchases went through without issue, but the third one declined even though I still had plenty of available funds. I ended up opening up one of their store cards, refunding the first two purchases off my main card, and repurchasing everything on the store card, but after that, nothing on my main card would work. And it was after hours on a Saturday so I couldn't even call my bank. When I was finally able to the following Monday, they were very apologetic once they found out that these were legitimate purchases, but informed me that multiple electronics purchases at the same store indicate a classic theft pattern, and the system flagged it as such and shut it down.
@@mikemumper881 Each staff is only allowed to sell from a single department.
If you sell in multiple departments, they are forced to split the commission, even if only one person helped you.
If an item was non-commissioned such as CD Players they would take half your commission and give it to no-one.
I worked at Circuit City from 1999-2002 beginning in the ACE (Advanced consumer electronics) department and shortly after, the Home Audio department for the rest of my stay. Our location was ideal for the area at the time, in a mall parking lot. One of the immediate unique things I noticed about CC was how well and required the training was for each department. The new Onkyo, Bose, Harman Kardon or Polk audio product coming out, sent us all to a computer to take the latest test on the new items. I loved working for comission, and always tried to just sell people what they needed rather than what they wanted. This yielded fewer returns and fewer hits from my upcoming paychecks. CC was good about having manditory monthly meetings and discussions. Although they were usually 2 hours before we opened, I liked the structure. I avoided DiVX and like the MiniDisc, knew it wouldn't hang around too long. I do also remember customers that came from Best Buy often saying the selection wasn't great or the salesperson didn't know what they needed as well as those that came in from the Home Theater store looking for something more affordable. I'd moonlight connecting the components I had sold earlier in the day for about a year before I quit, and just before the threat of hourly pay was announced, I broke away and began my own business full-time, that now, 20-years later, enjoyably run and operate. Another failure of CC is the fact that they never went digital with their sales. Thanks for the video!
Yes, I also set up many A/V systems that I sold for extra cash.
I actually worked there in the mid-1990s. Everything you mentioned here is valid. On top of that, there was so much theft within the stores (by managers) that it was hard to imagine this company surviving.
Why weren't manages of every store ever stealing? Why Circuit City of all places?
what the? Managers were stealing?
I had a manager that, while working out his 2 weeks, discounted a TV by a very significant margin for himself. The POS system was so ancient that it was easy to manipulate.
@@Seth9809 the it fell off the back of truck resell mentality. my dad used to trade CC manager half pounds of pot/shrooms for high end stereo equipment, TVs
I never heard of a manager stealing while I was there since they don’t normally handle the product but we had one manager that was fired for groping some of the very attractive cashiers. Most of the theft was from the warehouse associates. They had motive, means and opportunity😬. We were paid poorly, abused by a manager and district manager and the company had little to no security for the highly desirable products they carried.
I bought my current surround sound system from the local CC in 2003. They used to have a phenomenal demo room for surround sound and I ended up with an Onkyo receiver/processor and Infiniti speakers. Paid $1,300 for it which was pretty expensive for the time. I don’t think we had a Best Buy in town at that point so it’s hard to make a comparison. Best Buy came later on for us.
Same, still rocking the surround sound I bought at circuit city in 2003. Also bought a 46" inch Samsung dlp tv that day, which outlasted it's advertised bulb life by like a hundred thousand hours. When it finally came time to put it out to pasture, I dumped it Best Buy for them to recycle it.
I remember the demo room. They helped me put together a nice sound system for my newly finished basement. I wasn't going to go full surround sound, but they informed me of a special where I could get the rear speakers for free. And I didn't even know what a subwoofer was at the time, but they helped me pick out something good that wasn't overly expensive. I have fond memories of hooking everything up, putting in Terminator 2, and cranking up it during one of the explosion scenes. My wife came running downstairs yelling, "What the hell is that? It's shaking the floor upstairs!" I had to replace the receiver after 10 or 12 years, but the speakers are all still working great.
1300 is still expensive😅
Up until last year I had my Onkyo. They had some really good audio equipment.
@@mikemumper881 Best laugh I've had all day!
Best Buy's idea was brilliant. I've noticed this with other businesses. Locating your business in convenient locations is a major factor in success of the franchise.
A friend of mine in high school was a car stereo installer for Circuit City, he used the money to buy a white Z32 Nissan 300ZX. After CC went under, he went to Best Buy.
Does he still own that car?
The 300ZX doesn’t get the love they deserve. I love the look of those beauties.
I used to enjoy getting car stereos at Circuit City. They did a decent job when I went there. Best Buy wasn't (and still isn't) as good as they were in my area.
Z32 is still the best version of the z and I'm a 370z owner
I worked at CC from 2000-2007. It was my first “real job” and I made a lot of money for someone my age at the time. I remember everyone being exited to come to work, they’d train us on new products, and we were all very knowledgeable. We always heard from customers that Best Buy was a “self help” store and they didn’t know anything about their electronics. Best Buy did have a better location, it was closer to the freeway. I worked part time at first, so I barely dodged the 2003 layoff. After this layoff we were no longer commission based, but paid hourly. The morale was low after this, a third of our friends were let go for making too much money. How can that happen in a business? Employees came to work to make as much money as possible; that’s why everyone goes to work, and we were encouraged to be successful. It was such a slap on the face.
Some of us that remained were paid a high hourly, but the drive to help customers and to sell was gone. I remember they didn’t educate us on new products as good as they used to. That was also critical because technology was changing fast back then. Our customer service quality plummeted. I worked in Car Audio, so it was still high paced and fun most of the time. Then, things started changing with management in 2006. They were hiring managers from Best Buy and other retail stores that wanted to do things differently and started micromanaging. People started quitting. And then finally I was let go in 2007 with the second layoff. They fired the top 25% or so of higher paid employees. The stores all closed the following year.
Intersting to hear it first hand. You lose the human element when you just hear percentages
Ive been working part time at best buy 2015- currently and this is exactly what i feel like is happening to this company
At Best Buy we would hear Circuit City employees were pushy and greedy salesmen
I clearly remember going to Circuit City after hearing that they had stop the commissions. The sales people didn't move, they just stood around and offered no help at all. Before I would get approached 4 or 5 times before I got to the back of the store by very friendly salespersons. It was such a drastic change overnight.
You were right when you said the thing every let-go employee says: they’ll never make it without me.
I’m a 90s kid and I remember going to Circuit city with my grandpa since he wanted to buy a computer desk or seat whatever he was buying, as I grew up, I literally forgot about this store until I scrolled through RUclips. Man their algorithm is in point
on* point.
Circuit City never existed in Canada so I have no stories about it, unless it was rebranded as Future Shop in Canada. But I liked going to Best Buy which took over all the Future Shops here in Canada, now it's the only real electronics store up here that people go to. If I'm getting a laptop I'll go there.
@@animeangel1983 Future Shop was a Canadian store that was eventually aquired by bestbuy. They closed it down a while ago and converted the better stores to Bestbuy
@@gruntlord6 Yeah I know, I remember where the Future Shops were and you can still the sign outlines on some of the Best Buy buildings now. It was a nice store too.
Use to buy CD but stopped going as they went out of style . They were right across from best buy here but by the later 2000 we knew what we wanted the salesman were aggravating.
I had a friend get car audio done at Circuit City, they did it beautifully all while keeping the stock radio too
I worked at Circuit City in the mid 2000. The company used to push for the hourly employees to upsale without any sort of incentive to do so. I worked for a fairly new Circuit City, but the stores looked dated inside compared to the more modern look of Best Buy. I also remember the announcement for Firedog, and most of the employees laughed at the name and logo.
Where I'm from, one of the very first places I went to was a circuit City in the nearby strip mall town center. It was the first place I ever played a PlayStation, as well as my first encounter with a desktop computer. I go on to demo need for speed The original Hot Pursuit for the very first time and eventually own it a copy I buy from this circuit City. It was in Long decline up to the recession, that by the time I return from college, it was gone. In that time since a Best buy was up the road and it's still there. Where that circuit City was is now a Nordstrom rack and just down the way where the original borders used to be, is now a total wine and beer. We used to have service merchandise back in those days they too have long since gone. Times have changed!
Pronounced Div Ex. The player was also hooked into a phone line, so if you wanted to watch the movie again, you could, I believe you were charged $1.99 every time you wanted to watch it after the initial purchase and viewing period.
The only DivEx I remember was software for watching DVDs on your PC in the early 00s.
Their discs were also very barebones compared to what they called at the time "Open DVD." Movies were presented in 4:3 aspect ratio using "pan and scan" while DVDphiles preferred a 16:9 anamorphic ratio which felt more true to the theatrical vision. DIVX discs also lacked any special features that you would get from a similar "Open DVD" of the same time.
I suggest checking out the video that Oddity Archive did about DIVX as well as a similar disposable disc format called FlexPlay as it does a great job demonstrating both services.
@@LikaLaruku That's a different company altogether. The DIVX you're referring to is a video compression codec.
The DIVX that Circuit City used was shortened form of their actual name, DIgital Video eXpress.
@@SNARC15 Oh thanks. I was thinking the same thing. I think I used to have a DVD player with a DivX logo on it, and I was under the impression that I could burn a DivX coded file to a disc and play it. I only had a CD burner at that time, so all of my pirating was via VCDs.
@@CamdenBloke You're welcome. It was confusing to me at first, especially considering when I started at my last job (as an AV tech back in 1998) my lead tech left said job to go work for DIgital Video eXpress. He only lasted there about 2 months as they laid off all their employees after killing off the DIVX line.
I worked at Circuit City as a College freshman in 2003, even then years before the Great Recession they were showing problems. First thing I noticed was they just couldn’t keep up with Best Buy. BB always seemed bigger, had more items on display, and moved merchandise faster. We had to compete for our hours by how many stupid add on sales we made. They specifically trained you to focus on this because they sold their main merchandise at little to no markup at all, but the add-ons were like free cash. I worked in the computer department and they didn’t give a damn if you sold $10,000 worth of computers on one shift unless you sold extended warranties on most of them (that was their true bread and butter). A lot of the “top” salesmen in this area were liars who needed the hours to make enough money - the warranties didn’t cover much at all, and they only kicked in after a year (so the first year you had to use the manufacturer’s warranty). So if you dropped $200 on a “2-year” extended warranty, it was really only one year because it kicked in the moment of sale but couldn’t be used until the manufacturer’s warranty expired. So you buy a $1,000 computer (they were much more expensive back then) and get pressured like you need a new kidney to buy a 2-year warranty for $250, or god forbid you got suckered into the 4 year warranty, then in a year you can use it, but your computer probably isn’t even worth what you paid for the warranty anymore. It was fine-print highway robbery! And the stupid add-ons we were pushed into pushing. $100 Monster Cables that didn’t make any performance difference than a $10 cable that wasn’t gold plated wiring, if you bought a printer they were always very well priced, but they didn’t come with the USB cable for which we charged $45 at the time!! I could go on and on…luckily I didn’t “need” the job as I just needed extra cash while in school because I would bring up the rip off shit but I wouldn’t pressure people to buy it. I couldn’t sell you something I would never buy myself and that was a total rip off. This was a college town I was in too, so every new semester parents would roll in with their freshmen kids and had targets on their backs. One thing that was a real knock to CC that came out around the time that I left was Best Buy’s very popular and profitable Geek Squad. CC tried to compete with this by creating a “FireDog” department (first off a horribly stupid name that was pulled out of some overpaid MBA’s ass in the VA HQ) that just used their computer employees but gave them no special training. It was a failure. Also, they had us start selling “installs” on software. I didn’t expect everyone to be a coder like I was, but installing software is as easy as putting in the CD and then clicking a couple buttons, allowing it to do the work itself. I almost flat out refused to sell them unless someone asked for it straight up. We charged you $40 just to install a piece of software for you! That was ridiculous to me! I saw the “top” salesman ripping off so many little old ladies with these installs it infuriated me. Most of the time when someone would ask, especially an old lady just trying to get a machine to read emails and communicate with her grandkids, I would just do the install myself for free. Needless to say I was a horrible employee, I cared more about the customers than helping some executive make his six figure bonus for the quarter. They eventually just gave me few enough hours where I left, and never felt better. I remember at this time once walking into a Best Buy and I could just see how different things were and how much better it was for the shopper. The salesmen there had most of the same profitable add-ons but they weren’t nearly as pushy and it was much more comfortable. They also had better financing. In my opinion all these things contributed to CC’s demise, it got way too greedy and showed no care at all for the customers. When I was a kid CC was actually a nicer place to go to make a big purchase, it wasn’t like that. The salesmen were good and patient because they worked on commission (something they couldn’t do once Best Buy got super popular and sold big items with no mark-up). We made no commission at all, we were all just competing for hours. The best day I ever had working there was one day coming back from lunch and I found a $100 bill on the ground! By the late 90’s Best Buy always had better business models and a better experience and Circuit City couldn’t compete. I wasn’t surprised one bit after the economic collapse when they went into liquidation.
Now that Best Buy is the only in-store shop around, I worry they’re falling into the same greed traps. I went there to buy a TV right before Christmas, and even though I was dropping $2,500 on the TV, the sales lady didn’t want to talk about anything but a sound bar (which obviously was worth much more profit). She got super annoying no matter how many times I told her I didn’t want one she kept showing me “examples” which just hurt my ears. I almost had to get mean and say “can I just buy this damn TV already?!?” I don’t know if BB is pushing pushiness like CC did, or if this woman couldn’t take a hint and wasn’t good at sales. Either way, hopefully they don’t suffer the same fate.
Wow, sorry for the novel! I just couldn’t hold back!
longest winded comment I have ever seen, but Kudos, I was hooked to every word, just like a goosebumps book in the 90s.
@@johndavis4850 I first visited Circuit City in November 1988 and remember seeing my Stepdad buying our GIANT '44 Zenith Fatback. At the time, The Floor was HUGE and Circuit City used to have SO much emphasis on Customer Assistance. Circuit City was also one of the Pioneers in "Showrooming" which is the practice of using Floor Space to Display Appliances and New Models of Electronics like 4 Head VCR Decks, CD Players and Laser Discs while pushing HARD for Sales in order to Make Hefty Commission via Demos. Throughout the Early 90s, CC thrived until Best Buy started expanding as a very Streamlined Retailer. At BB, everything was labeled and specifically placed in certain Aisles and Labeled. CC was the same, but unlike with Best Buy, Store Reps were generally trained to "Porter" and show Customers where each item or specific Brand and Model(In the Pre Internet Days) were located in each Store.
I remember when CarMax first launched in the Summer of 1993, Circuit City had attempted to buy Avis Rental unsuccessfully in September 1992 so they launched CarMax as a way to offset potential Car Equipment and Stereo sales, CarMax was actually pretty successful, but CC Decided it was better off as a Subsidiarity instead of a Wholly Owned Subsidiarity. With a WOS, Parent Holder and IP Holder can maximize profits and keep an IPO robust. But Circuit City didn't do that, they spun it off, in other words, they let them get away.
This was the beginning of alot of Shortsided Corporate Moves that would ultimately lead to the Company's Complete Demise in just 15 years time.
The First was dropping Appliance Sales and NOT spinning them off. You see, in Early 1993, Aarons had sought a M&A Deal with Circuit City which coulda pulled in Massive Revenue for CC to have a Appliance only Subsidiarity that Circuit City hotly rejected. ALL that potential extra profit, GONE.
The 2nd was the Elimination of Showrooming. In 1992-1993, the Now Defunct Service Merchandise/KMart Knockoff Venture had a brief Nationwide Expansion and begin to open in Major Cities. Venture didn't have the Budget for Showrooming, so they often opted for Kiosks, even Best Buy at the time(I first saw and visited BB in early 1993) had Showroom Floors. But CC went with what they saw as the CHEAPER bet of just relying on Kiosks, CC thought that Venture's Nationwide expansion was mostly due to just using Kiosks, but the trouble for CC is that they had Jumped the Gun and forgot the fact that Showrooming had ALWAYS been a Core Part of the Company's Identity and that going ALL the way back to the Wards' TV Brand of the 50s, The Biggest key to having earned so much in Direct Retailer Sales was ALWAYS the Showrooming Aspect. I remember by 1994, Circuit City scaling back with the loss of Showrooms, and observing how much HARDER it was for Reps to Upsell devices without it.
But Circuit City ultimately FINALLY Screwed The Pooch with their biggest, DUMBEST, DISASTEROUS most Asinine Venture and Investment yet that was such a Commercial Disaster, it literally led to the complete 10 year Downfall of Circuit City and their Inevitable Demise: DIVX DVD. In the Summer of 1998, In a Desperate Attempt to cash in on the New DVD Format and attempt to Lure away Blockbuster Video Consumers who were upset Blockbuster was Sluggish on migration to DVDs and Desperate to get a Tasty Piece of the Home Video Rental Market, Circuit City launched probably the STUPIDEST Premise for a Rental Concept: DRM enabled DVD. DIVX was hyped and marketed as "The Cheap Solution for DVDs" and MANY CC Sales Reps had NO Choice but to Hard sell the Dumbass Concept to a completely DISINTERESTED Consumer Base. This Dumpster Fire of a Venture was the collaboration of Circuit City and the MPAA, which was so BAD, that not only did the outgoing CEO Warn against investing and saying yes to it, but Best Buy TURNED the MPAA down AND even Blockbuster and Hollywood Video Rejected the Pitch. But CC went ALL in, confident they would eat away Blockbuster Marketshare and win BACK BB consumers squeamish paying $30 for full DVD films, They thought Wrong, by February 1999, DIVX had lost over $700 Million Dollars Alone and CC lost nearly $1.4 Billion on the Venture thanks to UNSOLD Discs, Unwanted OVERPRICED DIVX encrypted RCA DVD Players and DIVX DVD players that were RETURNED BACK to CC.
Circuit City NEVER Recovered from DIVX. Things went downhill from 1998 all the way until 2008. The most IRONIC part about the Failure of SOURCE, is that the SOURCE Chains were derived FROM the original DIVX pitch of just opening small Express Mini Stores in its older CC Locations called "Circuit City Xpress" in which DVDs would have been sold for RENTAL.*Facepalm* Didn't think that one through, did you Circuit City?
I remember applying for a job at Circuit City back in Early Summer 2002. I was just fresh out of HS and looking for a Commission paid job, I got turned down, but literally only 6-7 months later, CC announced they were discontinuing Commission Pay for its Employees and thanking myself I didn't get hired. I also remember stepping into a CC in 2004 with that Ascetic. Soulless, Lost and Underwhelming and Archaic are what describe how it felt. Like it had devolved into a Upper Class Radio Shack. I had Friends who worked there in 2005 and Everyone had a foreboding thought that the end was near. Everyone sensed it, only a matter of time. 2008 was no shock at all.
It's funny reading all of these comments. It seems that Circuit City left its impression on A LOT of people in a lot of different ways. I have 2 buddies that met as coworkers at CC and later became friends before I ever joined the friend group. As soon as I sent them this video, they got riled up sharing their stories 😂
I worked for Circuit City in the late 90s as a Roadshop installer. At the time, CCS was a decent company to work for. I enjoyed my time at CCS and to this day, it's still one of my favorite jobs. I made friends with people who I still keep in touch with after all these years. That said, I was long gone by the time they made all the changes.
I always went to circuit city for the service. My first electronics purchases all came
From there. I was so sad when I finally had to get a tv at Best Buy.
I worked at Circuit City for about two years doing their "Fire Dog" PC Repair Services. I was there in early 2008 when they told us about the company filing for bankruptcy and closing all stores eventually little by little. It was sad news for sure for many employee's I was fortunate at the time to be already on my way out looking for a job so I didn't take it hard as an employee. I loved Circuit City, I miss it so much!
I worked at Circuit City in a Dallas suburb for a couple of months in summer of 2005. I worked in PC services as the PC technician. When I first started, everything was mostly okay. The store manager that hired me would compliment that he never had to tell me anything because I was knowledgeable, always did my job, and made sure everything ran smoothly. However, that manager soon left to another store a couple of towns away, and he took many of the employees with him (I should've transferred with them!). Our new management had transferred from that same store due to sexual harassment allegations. He also brought his assistant manager in with him. They were both terrible! Our worst employees became department managers and good employees were fired. I was suddenly being unnecessarily micromanaged and was soon fired for a miniscule mishap. The store quickly went downhill after that. 3 to 4 years later, Circuit City was completely gone. I haven't worked in a retail store since then.
Local Circuit City (now a 24 Hour Fitness) was just 3 blocks away from Fry’s Electronics and 2 blocks from Best Buy’s. Sad to see the fallout in this sector.
I've been waiting for this episode my whole life! I loved that store and had no reason in my mind why they would ever go out of business. Thank you for shedding some light and bringing some clarity to this mystery!
There was 5 or 6 in my area. They were all in goofy locations except one. And that one originally was in a goofy location in the mid 1990s, but by 2002 a shopping center had sprung up around it leaving it basically dead center, visible from the main road and prominent from all entrances/exits to that shopping center. Best Buy in my area was really smart about putting all their locations near the Circuit City locations, but closer and visible from the main road, so that prospective customers had to pass Best Buy to get to Circuit City. The most memorable thing about Circuit City in my area is the one in the shopping center sitting abandoned and devoid of lettering from 2008 to about 2010, when it was torn down and replaced with an Olive Garden.
Congrats on 300 videos, Mike! Here’s to another 300!
Kind of along the same line as DIVX, Circuit City invested heavily into a new Point of Sale system being developed by IBM. The system IBM delivered to them looked much more modern, but lacked so many features that their system had (selling products from other locations, being able to return an item at a location other than where you bought it, and many others). They ended up scrapping that project after 2-3 years and lost a ton of money.
Yep! RPOS... but the previous DPS and even Magellan which interfaced with DPS worked splendidly imo. Unfortunately, the hardware required to use it was aged, breaking down, and increasingly harder to replace. Lol.
Hey, I remember that now! At my location, it was this rumored wonder tech upgrade that always seemed to have a delayed rollout. I even got a glimpse of some test hardware at the store, in the back room. It was never deployed.
@@KentonBenfield What did this new POS system try to do? Forgive my ignorance, been in the construction trade for the last twenty years.
@@KentonBenfield yep. It didn't make it to scale. I think the only reason I was at a test store was because I'm in Richmond, and corporate was about 15 minutes away. All the Richmond stores used it for the last 1-2 years of the business.
@@jiukumite I never got the chance to find out. But at that point, just about anything was going to be an upgrade over DPS *shudders*
Your videos covering topics like these are always so nostalgic to me, especially with the included commercials and tv clips. I remember applying for a job there a few months before the recession right after i graduated high school; I guess it didnt matter that they didnt hire me lol. Now my local circuit city is an Ashley Furniture with the same that same iconic building design
Circuit City was my first retail job. It was a seasonal position, and I actually enjoyed it-great discount, cool coworkers, and I loved being able to tell others I worked at CC. I really wanted to stay on after the holidays & I knew exactly of my peers was graduating, who was leaving, and who had a questionable attendance record or work ethic. I was very confident that I’d be retained. Of course I was passed over by many people who were buddies or relatives with management & likely couldn’t hold a job without being buddies with somebody. It’s one of the most valuable life lessons I’ve ever learned. I’d be incredibly naive to believe that nepotism was a problem exclusive to CC, but I distinctly remember all the press releases with all the cuts and layoffs the company would make, and thinking “yeah, ‘bout right for them”…
Would you be willing to make your best friend homeless?
@@Seth9809 of course not, but if I was store director or ops manager, and one of my department leads wanted to hold onto these clowns when there are better candidates right there in house who actually wanted the job, I think it wouldn’t, and shouldn’t fly. The bottom line has to come first. Don’t kill the golden goose, they say…
i used to work there in the early 2000s, and what happened was that people figured out they could walk out of the store without paying for merchandise, i seen people taking display model tvs off the shelves and walk out the door with them in front of managers
You can really tell company man's age here. He glossed over how different it was to talk to experts about something in store. Only other way was enthusist magazines
I would love one of these videos also on CompUSA. I remember my college days wandering the isles of Circuit City and CompUSA when I needed a break from studying, looking at electronics, videos games, etc. Great memories....
By the time I was old enough to visit they were already heading downhill but the main thing I remember about Circuit City is a portable CD player I bought from them. It was a decent CD player, and it outlasted the company itself, but sadly fell out of use once MP3 players and eventually smartphones took off.
Happy 300 videos btw!
The thing I remember most about Circuit City is their ridiculously long receipts. No joke, you buy one item, and they hand you a foot and a half long sales receipt!
I worked for CC in Merchandising and also for DIVX until CC pulled the plug. Here is how I remember it:
-DIVX cost $100M like you say, I think it was called Project X in the early days. We were told that DIVX held 60% of the DVD market at one point…which threatened the Hollywood studios. As a result the studios stopped sending DIVX all the first run movies to master. A deal was in the works with Blockbuster to carry them in their checkout lanes which would have meant huge distribution. But Blockbuster walked away when the studios pulled their support…which killed DIVX. It was rumored the DVD encryption process was later sold to Sony and money recouped.
- In its heyday in the 1990s CC was opening 60 stores a year.
-Another story was that in the 1990s CC built a store across the street from the Best Buy headquarters and as a result BB leadership swore to put CC out of business. The rise of the big box stores like Price Club and Costco were said to a reason why the Best Buy polo-shirt concept caught on. It was felt internally that CC took their eye off the stores when DIVX was being developed which allowed BB to surpass them.
-CC started the “low price guarantee” concept in the 1980s. Later in the 1990s CC carried Mitsubishi in its coastal stores and wanted to carry their wide-screens in their midwest stores. Mitsubishi said no to protect their mom-and pop dealers. As a result Rick Sharp the CC president dumped the entire Mitsubishi line and shipped every product back. I believe Mitsubishi never recovered.
-There was a story in the early 2000s that CC over-purchased flat-panel TVs for the Superbowl which didn’t sell because Walmart undercut them. The perception was that this was the beginning of the end.
.....how was Hollywood threatened by their own product? Circuit City wasn't making movies, they were selling Hollywood's home videos. DIVX died because it was a terrible idea, period.
One of my sisters worked at our local Circuit City as one of her first jobs (I might still have the shirts kicking around somewhere, lol), and you hit the nail on the head with this. The part about “they were in more inconvenient locations” particularly stood out-the Best Buy was (and still is) right near the centre of town, one plaza down from a Target, Home Depot, and a major local grocery store, and coincidentally right next to a bunch of apartment complexes. The CC was over a mile further down the strip, next to…nothing. The local liquor store used to be across the (four-lane) street, but otherwise, not really much of anything.
Circuit City was something I was proud of since it was a company that started here in Richmond. I loved going there as a kid whenever I was brought along and I was a customer until the very end. I bought my previous computer from them like a month before they announced they would be shutting down. I found Best Buy in college in 1997 and shortly after that, they opened the first stores in Richmond. I loved both stores and by the 2000s I was going to them for cds and dvds. Circuit City opened a new store near my house in 2008 and Best Buy followed. By then, they doubled down on the customer service where it did become annoying walking 3 feet and having 5 people asking what they could do for me when all I wanted was a movie from the display I was walking toward. I loved not having to drive across town anymore for both stores but after Circuit City closed, that Best Buy did too and it seems we're starting to lose them too. After Circuit City closed, some of the stores reopened as hhgregg until they went under. Well Carmax is still headquartered here and I am proud of them as well but I do miss Circuit City... and that online store isn't cutting it.
A Best Buy opened up across the highway from our long standing Circuit City and even as a young teen it was obvious that everyone had already chosen the new store. One is obviously still open.
I bought my car from Carmax and they have a lawsuit (a couple if I’m not mistaken) against them now. I got a letter bc I bought a car there. No issues with my car personally.
I feel like Best Buy died about 5 - 8 years ago. I went in to try the display stuff for pcs like keyboards and mice and monitor....none were out any longer. I went back to buy something a year later and half the store was empty. Shelves and aisle were bare. I never went back.
@Daehawk yeah they have started to close stores here... man, when I first discovered Best Buy, it had a huge music section and had everything like Tower Records. I bought my first DVD player and DVDs from them (they had a better sale than CC that week so they won that one). Now that is one row.
@zoeyr2739 yeah they are having a tough time... a friend just got let go from there... he was telling me how slow business was beforehand on top of everything else
I worked at CC from 2000 to 2003 in the audio and video department. I was part of the first layoffs, we showed up to work one day and walked out with a severance check. We were commission sales people motivated to learn our product inside and out because we got paid on everything we sold. We also wanted to sell you the right thing because we were charged back when something was returned. Now when I go to Best Buy it's so hard to get anyone to answer a question. That just wasn't an issue for us.
I was a customer service lead for CC from 2000-2022. I got a bunch of awards for customer service. Honestly I loved working there. Had a bunch of fun and loved helping the customers. CC’s downfall was over leveraging itself while trying to keep up with Best Buy.
*2009
I have a friend who works at Carmax but use to work for Circuit City. When I mentioned this video to him he said that it was known inside the company that they had poor vendor relationships. I guess that makes sense if they are willing to sacrifice people who actually care to save payroll. Internal customer service is just as important as external customer service.
Circuit City was my go to for tech before they closed.
Any chance on a COMPUSA vid?
SECONDED!
Yes that would be great.
Agreed!! Comp USA was a good store for any techy person. The one in Honolulu was always full of people buying stuff, then “Poof” and they were gone…
I worked for both Circuit and Best Buy. CC's management style was 1980's all the way and they refused to see that they needed to change. When I was recruited by Best Buy I was skeptical but quickly realized that Best Buy could adapt to the changing retail landscape. CC's changes happened too late to save them.
I first visited Circuit City in November 1988 and remember seeing my Stepdad buying our GIANT '44 Zenith Fatback. At the time, The Floor was HUGE and Circuit City used to have SO much emphasis on Customer Assistance. Circuit City was also one of the Pioneers in "Showrooming" which is the practice of using Floor Space to Display Appliances and New Models of Electronics like 4 Head VCR Decks, CD Players and Laser Discs while pushing HARD for Sales in order to Make Hefty Commission via Demos. Throughout the Early 90s, CC thrived until Best Buy started expanding as a very Streamlined Retailer. At BB, everything was labeled and specifically placed in certain Aisles and Labeled. CC was the same, but unlike with Best Buy, Store Reps were generally trained to "Porter" and show Customers where each item or specific Brand and Model(In the Pre Internet Days) were located in each Store.
I remember when CarMax first launched in the Summer of 1993, Circuit City had attempted to buy Avis Rental unsuccessfully in September 1992 so they launched CarMax as a way to offset potential Car Equipment and Stereo sales, CarMax was actually pretty successful, but CC Decided it was better off as a Subsidiarity instead of a Wholly Owned Subsidiarity. With a WOS, Parent Holder and IP Holder can maximize profits and keep an IPO robust. But Circuit City didn't do that, they spun it off, in other words, they let them get away.
This was the beginning of alot of Shortsided Corporate Moves that would ultimately lead to the Company's Complete Demise in just 15 years time.
The First was dropping Appliance Sales and NOT spinning them off. You see, in Early 1993, Aarons had sought a M&A Deal with Circuit City which coulda pulled in Massive Revenue for CC to have a Appliance only Subsidiarity that Circuit City hotly rejected. ALL that potential extra profit, GONE.
The 2nd was the Elimination of Showrooming. In 1992-1993, the Now Defunct Service Merchandise/KMart Knockoff Venture had a brief Nationwide Expansion and begin to open in Major Cities. Venture didn't have the Budget for Showrooming, so they often opted for Kiosks, even Best Buy at the time(I first saw and visited BB in early 1993) had Showroom Floors. But CC went with what they saw as the CHEAPER bet of just relying on Kiosks, CC thought that Venture's Nationwide expansion was mostly due to just using Kiosks, but the trouble for CC is that they had Jumped the Gun and forgot the fact that Showrooming had ALWAYS been a Core Part of the Company's Identity and that going ALL the way back to the Wards' TV Brand of the 50s, The Biggest key to having earned so much in Direct Retailer Sales was ALWAYS the Showrooming Aspect. I remember by 1994, Circuit City scaling back with the loss of Showrooms, and observing how much HARDER it was for Reps to Upsell devices without it.
But Circuit City ultimately FINALLY Screwed The Pooch with their biggest, DUMBEST, DISASTEROUS most Asinine Venture and Investment yet that was such a Commercial Disaster, it literally led to the complete 10 year Downfall of Circuit City and their Inevitable Demise: DIVX DVD. In the Summer of 1998, In a Desperate Attempt to cash in on the New DVD Format and attempt to Lure away Blockbuster Video Consumers who were upset Blockbuster was Sluggish on migration to DVDs and Desperate to get a Tasty Piece of the Home Video Rental Market, Circuit City launched probably the STUPIDEST Premise for a Rental Concept: DRM enabled DVD. DIVX was hyped and marketed as "The Cheap Solution for DVDs" and MANY CC Sales Reps had NO Choice but to Hard sell the Dumbass Concept to a completely DISINTERESTED Consumer Base. This Dumpster Fire of a Venture was the collaboration of Circuit City and the MPAA, which was so BAD, that not only did the outgoing CEO Warn against investing and saying yes to it, but Best Buy TURNED the MPAA down AND even Blockbuster and Hollywood Video Rejected the Pitch. But CC went ALL in, confident they would eat away Blockbuster Marketshare and win BACK BB consumers squeamish paying $30 for full DVD films, They thought Wrong, by February 1999, DIVX had lost over $700 Million Dollars Alone and CC lost nearly $1.4 Billion on the Venture thanks to UNSOLD Discs, Unwanted OVERPRICED DIVX encrypted RCA DVD Players and DIVX DVD players that were RETURNED BACK to CC.
Circuit City NEVER Recovered from DIVX. Things went downhill from 1998 all the way until 2008. The most IRONIC part about the Failure of SOURCE, is that the SOURCE Chains were derived FROM the original DIVX pitch of just opening small Express Mini Stores in its older CC Locations called "Circuit City Xpress" in which DVDs would have been sold for RENTAL.*Facepalm* Didn't think that one through, did you Circuit City?
I remember applying for a job at Circuit City back in Early Summer 2002. I was just fresh out of HS and looking for a Commission paid job, I got turned down, but literally only 6-7 months later, CC announced they were discontinuing Commission Pay for its Employees and thanking myself I didn't get hired. I also remember stepping into a CC in 2004 with that Ascetic. Soulless, Lost and Underwhelming and Archaic are what describe how it felt. Like it had devolved into a Upper Class Radio Shack. I had Friends who worked there in 2005 and Everyone had a foreboding thought that the end was near. Everyone sensed it, only a matter of time. 2008 was no shock at all.
In Northern NJ, there was a Circuit City in most shopping plazas. I bought TVs and Stereo gear there over many years, because they used to have a wonderful layout where you can compare the TVs' picture, side by side... and the "Stereo Room" was wired to allow the salesman to select each component (DVD Player, Receiver, Speakers, etc.) of the system that you wanted to put together. I am pretty knowledgeable with sound systems, and at Circuit City, they certainly knew their stuff, and made good recommendations. When I'd go to the Best Buys, the clearly uninterested, part-timer, was not really interested in helping me... nor did they know much about stereos.
Wow, that total makes sense now why you will find Best Buy stores closer to freeways
And plus their colors just stands out. You are most likely subsconciously remembered a blue and yellow sign when you drive pass that highway.
Oh crap you're right, never payed attention to that.
Where i'm from we had a best buy and circuit city across the street from each other at the mall, one thing I noticed was best buy was cheaper and their store brands were better quality.
I remember Circuit City, there used be one near my house a kid, it's a very nostalgic sight. Although I don't think I've ever been inside.
huh
Also, how the f### did you make this comment 17 hours ago if this video was only uploaded 5 min ago?
Mans a whole time traveler
@@matthewtinker7011 i’m a girl lmao! also it’s because he uploaded the video early on Patreon.
@@FBxx3527 uploader probably had it private for a little bit before going public
You didn't throw the Divx disc away, you could play it as many times as you want but after the first 48 hours your machine would call in and report additional views to be billed to your account.
No one liked the idea, early internet forums tracked Circuit City's efforts to gain additional financing and partners so everyone could write to those potential partners. Every time Circuit City approached potential investors, that investor got swamped with letters telling them how much the Divx idea was hated.
After sending one of those letters, I got a call from a high level person at Sears. They had received a lot of letters, most of which were just a lot of four letter words about Divx but I had made valid business arguments against the idea. After some discussion, he told me he was taking my letter with him to the meeting where the decision would be made. Sears didn't join Circuit City in the Divx investment.
I also stayed in contact with Circuit City management the whole time. They insisted that the letters were not slowing them down at all... until the Divx project was cancelled. After that, they admitted that this is what killed it. Those early internet forums had made an organized attack and it worked! Divx delayed some movie companies adoption of DVD so numerous movies didn't become available as soon as they otherwise might have. Divx was a bad idea, and for an electronics company to anger the early adopter market... well, it understandably didn't go well for them.
Maybe he was thinking of Flexplay? It played in regular DVD players, but the disc would oxidize after 48 hours and become unplayable. Whereas Divx discs could be purchased (tied to the player, not any account).
It seems to me that not enough people remember one of the true impacts of DIVX: piracy. 20 years ago, it let you have essentially DVD quality video that would fit on a cd. So for less than one gigabyte you could download a movie. There are better compression formats now but back then it was incredible for that. I had one or two DVD players that played divx cds I burned.
@@patty109109 No, you are thinking of the divx codec. That is completely different from the divx discs that CC sold. They are not related in any way whatsoever.
Last time I visited Circuit City was in 2008, right before its collapse. I bought an off brand MP3 player, when those things were still a thing. I bought a Sony laptop, back in '04, before Sony stopped making laptops. As a matter of fact, that was my very first laptop and I remember it costing $1500 which was a lot for one back then, and even now, especially for a PC brand.
I think you're right about the differences between Best Buy and Circuit City. I didn't know it owned Car Max. I remember visiting both stores during the late 80's, throughout the 90's, and even now (Best Buy of course). This was back when Kenwood, JVC, Aiwa, Sony, Sharp, Toshiba, pretty much the Japanese brands dominated.
I like your videos for two reasons: 1. They're like a business case study. But 2. It's both nostalgia and melancholy because the "Decline of" stories take me back....All good things come to an end; nothing lasts forever; and sometimes "death" just makes way for something better.
I worked at Best Buy in the late 90s early 2000s. We would have monthly meetings where we watched a company video. Several times, the CEO would flat out say on the videos that every sale brings us closer to putting Circuit City out of business. It was a company priority.
Worked for Circuit City from 2007 up until they went bankrupt. Our local store was moved over to The City in summer 2008 and that place was really awesome for the few months it existed before bankruptcy hit. Hopped right over to Best Buy thereafter lol.
As a former employee I am really surprised you didn't mention their horrible idea of opening so many stores in 50 days. That one really hurt them a lot.
They had so many issues with the new locations it wasn't even funny. Like in my local area the build one on a hill and the backside of the store started sliding backwards down the hill. So they had to try and fix it.
Unfortunately it didn't work either. Because we was stocking the warehouse and again the ground shifted and the store started to crack at the center of the building. With us inside.
Then there was massive issues with loss prevention. We had so much stuff stolen it wasn't even funny. And it was mostly being done by employees of the store.
FY2010 we had plans to open or relo another 100 They could have done it if they wasn't worrying about stock buy backs and rPOS
@@DavidBrownKC9DRE oh I know. Did you see the video of the owner on a Segway in the warehouse saying how they was still in great shape?