Stores Commiting Suicide

[slog]

Went to Circuit City today.  10% off computer shit.   sucked. left.

[Nazrat]

Went to Circuit City.  I had already researched the new home phone system that I wanted.  I took it to the register where it was scanned at one price.  Then, the cashier pulled out the tiny calculator and manually calculated my "discount."  It turns out that the product was $2 cheaper at Circuit City's liquidation sale than it was at Best Buy. 

I told them to keep the phone.  Drove over to Best Buy and bought it.  Why would I buy something at a store going out of business for the same price that I can buy it at a store that will be here in April? 

Then, I remembered why I had never been to Circuit City since I moved here.  Fuckers.

[ClydeJr]

It was a market opportunity and an easy one to win with. They stock them because we already shop there and need them. Why not take the profits?

When my wife and I bought our home and we were looking for appliances, we comparison shopped between Sears, Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, and some other places. We found the washer/dryer we liked best at the best price at BB. Add in 6 months no financing and some other bonus stuff they threw in for free (extended warranty, bonus rewards points) and it was a no-brainer to buy from them.

[Cyrrex]

Although I get angry over their dirty tactics, it's not hard to understand why Circuit City liquidates in this way - people show up in droves and buy this not-really-discounted shit.  People, you'll recall, are immensely stupid.  The last week or two is where you may get lucky and get a good bargain (I actually did during the closeout of my local store late last year), but that is only assuming the aforementioned idiots have left anything worth a crap. 

[SnakeCharmer]

It's like furniture shopping, to be honest.  It's marked up in the thousands of percents in some cases.  They'll raise the prices the week before, then discount it to normal prices and issue a big advertisement screaming 30-50 percent off and such.

[Cyrrex]

What boggles me, though, is that with things like consumer electronics, games, movies, PCs, etc., it is really, REALLY easy to compare prices.  Unlike with things like furniture.  Hell, it's ridiculously easy if you have a modern cell phone with internet connectivity.  That people can go in and drop a 1500 bucks on a tv without checking the prices somewhere else, also taking a major gamble in knowing that the store is going tits up, that's fucking inexcusable.  This is the reason CC can get away with it.

[Lantyssa]

Since they're going out of business, I'd say they didn't really get away with it.  They're just catering to the same people who kept them limping along all these years in one final, compact, last gasp.

[rattran]

As I was driving past the local CC this morning, I decided to stop in just for amusement. They were trying to get the cops to come throw someone out who had a iphone and was offering to price compare for people. I was amused. And yes, prices were up 20-30% on everything, then marked down 10-20%. Some stuff still had the old shelf tags at the pre-raised prices, which made it painfully obvious. Xbox360/PS3 games were all priced at $69.99, then 20% off.  Fuckers deserve bankruptcy.

Needless to say, I didn't buy anything. The local World Market (Cost Plus) is also going out of business, but there was a line to get in, so I skipped it.

[MahrinSkel]

What boggles me, though, is that with things like consumer electronics, games, movies, PCs, etc., it is really, REALLY easy to compare prices.  Unlike with things like furniture.  Hell, it's ridiculously easy if you have a modern cell phone with internet connectivity.  That people can go in and drop a 1500 bucks on a tv without checking the prices somewhere else, also taking a major gamble in knowing that the store is going tits up, that's fucking inexcusable.  This is the reason CC can get away with it.

On impulse a few months back(waiting for the wife to finish at the store next door) I walked into a small computer shop and started looking at their used laptops and video cards.  The clerk, having nothing better to do, was very helpful and chatty, until I pulled out the Blackberry.  Two minutes later I looked up and the clerk just kind of shrugged at me (they were 25-50% over market on the video cards, and nearly 100% on the used laptops).

There's no excuse for getting gouged on significant purchases anymore.  There's no information asymmetry unless you're lazy.

--Dave

[Segoris]

I'm honestly surprised CC lasted this long, as I had expected them to go out of business long ago.


I will say this though, I'm not happy about Wilson's Leather going out of business. I liked them. Sure they were a bit overpriced when the item you want wasn't on sale, but their shit wasn't on sale for what, 2 out of 12 months? I own a jacket from them and everyone I know who has a leather jacket is from there, and so far I've never heard any complaints from anyone. Mine is over 5 years old (Wilson's price $350 or so, I paid ~$150) and still is in amazing condition,, in fact it still gets complimented at times. Also, I'm a larger fellow who wears a 3x, and anywhere else I tried on a jacket at was just shit. So that was another reason I really liked them. Oh well, guess it's time to stock up on leather treatment from them and maybe a second jacket if I can find a nice 3/4 length one that I like, and maybe new gloves and a new hat.

[HaemishM]

You guys are getting pissed at the wrong people. Circuit City isn't raising the prices then lowering them. They aren't going to get shit out of the sales that are running now. They've sold all their inventory to liquidation companies, and used that money to pay off their creditors. The liquidation companies are the ones who make the money off the gouging, not Circuit City.

Now, that doesn't change the fact that CC was a gaggle of cockgobbling titmice when in business.

[Selby]

And seriously, when I thought in my mind "Where would I go if I had to buy a major appliance?" my first thought was Sears.  I may be in my 20s but I grew up on a farm- the old ways die hard out there

Your local Sears buying experience probably helped out there.  When I was growing up, Sears always talked to my mom (who handled the warranty repairs and had to arrange time for them to come repair our appliances) like she was a drooling idiot and then never bothered to show up to their service appointments on time or at all, without so much as a phone call or explanation (but they'd be glad to re-schedule for another 2 weeks down the road!).  Add in that their refrigerators, washers, and dryers we bought always seemed to stop working after 9-12 months for some odd reason or another and we finally stopped buying at Sears.  The last time I went there for tools the guy there looked at me like I was dumb for asking about a certain socket set and basically said "I dunno, why would I?"

As far as CC, good riddance.  Any company that poorly run deserves to go under.  The liquidation people are just doing what they know they can get away with.

[CharlieMopps]

Cub Foods is closing a bunch of stores. The one by my house will be totally closed by the end of the month.

When Compusa started going under, they had their sales... they had Vanguard SOH for $30, I didn't want to pay $30 for it just to see what I knew would suck... but then they had a 30% off going out of buisness sale... so I went in... they had jacked the price of the game up to $50, then stuck a sales sticker on it for 30% off... so now it was $35... Wow, I have to pay $5 EXTRA because you're going out of business?

There isn't a single store on that list that I have wondered for years how they stay open. Circuit City? Really? Who the hell shops there? The only reason I EVER go to best buy is to check out the stuff I'm going to order on newegg later on that day. Circuit City doesn't even cross my mind. Home Depot is a joke... being a woodworker, I can tell you they have crap for sellection, their prices are REALLY high, the employees are clueless. Go in there sometime and ask them where the Cherry is... no cherry? How about Mahogony? Not that either? Alder? Maple? No? Oh! You have oak... sweet... $6 a board foot?!?! This plank will cost me $48!!!

[Sky]

Selby, I am having some similar experience with Sears. I watched my grandfather have good experiences there, and we really want to support them because of Extreme Home Makeover.

So when I had a cable melt on my new snowblower the first time I used it, I figured it would be no big deal to get it fixed. I check online to see if our local outlet is a repair center, it is (it's not a full store). I go there and they say it isn't, and hey I could take it to this local guy (a friend of mine, but the machine is UNDER WARRANTY). I drive to the next city over, where I bought the machine, and the first guy has no clue, hands me off to the second guy who hands me a card with an 800 number and web address. Website says take it into a store, as if everyone has a pickup or can tow a trailer (I can, but don't own a trailer).

Fuckin' A.

[Broughden]

Home Depot is a joke... being a woodworker, I can tell you they have crap for sellection, their prices are REALLY high, the employees are clueless. Go in there sometime and ask them where the Cherry is... no cherry? How about Mahogony? Not that either? Alder? Maple? No? Oh! You have oak... sweet... $6 a board foot?!?! This plank will cost me $48!!!

I go to Home Depot to buy a hammer.  I go to a lumber yard to buy lumber. Im suprised you dont do that.

Anyway has anyone been to Circuit City in the last couple days or so? What % off are they giving now?

[Righ]

The best deals that they had in CC over this weekend was 30% off all digital cameras and video cameras, and 40% off lenses. Needless to say, they had taken all the moderately useful lenses out - some other store probably bought them before that price reduction. But if you need one of the normal kit lenses or a DSLR, its worth checking out your local store. Car audio was decently discounted, TVs were not. Laptops and most other computer stuff is less discounted (typically 10%) than you could manage mail order, so don't even bother with that part of the store.

[Nebu]

Went to circuit city yesterday to check out the "50-70% off" (was in a mall next to Bed, Bath, & Beyond which I needed to hit).   

Don't bother.  It's all crap.   

[Khaldun]

It's time for a new retail paradigm, on multiple fronts. Everybody chased Wal-Mart, most of them off the cliff, into the following formula:

1) Clueless, hostile minimum wage employees who have little motivation to sell anything. So you get customers who know what they're looking for, more or less, and get pissed off because they can't find it in the store and no one can or will help them. You get customers who don't know what they're looking for, and no one can really help them, either.

2) Lots of shelf space in megastores, but the space is actually much emptier than it at first appears, because you've got all sorts of fucked-up arrangements with manufacturers to have multiple versions of their products clogging up the shelves rather than offering a real range of products from different sources. Your only advantage over online sales is that people can see that variety in the flesh, so to speak, and talk directly with someone about it and that there is instant gratification (e.g., as soon as I want something, I can buy it and take it home with me rather than wait a week for it to come to the house).  Well, because of 1) you've fucked up the talking part and because of 2) people often can't see what they're looking for, because you don't have it (or even worse, you have a shelf version of the product but you don't have it in stock). 3) you fuck up again with your shelving policies, especially when you don't keep any kind of back catalog worth talking about. If I go in a megastore for books, and all they've got is stuff published in the last two months, what's the point? If I go in a megastore with games or music, and it's literally just the last two weeks of stuff, what's the point? If I go to buy shoes in a megastore, and they never have size 11 shoes in stock of the hundreds of shoes I can look at on the shelf, what's the point?

3) Lots of bullshit price manipulation that doesn't fool anyone who has five seconds and minimal search skills for doing online searches. Plus you train your retail drones to try and trick people into a zillion dumb extra charges: warranties, or loyalty cards that you have to PAY an annual fee for.

4) Shit quality on many items. You can get away with that for a while, but even the dumbest consumer figures out after a while that if they have to buy three pairs of tennis shoes at $20 in six months because they fall apart, it's smarter to pay $60 for shoes that will last nine months. When we get into domains like food (say, peanut butter), the gutting out of any production standards becomes even more disastrous in its consequences *and* ends up hurting sales across the board. *Anybody* making peanut butter is hurting now even if they have high standards because one major producer basically churned the stuff out with rat poop and mold leaking onto the product and ended up offloading salmonella onto a ton of people. Wal-Mart can maybe keep going in this direction, but most other retail has got to make an about-face and counterprogram by building solid relationships with reliable manufacturers.

[Oban]

I went shopping at a Nordstrom store for clothes for my daughter, all the clothes were made in Asia.

I went shopping for a leather jacket for my wife and settled on one from a Barneys New York CO-OP, the jacket was made in China.

The only places to buy things that are not made in Asia seem to be the ultra-high-end European single brand stores and Brooks Brothers. 

But I have yet to find a department ( which means multiple brands to me) store that stocks things that are made in the USA.

[Broughden]

I went shopping at a Nordstrom store for clothes for my daughter, all the clothes were made in Asia.

I went shopping for a leather jacket for my wife and settled on one from a Barneys New York CO-OP, the jacket was made in China.

The only places to buy things that are not made in Asia seem to be the ultra-high-end European single brand stores and Brooks Brothers. 

But I have yet to find a department ( which means multiple brands to me) store that stocks things that are made in the USA.

Yeah just bought my wife 3 suits and about 4 dress shirts a couple weeks ago from Brooks Brothers. They are having some really good sales going on.

[Lantyssa]

To buy American it would require we hadn't scuttled at home or shipped all manufacturing overseas.

[CharlieMopps]

I go to Home Depot to buy a hammer.  I go to a lumber yard to buy lumber. Im suprised you dont do that.

Lumber yards sell hammers to... and a LOT cheaper than home depot. There is absolutely no reason to go to Home Depot... other than I live next door to it. So if I want to pay double so I don't have to drive 3 miles, then yea...

[Merusk]

Hush, you. If the secret gets out then more people will go to the builder supply stores and that way lies madness.

[slog]

Went to circuit city yesteday.  Their 30% off prices are still higher than what's on the internet.

they suck.

[Righ]

Depends what was there. In my local, Nikon D40 kits were flying off the shelf at $350. You can match that on the 'net but the dealers aren't exactly the sort of people I'd want to do business with.

[schild]

If I had money, I'd go for exactly that product (the D40).

[Mosesandstick]

I bought my D40 last summer. Love it, really easy to learn to use.

[Broughden]

If I had money, I'd go for exactly that product (the D40).

I have a meeting tonight after work or that might be worth stopping by for.

[HaemishM]

I went by Circuit City on the way to the grocery store today. 4 days until this one closes and the real desperation pricing was out. They had most of nothing other than some printers, CD's, DVD's and PC games. The PC games, CD's and DVD's were all 60% off, so I picked up the Medieval 2 Total War Kingdoms expansion ($10) and the Mines of Moria edition for LOTRO ($16). I figured that when I'm ready to try out LOTRO again, I can have the whole thing for about a buck more than a paid month's sub.

[Merusk]

Hm.. we're only down to 40% here at the one I drove by yesterday. I laughed because the parking lot was packed.

[slog]

I went into circuit city and they had copies of Tabula Rosa and Hellgate: London for sale.

Seemed fitting.

[waffel]

What about warhammer and age of conan?

snap.

[Triforcer]

What about EVERYTHING EXCEPT WOW!!??!?

Double snap!

[Merusk]

I said that weeks ago.

They still had Fury, too.   I can't see if they still have them, since mine's finally closed.

[Sky]

Hey, I walked past a CC on my way into Sears yesterday.

No thought of actually walking in.