Bye Bye Circuit City we hardly liked ye

[Man0warr]

I like Fry's, but not for computer parts, their "OEM" stuff is usually just stuff people returned. But Newegg will never go out of business :D

[sekaran]

The sales suck. 10% off most everything, I think 20% or 30% off DVD/CD/BD.. listed prices too. Fuck that shit.

[Stromgarde]

The place was packed when I went there around 3:00, the prices were either terrible or on par with newegg. The printer ink cartridges looked alright, but I had no basis of comparison nor my specific type handy.

[Jakson]

I cannot dislike CC simply because the oldest memory I have is walking up to one in San Diego with my mom in 1985, knowing we were there to get an NES. Epic.

[jmc]

Went down to the circuit city in my area, they are offering 10% off pretty much the good stuff.....

20% off CD's.... 30% off furniture, 10% off everything else.

So not worth it yet.

[Khamsin]

I never even knew Radio Shack had computers and TVs and cell phones and crap. There's one near me and it has no consumer electronics, whatsoever. Just electrical components, connectors, cables, miscellaneous things like solenoids or remote controls (like toy RC) with nothing to control, and some weird stuff with exposed wires that I have no clue what its for. Most of the stuff I see in the store are things I haven't seen anywhere else, at least not readily available together at a single location like at Radio Shack.

Why are your guys' Radio Shacks so different?

[Dayson]

Well only bought one thing from CC ever, and it was only after BestBuy dicked me over.

I wanted to buy a flat panel tv for my apartment, and I decided to start my search at BestBuy. ended up settling on a Samsung 46inch for a decent price, but they didn't have any in stock so I payed for it and they ordered one to be shipped.

They ended up selling the tv I had paid for to someone else when it arrived, so I said fuck this and went to CC.

Found the same model for the same price, and I met the world's most apathetic manager who gave a rats ass about his job and ended up selling me the tv with a 6 year warranty for $200 less than Bestbuy. I enjoyed walking back in to BB and pissing off the manager there when I asked for my money back.

Needless to say this was 6 months ago, so I was very distressed about the warranty when I read this thread until I went to CC's website. Relieved that its honored through a third party.

[JigglyJam]

I've only been to CC maybe 2-3 times that I can remember and every time I went I asked myself: "Why is this place still in business?"

[Kohan]

I never even knew Radio Shack had computers and TVs and cell phones and crap. There's one near me and it has no consumer electronics, whatsoever. Just electrical components, connectors, cables, miscellaneous things like solenoids or remote controls (like toy RC) with nothing to control, and some weird stuff with exposed wires that I have no clue what its for. Most of the stuff I see in the store are things I haven't seen anywhere else, at least not readily available together at a single location like at Radio Shack.

Why are your guys' Radio Shacks so different?

Just varies from location to location. A couple miles away from me, there's a "classic" Radio Shack that sells all of the doodads you mentioned. Less than a mile away from that, there's a more modern location that doesn't have any of those doohickeys whatsoever, and only sells cell phones and similar gadgets.

You'd think they weren't doing so well, but evidently, they are.

Radio Shack Buys Out Mexican Partner | Visual Merchandising and Store Design | VMSD.com

[Weltall]

10% off isn't worth the drive to the fucking dump that is Circuit City.

They better start doing a hell of a lot better than 10% if they want to pay back those creditors.

[Exoduso]

Give them a few weeks, when they realize the merchandise isn't going anywhere the percentage will go up.

[Eanen]

Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business

FORT WORTH, TX—Despite having been on the job for nine months, RadioShack CEO Julian Day said Monday that he still has "no idea" how the home electronics store manages to stay open.

"There must be some sort of business model that enables this company to make money, but I'll be damned if I know what it is," Day said. "You wouldn't think that people still buy enough strobe lights and extension cords to support an entire nationwide chain, but I guess they must, or I wouldn't have this desk to sit behind all day."

The retail outlet boasts more than 6,000 locations in the United States, and is known best for its wall-sized displays of obscure-looking analog electronics components and its notoriously desperate, high-pressure sales staff. Nevertheless, it ranks as a Fortune 500 company, with gross revenues of over $4.5 billion and fiscal quarter earnings averaging tens of millions of dollars.

"Have you even been inside of a RadioShack recently?" Day asked. "Just walking into the place makes you feel vaguely depressed and alienated. Maybe our customers are at the mall anyway and don't feel like driving to Best Buy? I suppose that's possible, but still, it's just...weird."
Enlarge Image RadioShack

A RadioShack store that somehow manages to bring in enough paying customers to turn a profit.

After taking over as CEO, Day ordered a comprehensive, top-down review of RadioShack's administrative operations, inventory and purchasing, suppliers, demographics, and marketing strategies. He has also diligently pored over weekly budget reports, met with investors, taken numerous conference calls with regional managers about "circulars or flyers or something," and even spent hours playing with the company's "baffling" 200-In-One electronics kit. Yet so far none of these things have helped Day understand the moribund company's apparent allure.

"Even the name 'RadioShack'—can you imagine two less appealing words placed next to one another?" Day said. "What is that, some kind of World War II terminology? Are ham radio operators still around, even? Aren't we in the digital age?"

"Well, our customers are out there somewhere, and thank God they are," Day added.

One of Day's theories about RadioShack's continued solvency involves wedding DJs, emergency cord replacement, and off-brand wireless telephones. Another theory entails countless RadioShack gift cards that sit unredeemed in their recipients' wallets. Day has even conjectured that the store is "still coasting on" an enormous fortune made from remote-control toy cars in the mid-1970s.
RadioShack Revenues

Day admitted, however, that none of these theories seems particularly plausible.

"I once went into a RadioShack location incognito in order to gauge customer service," Day said. "It was about as inviting as a visit to the DMV. For the life of me, I couldn't see anything I wanted to buy. Finally, I figured I'd pick up some Enercell AA batteries, though truthfully they're not appreciably cheaper than the name brands."

"I know one thing," Day continued. "If Sony and JVC start including gold-tipped cable cords with their products, we're screwed."

In the cover letter to his December 2006 report to investors, "Radio Shack: Still Here In The 21st Century," Day wrote that he had no reason to believe that the coming year would not be every bit as good as years past, provided that people kept on doing things much the same way they always had.

Despite this cheerful boosterism, Day admitted that nothing has changed during his tenure and he doesn't exactly know what he can do to improve the chain.

"I'd like to capitalize on the store's strong points, but I honestly don't know what they are," Day said. "Every location is full of bizarre adapters, random chargers, and old boom boxes, and some sales guy is constantly hovering over you. It's like walking into your grandpa's basement. You always expect to see something cool, but it never delivers."

Added Day: "I may never know the answer. No matter how many times I punch the sales figures into this crappy Tandy desk calculator, it just doesn't add up."

Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

[Seigfried of Pandemonium]

i seriously lol'd at that entire interview with that day guy. amazing.

[Guitarman]

Fucking lol. It's so true. Leave it to the onion to make something that believeable.

[Khamsin]

I like how the link was included at the bottom, instead of the top.

[Xanthe]

I told my friend and first thing he said was, "Shit... what happens to my TV warranty now?" =\

I was concerned as well since I bought a TV last May, but fear not!

Are Circuit City's extended warranties affected by the liquidation?

- No. Circuit City Advantage Protection Plans® (extended warranties) have been backed by third-party independent companies for more than 15 years and as a result, are not impacted by Circuit City's closing.
- Currently, all Circuit City Advantage Protection Plans are fully backed by the Assurant Solutions companies. Assurant Solutions operates as Federal Warranty Service Corporation, Sureway, Inc., and United Service Protection, Inc. Assurant Solutions is part of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE: AIZ), and its extended service contacts are backed by an Assurant insurance subsidiary rated A "Excellent" by A.M. Best Co.

[#686578]

I like how the link was included at the bottom, instead of the top.

It was to build suspense. The entire time you're thinking "Man this is really well written and hits the spot dead on... it has to be written by the Onion." but because you don't see it from the top it makes you keep reading and reading thinking "wow I can't believe..." until you finally get to the bottom and you're finally self actualized.

[Jefe]

(...)

Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Fuck you for wasting my time.

[#686578]

You know that time was better spent reading that well written literature than what else you were going to be doing.

Let's face it, you're browsing forums. You can't possibly have been too busy for that to be a "waste" of time. Unless you mean "spending time."