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Don't waste your time at Circuit City
18 points by pj on Jan 26, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 37 comments
I went there today and the only thing that was actually 30% off were the Monster Cables which would still be a ripoff at 80% off.

Headphones were twice as expensive there -- even on sale -- as they are online for the exact same models. Nearly everything in the store was really only 10% off, despite the signs outside saying 30%. Looks like stuff was marked up, then down. I'm not sure the regular prices, but no one was buying /any/thing.

I wasted my time, don't waste yours -- yet. If this sale is going to go through March, prices are going to have to come /way/ down before anything is worth buying, but really nothing in there is worth buying anyway...



I went to Circuit City the first day of the supposed fire sale and I was thoroughly disappointed. I've never EVER been a fan of Circuit City, their prices were never competitive and the stores have not been good experiences for me. So I was going purely to hunt deals.

The only deals I found were on burnable media, and on a crappy movie which I love dearly. I stood in their SINGLE checkout line as it was nearly thirty feet long, waited fifteen seconds, then deposited said merchandise on the nearest shelf and departed the store.

This is why the company is failing. They suck at life.


They're being run by a liquidator now so you can expect there won't be many employees working which results in long lines.

I've long preferred Circuit City to Best Buy because my local Best Buys are pretty terrible. I'll be stuck using them now.


You have to realize that there is a middle market here. Trading companies will buy up inventory from bankrupt companies and resell them through their established channels. From Circuit City's standpoint, it's better to unload all that inventory in one major deal than to try to stay open and sell them to consumers.

So for merchandise like electronics, which is easily resold, you're not going to see any deals. They'll mark the prices up to retail ("normal" price is typically discounted) and then take 20-30% off which is what they normally take off anyway. The deals are going to the companies buying this stuff up in bulk.


That doesn't really make sense, why doesn't Circuit City do what the trading companies are doing but cut out the middle man ? After all Circuit City's stores should be a fine "established channel". And why would the trading companies by from Circuit City when they could contact the manufacturers directly ?

I don't think there is a rational reason involving trading companies or some other established channels for Circuit City's pricing; instead, consider the possibility that Circuit City is run by idiots. Occam's razor dictates that idiocy is more likely explanation here. It also is consistent with the reasons they are going out of business in the first place.

That said, I also suspect that there is a large downturn in consumer buying, and it might shake out even retailers that aren't run by idiots.


I managed to snag Grid PC for about $16 ($20 - 20%) and a UMD case for PSP games for about $9 ($13 - 30%), but the vast majority of the stuff in there was still horribly overpriced.

Luckily, thanks to the internet, it's a lot harder for stores to call something a "deal" when in fact it is higher than actual market value and get away with it.

Or maybe that's just an illusion, since there were plenty of people in there still running around grabbing stuff as though it were a super bargain, but I have to believe there were less folks suckered by it than there would've been 10 years ago.

Sidenote: I suspect that once a store starts sliding downhill, it's much harder for them to recover than it once was thanks to the same basic effect. Once upon a time, a store whose stock was starting to slide could send out a bunch of flyers, get some people in their doors, sell some merchandise and turn things around. Now, though, we all know within a day that the reason the flyer is in the mail is that the store is tanking, and so we stay away.


Stores like Circuit City don't really make much money on electronics (computers, TVs, camcorders, digital cameras). Most of those items have fairly low margins. Most of the high margins are in things like accessories. This is usually reflected in their employee discount policy and also at times like these when stores are closing. The only thing you'll find significant discounts at Circuit City is cables and other accessories, but these are the same items that you can always buy online at low prices.

Also, my feeling is that in a sale like this most of the big ticket items will be purchased at relatively low discounts by people that aren't usually comfortable with buying things online. So to them 5% of a TV at CircuitCity looks like a really good deal even though Amazon sells it for 10% cheaper.


As a retail store, they'd have to significantly mark stuff down to compete with online stores. I'm surprised they're still so high though; I would have expected more of a fire sale.


I would have expected more of a fire sale.

It's one of the oldest retailing tricks in the book: advertise a fire sale, and then don't have one. There are people who will convince themselves they are getting great deals, regardless.


I think people are wising up. We are beginning to demand truth in advertising. When we are lied to, we are walking away. When we had lots of money, we would tolerate it, but not anymore. In times of surplus, we can act without reason, but in times of scarcity, rationality wins.

It was funny walking around the store -- like a bad garage sale. People would pick things up, look at them with this confused look on their face like they were thinking, "Are these people serious?" and then put it down and walk away.

People don't have any money. Where is the mystery? People want bargains and Circuit City has 1.3 BILLION dollars worth of inventory they have to move.

Marking up 20% then down 10% isn't going to move product. That kind of arrogance is why they are going out of business. I hope the other big boxes don't learn this lesson the easy way and they go out of business too.

It's sounds very cynical to say it, but I think the world will be better off without brick and mortar stores like Circuit City.

Actually, it makes me very excited to see them going out of business. I know it is painful for a lot of the employees and I don't mean to relish in their pain, but it's proof that rationality wins in the end.

The Circuit City bankruptcy is a metaphor for the U.S. It's a signal that the old world is dying and a new world is being born -- online. Consumers are being smarter about their money. They don't have anymore credit cards to max out, the housing ATMs are broken and people are wising up.

We're all going to be smarter and better and more rational after the fire. Slash and burn. Plant a new crop.


You have far more faith in people than I do. Something tells me within the next 5 years Americans will have forgotten about the whole "maybe spending way more money than I make is a bad idea" and things will go back to the way they were. Whenever I have to choose between lasting rationality and history repeating itself, I almost always choose the latter.


"Something tells me within the next 5 years Americans will have forgotten about the whole "maybe spending way more money than I make is a bad idea" and things will go back to the way they were."

There is historical precedent. While this is no Great Depression and I remain unconvinced it will become one, those who were bitten by the Great Depression were frugal not just for the rest of their life, but their children were relatively frugal too.

People can learn, and this is definitely one thing they can learn. On the one hand, this "crisis" (I am increasingly unconvinced this is a "crisis" and not just a "big recession") isn't quite as large, but on the other hand, it is increasingly easy to live a very good life on relatively small amounts of money.


Now my mind is going crazy with the "faith" part of it. Having faith seems naively optimistic and hopeful.

It feels right now like we, or at least I, need faith in something. God's not going to help us -- we might be the evil ones. Obama, while I like him /way/ more than any other president I've known, I have little faith that he will turn things around. I wanted Ron Paul. Obama is too soft, we need some of RP's tough love right now. Spending more money in the wrong places isn't the way to get our country out of debt and Obama has already shown that he doesn't understand that concept.

Who does that leave? The other politicians up there are still corrupt. CEO's are still greedy. Banks are still crooks. Retail outlets are still lying to consumers.

All we have left to have faith in are the people. I have faith in Hacker News. What a breath of fresh air this place is! It's the only rational place left on the Internet. Please PG, work your magic and keep HN sane!

Somewhere in "the people" is someone with the charisma and the intellect and the wherewithall to be a real leader. Obama is a leader and he is extremely intelligent, but lacking in the wherewithall...

Doesn't mean I don't like him. He was our best choice after Ron Paul. We need to find a Ron Paul the people can relate to. RP is too smart. Too rational. Too extreme for the media to support. The media are people too and they have jobs and their jobs are on shaky ground and they know it. They punished RP because the Internet that loved him hated the media and the internet also threatens the media...

In 4 years though, things are going to change. The Internet will be stronger. More truth will be available. The people will have better access to knowledge and resources they can trust. Someone, probably not Ron Paul, but someone as thoughtful and honest as him, though not so far outside the comprehension of the mainstream will take over the reigns.

Sounds like I'm going from faithful to hopeful.

Man, we gotta do something!! Obama isn't gonna do it by spending money and listening to the same people that have been making all the mistakes that got us into this mess!

Shoot, I'll do it! I'm going to get rich and buy ads and listen to people and travel around the country and talk to them and understand them and hold their hand when I tell them it's going to be really really hard and we are going to have to make sacrifices and trust rationality even if we don't understand it and move forward knowing that we have to make things real again. We have to get out of our grandiosity and look around the world and understand that we are people in a big world and we are just /one/ country and everyone is mad at us for being so arrogant and Obama has a lot of work to do and I love him and I know he is going to do better things for the country than that last guy.

I'm going to take it a little bit further and make it all better! I'm tired of people complaining and not doing anything about it. They say washington is corrupt and no one wants to get in that mess and they're afraid of getting killed by the military industrial complex.

Who cares!? I'm gonna die anyway. I'll go out with a bang!

I'm going to try it! If I don't make it, it'll be a fun ride. Going to make this place a better world and start right here at home. Someone's going to have to because we're in a serious mess people. A serious mess. This isn't going to be pretty. I don't think it's really hitting people how extremely f'ed up this place is going to get because of our greed and irresponsibility and hubris.

Maybe I have some of that too, but I /want/ it to be better, not just for Americans, but for the world and if we are going to be the leader of the free world, then by damn we better start acting like we are part of that world instead of swimming around inside this tiny little fishbowl...


I really can't understand why people are so fond of Ron Paul and how his positions would solve this country's problems.

Can you be more specific on what approach you believe should be taken to pull through this recession? What is so mislead about Obama's approach? What's The Ron Paul Solution?


I like Ron Paul because he is honest. He says the truth, even when it isn't in his best interest. When I listen to him, he says the things that I have come to believe over time through independent study and research regarding the world around me.

He has a solid understanding of world politics, economics, and history. He is literate and he reads a lot.

He's also a genuine guy with a huge heart. I think he'd be willing to do the hard things the nation needs in a time of crisis. He has a vision to the future. He is concerned about generations other than his own. He is concerned about the world outside his own home and he really wants to make the world better.

He's prophetic. He warned us that what is happening right now was going to happen and here it is. I think being able to predict the future and accurately analyze the current situation is something we want in a leader.

As for The Ron Paul Solutions that I would like to see implemented: responsible fiscal policy, libertarian ethics, ending imperialization, a focus on the home front, and shrinking of the size of government. Obama has none of that in mind.


What, specifically, is a responsible fiscal policy? How would he have prevented this economic mess? How does he suggest that we fix it, now that we're here? What economists support his views? Obama hasn't failed yet, how do we know his approach is wrong?


Responsible fiscal policy means spending less money. It means eliminating the IRS. It means the elimination of fiat currency. It means not spending money on guns, military bases, and other things that we just don't need.

Ron Paul gets his economic views from the Austrian School of Economics. There are lots of economists who agree with those ideas. Many popular economists agree with his views including Milton Freidman, Peter Schiff, and more... A lot of what Ron Paul believes about economics are well though out ideas presented by other people, they aren't ideas he just "thought up." For example, every fiat currency ever in the history of the world has eventually collapsed. Sure, the US Dollar may prove to be the one that doesn't collapse, but history doesn't seem to indicate that is the case.

Obama may be a shining star. I hope he is. Even if he is, even if Ron Paul was up there, we wouldn't know for sure if it was the President who fixed it or not. Bush did a lot of damage and the greedy bankers he enabled did a lot of damage, I'm not sure even Ron Paul could fix it. It'll take all of us working really hard to fix it.

We are so in debt it's unfathomable. The younger generation is going to have to work really really hard to get us out of this mess. Let's hope Obama can rally the troops!


The Ron Paul plan to prevent this economic mess (from 2002) was to stop inflating the housing bubble.

http://www.ronpaul.com/2008-09-26/ron-paul-on-the-housing-bu...


Ron Paul subscribes to the Austrian school of economics. They're very much against central banks, fiat money, and the creation of wealth by fractional reserve banking. Implementing any one of those policies in such a time of crisis would be like treating a broken arm with a gunshot to the head.


What's The Ron Paul Solution?

http://www.google.com/search?q=ron+paul+irs

"When I say cut taxes, I don't mean fiddle with the code. I mean abolish the income tax and the IRS, and replace them with nothing." -Ron Paul


It sounds like he just wants to abolish everything. What's the evidence that these are good ideas?


>> abolish the income tax and the IRS, and

>> replace them with nothing." -Ron Paul

> What's the evidence that these are good ideas?

http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2003/Hubbardtaxes.ht...

A perhaps surprising result in public finance is that the optimal or the best way to tax capital income is not to tax it at all. Paradoxically, workers are better off with a zero tax on capital income. -Dr. R. Glenn Hubbard, the Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers


It sounds like [Ron Paul] just wants to abolish everything.

Do you mean the IRS is the same thing as everything?


I was referring to his other positions (abolishing most federal agencies, withdrawing from NATO/UN, negating Roe v. Wade/gun regulation, etc.) in addition to the IRS.


Please PG, work your magic and keep HN sane!

You can help him do that by not commenting about how the media "punished" Ron Paul.


what word would you use?


Personally, I think Ron Paul's supporters punished Ron Paul.

Honestly his followers are often just downright creepy in their devotion.


I agree, a lot of them are. But not all of them. Some of them are quite thoughtful and rational people.


I would presume so but electing a president who wants to quickly and drastically cut the federal budget would:

A) Fail because they don't control the budget

or

B) Cause the total collapse of the US economy if it where to be suddenly enacted.


"advertise a fire sale, and then don't have one"

That's tricky when your customer can pop-up a smartphone from a pocket and do a quick on-line search for better deals.


Its all the same to the liquidators, really.

What doesn't get sold in the stores will get sold to Overstock.com or vendors on Buy.com. As long as they make their money, they're happy.


Don't you read Consumerist? Liquidation sales are apparently never a good deal:

http://consumerist.com/5138341/the-secrets-of-liquidation-sa...


This headline is equally apropos now and 2 years ago, and 4 years ago, and...


yeah I went with my Android phone - and the barcode app the compares prices; there was positively no deals with any margin higher than 10% (tax money) vs even other local retailers.


I got Guitar Hero 3 (Legends of Rock) Wii for cheaper than I could anywhere else... 45. Most places go no lower than 55.

Other than that, nothing to see there, move along now.


See also http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=440124


i forgot the exact number but they owe creditors something like 180 million so they are going to charge as much as they can get away with.

wait until the last day for any true rock bottom pricing


Just wait until it all gets dumped off to Big Lots and TJ Maxx.




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