Looks like Circuit City is declaring bankruptcy. There was a time when I felt pretty sympathetic towards Circuit City. They were a local Virginia chain that built itself into a national retailer by competing on service and price. Their sales people were (relatively) knowledgeable and they had a pretty good low price policy. I remember my family bought several things from them because we felt their service was good and they stood behind their products (including our FIRST MICROWAVE ooooo!1! which lasted for something like 10 years).
However, as time (and management) changed, so did the company. First Best Buy came along with slightly better prices and a "no hassles" policy, which is great if you have a sales force that doesn't know it's products (We won't hassle you! We don't even know how to turn it on!). As people started using the internet for shopping as well as research, competition became even tighter in the electronic retail market.
So how did Circuit City respond? They fired all of their most experienced sales people because they were too expensive. Say, thanks for working for us for 5 years, you're fired because you earned too many raises. It's ok though, you can reapply for your old job making a starting salary again!
Needless to say, I'm not exactly sympathetic to see them going bankrupt a year and a half after this brilliant business move.
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