I bought a turn table at one of their 70% off sales while they were trying to get rid of everything in the store.  Everything was "As is" and my purchase didn't work when I brought it home.  While the deal was good, I spent several hours trying to get the thing to work (ultimately I was successful).

Beware what you buy during those sales... 

No worries there.  After Circuit City fired all their knowledgable salespeople and replaced them with minimum wage kids I haven't set foot in the store.  That was the beginning of the end if you ask me.  Nobody is going to make a big ticket purchase when the person helping them could care less or has no knowledge of the product they are selling.

It's one of the reasons we keep buying our appliances from Sears -- the people.  Most of the folks at our local Sears have been in the appliance section for well over 10 years and they know their stuff.

 

I have always my white goods from Sears. Sears services what it sells in white goods no matter which town I have lived in while traveling around the company with Uncle K. With the closing  of CC out  there, there are probably a lot of good hard working folks out there if a unit needs to add some pt associates to their payroll.

 

Yah, I'm hoping Sears Holdings will snatch a few good stand-alone locations from Circuit City and hopefully we can grab a bit of their annual $7 billion in sales.

Just so consumers know, being the second largest electronics retailer in the US doesn't mean you earn money.  Margin is very small on most of the expensive items, especially televisions and computers.

For example, if your store sold 10 televisions all worth $3000 each ($30,000 in television sales), your store might make $1500 profit.

If your store sells appliances (a business Circuit City stupidly got out of), and you sold $30,000 in appliances, you could make like $10,000 from those sales.

And you must remember, if your retailer runs a financing promotion for you on your television, that retailer is paying the creditor all of your interest during the promotion.  So that small markup becomes very, very small after a financing promotion.  The store actually might even lose money on the deal after it's all said and done.

Circuit City had a horrible business model, especially after dropping appliances and commissioned salespeople.  Then they cut most of their experience managers to save on payroll.  It was a downward spiral many had predicted for years, and it's finally their time to step aside and let the real retailers help the customers.

I don't care how much Sears kool-aid you're drinking; but how pathetic to pump Sears/Kmart in a time of hardship for Circuit City.  The company did make some poor judgement calls, but so have other companies.  Sears has done a lot of the Circuit City tactics, maybe not to the same caliber, but Sears slowly shrinked its comission departments, pays a decent amount of employees minimum wage, et al.  The people working at Circuit City are real people, and even if it is a 16 year old, theyre still being ousted from their job. 

Once Sears and K-Mart go belly up it will be the same story for them, will YOU feel the same way then?

wana just reserve optiplex747 now?

sears2480 said…
I don't care how much Sears kool-aid you're drinking; but how pathetic to pump Sears/Kmart in a time of hardship for Circuit City.  The company did make some poor judgement calls, but so have other companies.  Sears has done a lot of the Circuit City tactics, maybe not to the same caliber, but Sears slowly shrinked its comission departments, pays a decent amount of employees minimum wage, et al.  The people working at Circuit City are real people, and even if it is a 16 year old, theyre still being ousted from their job. 

Once Sears and K-Mart go belly up it will be the same story for them, will YOU feel the same way then?

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ill second that

Last I checked with was a forum to make Sears and Kmart better, not a forum to cry about Circuit City.  They made bad decisions and they are gone -- and I say good riddens.  I vowed three years ago when they fired the experienced salespeople to never buy a thing from them again -- and I didn't.

So if all you can do is moan and groan and whine and complain about how much you hate Sears and Kmart then please just leave.  Nobody is forcing you to shop there, and certainly nobody is forcing you to post here. 

You are either part of the problem or part of the solution; and it's clear that far too many people here are part of the problem.

rstinnett said…

Last I checked with was a forum to make Sears and Kmart better, not a forum to cry about Circuit City.  They made bad decisions and they are gone -- and I say good riddens.  I vowed three years ago when they fired the experienced salespeople to never buy a thing from them again -- and I didn't.

So if all you can do is moan and groan and whine and complain about how much you hate Sears and Kmart then please just leave.  Nobody is forcing you to shop there, and certainly nobody is forcing you to post here. 

You are either part of the problem or part of the solution; and it's clear that far too many people here are part of the problem.

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i sure hope this forum lasts longer then sears and kmart just so i can see your reaction

First off, I am sick of the accusations that I hate Sears.  I am not anti-Sears nor do I hate it.  If I did, then why would I be posting here.  I think that Sears Holdings has made a series of poor business decisions which have distanced them from being a sucessful retailer.  A lot of what I post here is straight facts about Sears.  Sears has had sales declines every quarter for almost a decade now, long before the economy was in the crapper.  Sears has made positions that once could have been a career and made it into a job a part-time high school kid can have.  I'm not talking about every job at Sears, but you'd be suprised how many people at your local Sears make minimum wage.

What I was trying to establish with my post, is that it is patetic to be putting down Circuit City.  I'm not a big fan of CC, personally I shop at Best Buy; but it is sad to see another retailer go under, and people out of a job.  Even if those are teenagers, it is disappointing.  To be dreaming about how it will be great it would be to see a retailer that isn't adding new locations to build non-existant stores in old Circuit City locations when the company had to go down because of struggles with the economy is sad.  Maybe a bit cliche, but I was thrilled to see K-Mart get evicted from Columbia when Best Buy was able to move in.

I'm not going to quit posting here until I get shut down, or this forum goes offline, whichever happens first.  I am not posting false information, nor information that is secretive or confidental

The good old days of retailing are gone people.  With the advent of online shopping and the Wal-martization (domination)of retailing there will be less places to shop out there when we exit this recession which is sad. Kmart and Sears got complacite in their strategities and let Wal-Mart run them down in the areas that they were weak, such as distribution networks, computer systems, vendor pricing, quanity of stock on hand etc. The number one reason Wal-mart got to be as large as it is today is that they cut the cost out of everything from wages, insrance for employees, vendor payments etc.  This leads to there supposidly low low prices. Sears and Kmart were at a huge disadvantage in this area because they traditionally paid their employees more than Wal-Mart ansd were not as aggressive in their pricing. Tough decisions had to be made to make these companies survive and remain competitive in the modern retailing environment.

The two companies were sinking fast before the merger of the two in 2005.  Kmart being bankrupt and Sears lacking more off mall locations than its competitors. Sears and Kmart are in much better shape today than they were back then financially speaking, with both having strong cash flows and money on hand to weather this recession.  They were seeing sales increases just before the recession started to take hold in 2007. Turnarounds of companies this size take years to accomplish and we are just starting to see the early results of this today. 

Thanks for posting your thoughts, both negative and positive about Sears and other retailers. This economy stinks and all retailers are being hit hard.

There are many great suggestions which our community members post on this site and tell us about in other ways. We're doing our part by listening and trying to navigate through these rough economic waters - and this is a HUGE ship.

sears2480 said…
I don't care how much Sears kool-aid you're drinking; but how pathetic to pump Sears/Kmart in a time of hardship for Circuit City.  The company did make some poor judgement calls, but so have other companies.  Sears has done a lot of the Circuit City tactics, maybe not to the same caliber, but Sears slowly shrinked its comission departments, pays a decent amount of employees minimum wage, et al.  The people working at Circuit City are real people, and even if it is a 16 year old, theyre still being ousted from their job. 

Once Sears and K-Mart go belly up it will be the same story for them, will YOU feel the same way then?

---

Chill out man, I don't care how much you hate "Sears/Kmart," but how pathetic to jump all over my throat over little things.

First, I said it'd be great for Sears to get some of those locations, because Circuit City and Best Buy are great because they're not attached to malls, and I wish there were more stand-alone stores.

Secondly, I explained how little margin there was in being strictly an electronics outlet.  That is one of the major differences between them and their major competition, Best Buy.  Best Buy stuck to selling appliances, Circuit City didn't.

I understand that 35k people being laid off is a huge deal, and yes, real people.  Even 16 year olds ... amazing insight ... thanks for the info, though.

Sears Holdings is not a perfect corporation, and yes they make mistakes and they make decisions that reduce people's paychecks sometimes.  I know that firsthand, when I was on commission I had a commission change that permanently reduced my paycheck approximately 30%.  It sucks.

I know you fantasize of Sears/Kmart going belly up, and we've seen it can happen to retailers.  Seeing the progress internally and how we're doing in this economy, I don't see any way that's possible, but worse things have happened in this past year (mainly with financials, but you get the point)

You say you are not anti-Sears nor hate it, and that you are publishing the facts, then you go on another rant and complain about them.  Then, you tell me I'd be surprised how many people at my local Sears get paid minimum wage.  Umm ... none.  No surprise there, buddy. Hourly pay for non-commissioned people is relative to the standard of living in the area.  Some start low, some start high.  Simple economics.  The whole point of this forum isn't to cry and whine, it's about being constructive and showing Sears Holdings what to change to help them adapt and stay sharp.  If you disagree with a policy or procedure, analyze it and offer a solution, don't just pout.

You keep taking your stand against whatever you're against at the moment, whether it's me, sears holdings, etc.  Do your thing.  But if you want to make an actual difference, be constructive.

Circuit City is a joke. I went there today and their 10% off sale is ridiculous. I went to buy a Blueray DVD player. For the price they had listed, I could go to any other electronics dealer and buy the player AND a DVD. Pathetic.

I work for kmart dist.center and I heard from work that Sears put in a bid to buy Circuit City. guess that fell through.

With the economy like it is one will hear all kinds of rumors out there. I view it this way. Seeing is believing or don't count your chickens untill they hatch. I had a friend  call a friend at another retailer today that I had hear had a mandatory conference call the other day. What I had heard through the grapevine was not even close to what the call was about.

Retailers must make the hard decisions in an economy such as this to be in a position to reap the benefits when the economy picks up or one will find themselves in the same position that Circus City is in now. We all should be thankful we have a job right now regardless of the wage rate. Something coming in is better than nothing coming in.

bt1blueeye said…
I work for kmart dist.center and I heard from work that Sears put in a bid to buy Circuit City. guess that fell through.

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before i left sears there were roumours we were gonna buy macys

yah I heard Sears was going to buy out Walmart ...  : P

And the rumor mill  begins. Times are hard and tight in the economy. Working through the economic  conditions we are in now will take time. There are no short term fixes, magic wands, or magic pills. There are HARD  business decision that have to be made by the powers to be in our respective companys.Unfortunately the emotion has to be taken out of the decision making process right now. A stores P and L or a companys P and L statement will be one of the key documents used to help our respective companys leaders make their decisions.