Talk:Circuit City

Something to look into

I noticed there was a few sections (or maybe one, I've been reading wiki's for a while, they are all blurring together..haha) about some bad business practices by Circuit City, and how they deceived customers. Well I don't know if you guys have ever bought a TV from circuit city, but they totally rip you off with their "calibration" package. The salesman in the store claimed their calibration package includes them using "special computerized equipment" to make your tv's picture look more life like, extend your tv's life by 30%, blah blah blah and all this great stuff. I asked him what they do, and he says they input codes and stuff..and basically rambled about a bunch of junk that sounded great. Well the delivery DRIVER is the one who "calibrated" my tv, and all he did was lower the contrast/brightness! I was livid!!!! I wanted a refund,and they said they can't refund "services". I hardly consider clicking the down button on my contrast 5-10 notches a "service".

someone should help me research this whole "calibration" scam some more. I already researched it a bit, and there are actual machines, and dvds and things you can use that actually help you do things the salesman mentioned, but circuit city doesn't seem to be keeping their word/practicing this at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.166.101.185 (talk) 04:39, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Agree with the nomination.

I've been trying to make legit edits about the recent lay-offs (as I work for the company still, with a neutral opinion towords them), though it seems like the article keeps getting edited by people who have something spiteful to add. For example, I just removed a running paragraph that added onto my Lay-Off comment which included an out-of-context comment about how much the CEO makes, etc. Good luck. 70.126.56.64 22:47, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, it's going to be difficult to keep it factual and neutral. Those layoffs were downright dirty, but this isn't an opinion site. Elpablo69 23:49, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

More layoffs have happened on May 30th. Sales Manager position has been eliminated.

vandalism

can we get an administrator to block that IP? the person is obviously not stopping the vandalism. --Alhutch 03:46, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

I've been blocke them everytime they arrive. They also hit Pumpkin Pie. The thing is there is at leat one person that is making legit edits. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 07:20, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Vanity?

Some of this article reads like a vanity page. "Policies & Principles" is very much unneccessary, with fluff like:

If you're not completely satisfied with a product, Circuit City will gladly exchange or refund the purchase within 30 days of the sale date, except as noted below.

This is useful for CircuitCity.com, but it does not belong on Wikipedia (especially since a lot of customers would refute this). Regardless of POV, Wikipedia is not a place for return policies, unless they are somehow notable. --SatCam 22:58, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree completely! This page REEKS of self promotion and 'tooting their own horn'. I know there's goint to be '''major''' controversy surrounding their recent announcement regarding the replacement of higher paid employees with lower paid 'new hires' http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aw.zhHEzMpZU&refer=home and I just hope, in the spirit of NPOV, it's presented fairly in this article. CanadianMist 21:25, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

The whole page really needs to be overhauled. I've attempted it a couple of times, but have not had much luck. There's way too many weasel words, especially in the paragraphs about firedog lately, that make it a very biased article. It's too bad that Circuit City IP addresses can't be banned from editing the page, because 99.99% of the time, any contributions made by a CC IP address are biased. And sometimes, it's through no fault of their own - it's pretty hard to neutral for a company you work for. B2bomber81 03:06, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism

His information would not be vandalism, but the vandal user whose edit was reverted wrote that Wal-Mart is the third largest retailer of electronics in the United States. Wal-Mart operates electronics departments in its stores, but regardless of sales, Wal-Mart should not be considered an electronics retailer- so Circuit city is the second, not third, electronics retailer in the US.

Number of Districts

So is it 62, or 63? Somebody had previously changed it from 63 to 62, saying that two in Texas were merged. Is that not true? Staus 23:53, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

The Houston districts did merge for a short while one of the District Managers was let go. They are now seperate again.

Music Industry Stuff

Okay, I'm removing this because 1. it doesn't have any sources, 2. it wouldn't belong in the opening paragraph if it did have any sources, and 3. because this was copied and pasted into several wiki articles by the same person.

For a temporary period of time, the store also sells musical CDs: "There is much inter-industry talk with record labels of Best Buy's and Circuit City's decision to phase out the sale of CDs. The goal of the entire industry is to go all digital. Stores such as Circuit City for years has suffered from square footage loss to musical CDs, of which could be used for products with better profit margins. As a result record labels have been forced to indirectly pay physical retailers to shelf CDs. For these financial and legal-payola reasons, the music industry is expected to be totally digital by 2008."

Just like in best buy & music industry, find some sources before it gets put back in. --Staus 12:42, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Expansion

Is there info about Circuit City expanding to Puerto Rico?

Yes. Circuit City will open their first store in San Patricio Plaza.

There's already a Circuit City in Puerto Rico and a second one will open in the next few weeks.--BoricuaPR (talk) 01:46, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Business Model

I don't want to start any kind of edit war, but, combining the 'retail locations' and 'business model' information into one category doesn't make sense. The information on the product & services does not fit under a 'business model'. A business model is how the company plans to make profit. That covers the products and services, not Generation C, staffing, etc. Those relate specifically to retail locations, not the website, not the phone number (the entire business model) ... just retail locations. I phrase the product categories like I do because that is how they are classified by the company ... in the source that is listed. Circuit City publishes that it is a seller of Video, Audio, IT, Ent Software, and Services. The way that B2bomber81 divides the products up is not in-line with the company's business model, nor is it even correct. Seperating "Mobile Video" into "Mobile and Video", etc doesn't even make sense. Please discuss here to get more opinions before chaning it again. Staus 23:55, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Likewise, I don't want to get into an edit war either. But there are some issues here that need to be addressed and corrected. The tone of parts of the article come across very much like an advertisement. Statements like "...offers a broad selection" are opinion and sound like CC-speak more than anything else. The entire page is lacking sources. For example, the very first paragraph informs the reader of things like "over $11 billion USD in sales" and "Circuit City is the third largest electronics retailer", but no sources for that information are given. In regards to business model - a business model is indeed a blue print, the company strategy for making money. You are correct about that. But you label the "products and services" as the business model when in fact the product and service offerings are merely a part of the whole business model. Other things that are involved in a business model are things like store layout and design or the "look and feel", staffing models, etc. So it is more appropriate to label both those sections as "Business model", and separate the products and services into a sub. Another issue that I've found, is that many parts of the article are copied verbatim from the company's annual report. This is against Wikipedia guidelines as it is copyrighted material. That is why I've been making the changes that I have. Hope this helps explain things for you. B2bomber81 00:49, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Well it's good to have somebody else who cares about the article. I've reflowed the business model section again, and cited the info in the 1st paragraph. Staus 13:52, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

I only want what's best for wikipedia  :) Thanks for your understanding. B2bomber81 15:22, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Circuit City to Shutter Stores in Effort to Boost Financial Performance

RICHMOND, Va. — Circuit City Stores Inc. (CC), the nation's No. 2 consumer electronics retailer, said Thursday it plans to close seven domestic Superstores, a distribution center and 62 company-owned stores overseas to cut costs and improve its financial performance. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,250885,00.html Crocoite 23:58, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

RICHMOND, Va. - Our pipeline of expected store openings continues to grow, and we plan to open between 60 and 65 new Superstores next fiscal year. Ten of the fourth quarter openings are planned for February. The company expects approximately one third of the openings to be in the 20,000 square foot format. http://newsroom.circuitcity.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=222832 Staus 02:44, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

To where does all the Reductions lead?

Good day, I have to say first, that was very informed article on CC. And to why I say so, because at the moment. I have a shared interest. You see, I work in a building, that is in the process, of renting retail space to them.

And my attention was first drawn, on a few months back, on the massive (experienced) employees downsiding that was done. Since then, I have been backtracking on their finical state as much as possible. And today, what prompt me to write this, was what was said to me, by a family member of mine. Who currently works in the Electronic industry field.

It was stated plainly, with the current 'reduction' moves being done, to gain a better financial outlook. Was a prelude to a sell off.

To their next competitor.

'Best Buy.'

Which happens to be next door, to the building I currently work in.

The Irony is just too much to ignore.

Circuit City's horrible internet advertising campaign...

There appears to be some stuff going down with Circuit City, CheapAssGamer.com, DVDTalk.com and a poster who is known only as "speedy1961" - apparently over said poster's early posting of CC paper ads (speculation is this may have something to do with Sony's PS3 price drop being leaked a week early).

First Podcast/Thread about the Legal Action on CheapAssGamer.com: http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148179

Second Podcast/Thread about the Legal Action on CheapAssGamer.com: http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148911

Post on DVDTalk about the Legal Action: http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=508151 (Particularly Post #105 from speedy1961 him/herself.)

This story has apparently gotten a bit of press outside of these forums (because it's such a tasty story!):

Kotaku.com comments: http://kotaku.com/gaming/not-cheap/circuit-city-subpoenas-cheapassgamer-288081.php

Consumerist.com picks it up: http://consumerist.com/consumer/lawsuits/cheapassgamercom-sued-by-circuit-city-288297.php

Digg.com page: http://www.digg.com/gaming_news/Circuit_City_Subpoenas_CheapAssGamer/who

Others from around the globewideweb: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3161875 http://www.destructoid.com/cheap-ass-gamer-receives-subpoena-from-circuit-city-38114.phtml http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34074

This seems to be like it could be a pretty major issue, both in the history of Circuit City and the legal precedence it sets. Anyone care to take a stab at adding something about it into the article that is fully sourced and verifiable? 71.124.127.161 06:45, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Consumer Complaints

As a consumer, I've been very unhappy with the times I've interacted with this company. The current article reads like a glowing advertisement for this company, and that surprised me. When making new purchases, I've instead gotten re-sealed items that were presumably returned defective. The last time I ordered something in the mail it never shipped (according to FedEx) but they still tried to bill me. This article should include a section on customer satisfaction and perception. I'd be happy to use my own experiences, but sadly that would be both POV and OR. Instead I'd like to suggest that someone else write a section using publicly available business rating sites as sources. The company is very poor to their customers and that should be documented and discussed in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.124.240.82 (talk) 19:38, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Layoffs not mentioned?

Why are the layoffs not mentioned? Reading through the comments above it appears that there have been some disgruntled additions about them, however, nothing is mentioned in the article now. This is a topic that should be covered from a NPOV. Forbes wrote about it here in discussing the drop of CC's stock price due to the layoffs. KnightLago (talk) 00:20, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

The "layoff our top performers" move in March? Seems to be covered in the History section fairly well - or are you referring to something else? Kuru ^talk 18:20, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Training

I removed this uncited statement. If someone can verify it, feel free to readd to article.

Many employees have complained, however, that the training they receive is often erroneous and misleading. This unfortunately causes many customers to feel they have been lied to and often times mistreated.

--Finalnight (talk) 16:41, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Dixie Hifi

They also operated retail stores under the name "Dixie Hifi", at least in the Indianapolis market in the late 70s and early 80s. The article refers to Dixie Hifi as being a mail-order only establishment. I recall that after they closed the Indianapolis stores, one of their local competitors (who is now also gone) ran radio ads with a snippet from the song The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down by The Band. --rogerd (talk) 16:49, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

The City

Is it me, or is there little to no coverage on The City? And, does anyone know if those stores will be closed out like the other bigger box stores? 72.205.58.186 (talk) 21:06, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Hello?!?! What about DIVX?

Any special reason why Circuit City's failed DVD competitor, DIVX, completely absent from this article? Many people boycotted Circuit City when DIVX came out. Circuit City hurt a lot of people and did real damage to the early acceptance of the DVD format. Not to mention that many movies were licensed exclusively for DIVX. Seems like a relevant thing to point out. --Rdnzl (talk) 20:01, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Probably because no one thought to put it in. No conspiracy. Feel free to add the details. Dman727 (talk)

Added a section. The gory details about the Divx format war should be left to that article, hwoever. hbdragon88 (talk) 08:48, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Canada

From http://www.circuitcity.com/closed.html

Are you also shutting down your operations in Canada? No, our Canadian operations will continue. They are not affected by the liquidation of Circuit City's U.S. operations. The Canadian operations employ approximately 3,000 associates.

Does this mean Circuit City could return to the U.S. when the economy improves?