The Circuit City chain has filed for bankruptcy. Many of its stores will be closing and the ones that hang in there might not be there for long.
Anyone who's ever shopped at one knows the reason they're in trouble. It's the same thing that doomed the Good Guys chain. And Egghead Software. And caused CompUSA to close most of its outlets. It's the same problem that destroys most chains that sell technology. Someone says, "We have to keep labor costs low," and doesn't realize or care that this invariably results in too many employees who — I'm going to put this in bold — don't know a damn thing about the stuff they sell.
I don't know that much about computers and technology but it's been a long time since I encountered someone in one of those stores who knew as much as I do, let alone more. In fact, every time I'm in one, I seem to wind up correcting something I overhear. Last time I was in the Circuit City near me, a salesguy was telling a lady the difference between DVD+R discs and DVD-R was that DVD+R was the "deluxe" version of DVD-R. I felt I had to intervene.
Management in these stores doesn't seem to realize that all they have to offer is personal expertise. If you know what you want, you can always find it at a lower price online. If you want to take the thing home today or touch it before you buy, you can go to a "big box" place like Costco where no one knows the product but it's cheaper. The only way a place like Circuit City can possibly compete — and I'll bet there'd a big market for this if they could deliver it — is by giving you someone knowledgeable to talk to. Usually though, there's no such person on the premises…or if there is, there's only one and he's eternally waiting on someone else. In some of these stores, it's even hard to find someone unknowledgeable to talk to. You might as well go to Costco. They have better prices, plus there are ladies in hairnets who offer you free samples of teriyaki chicken.
Now, you might say, "Hey, Radio Shack's still in business and no one there knows anything." This is true…but Radio Shack serves a function, much the same purpose 7-Eleven or some other convenience store serves in relation to a real market. It's a quick place to run in and buy a patch cord or a headset. You wouldn't do your serious grocery-buying at the Quik-E-Mart and most folks don't do major purchases at Radio Shack, except maybe of cell phones. Oddly, the last few times I've been in a Radio Shack, the only thing the staff seemed to know about was signing you up for Sprint. I asked where a certain cable could be found and the guy didn't have a clue…but he did ask me about my wireless plan.
Circuit City's downsizing probably won't help. People in record numbers are buying computers and high-def TVs and PDAs and digital cameras and even things we don't yet know we can't live without, and you'd think it would be a golden time to operate a chain of stores that sold that stuff. But crummy service has killed the brick-and-mortar end of that market. Everyone's learned that if you're not going to get personal attention from a salesperson who knows the product line, you might as well buy it on the Internet. It's cheaper and you don't even have to carry it out to your car. I'd wager good money that within two years, the Circuit City near me is a CVS Pharmacy. I base that prediction on the fact that the Circuit City is badly run…and also on the fact that we don't seem to have a CVS Pharmacy on that block.