Re: Astronomy vendors and their "sales"
- From: Too_Many_Tools <too_many_tools@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2009 20:34:22 -0700 (PDT)
On Mar 2, 11:41 am, Too_Many_Tools <too_many_to...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This story reminded me of astronomy vendors, their so called sales and
their excuses for insignificant discounts in a severe recession while
their sales continue to dry up.
No discount = No sales = Out of business
Looks like a repeat of the Post Comet Halley vendor loss is coming....
TMT
February 23, 2009 10:39 AM PST
Last days of Circuit City: Lousy bargains, rumpled salespeople
I remember when "liquidation" meant something. There was a small
electronics store in my area that was closing down a few years back.
Signs all over read "Liquidation Sale." In the store, I found prices
slashed considerably. Some good stuff was 75 percent off. It was a
fire sale, and it was fantastic. That was a going-out-of-business sale
done right. What Circuit City is doing now, though, I don't get.
The company is shutting down, as we all know. But I was still shocked
when I went into Circuit City this past weekend and found a store that
was a shadow of its former self. The signature red shirts on employees
were ditched in favor of jeans and sweatshirts; DVD sales racks that
were once barely browsed were overrun by customers who couldn't help
but dive in to the store's 50 percent off DVD sale. But the real
bargains that Circuit City claimed we all would love weren't so sexy
after all.
I need a new HDTV. Usually, I buy my HDTVs from Amazon.com because
I've found it has the best prices and delivery service. But since I
knew Circuit City was going out of business, I decided to make a trek
down there to see if there were any hidden gems at a good price. Signs
said the TVs were 30 percent off, and when I looked around, I realized
the inventory wasn't picked over, as I had feared. There were some
nice Sony LCDs on the shelves, as well as Panasonic plasmas.
I was drawn to the Panasonic TH-58pz800u, which was on sale for
approximately $2,600 at the store. I own the 50-inch model of that
plasma and couldn't be more pleased with its quality. So when I saw it
offered at such a discount, the wheels started turning and I was
thinking about how I was going to be able to fit it into the back of
my SUV.
But then I checked Amazon's price. To my surprise, Amazon was offering
the HDTV at an even more attractive price: $2,372.
So I decided to find one of the Circuit City salespeople to ask if
they matched pricing that online companies were offering. I searched
far and wide for their signature red shirt and could find just two
people wearing it. Thinking the company must have laid off some staff,
I went back to examining the HDTV, when a twenty-something guy dressed
in a hoodie, baggy jeans, sneakers, and a crooked Mets hat walked over
to me and asked if I needed help.
At first, I didn't realize he was an employee and I looked at him
without saying anything. Then he told me that he works at Circuit
City, he's just not required to wear his uniform anymore ("After all,
am I gonna get fired?") and that's why I didn't recognize him as a
salesperson.
So I asked him if the company matched pricing and showed him my
iPhone, which was displaying Amazon's price of the same Panasonic
plasma. His response was short and biting: "Nope. We don't do that
anymore."
You don't do that anymore? How is it possible that a company that
needs to liquidate its entire inventory won't sell a product to a
customer for $200 less? It's a guaranteed sale!
Of course, explaining that to this salesperson would have fallen on
deaf ears since he wasn't in a position to make any decisions and I
don't think he would have cared if he could. He's there until the end
of March--that's the deadline the employees have been given at this
store--and after that, he's on to bigger and better things. Why should
he care if Circuit City, a company that has laid him off, will be
getting my money or not?
For comparison's sake, I went to Best Buy across the street to see if
it had that same Panasonic plasma and to ask its salespeople if they
would match the Amazon price.
After just a few minutes of browsing, a Best Buy salesperson in the
signature blue shirt came up to me and asked if I needed help. When I
asked her if they would match pricing, she said, "Absolutely." In no
time, she asked her manager if they could match my price on the
Panasonic HDTV and he came over to assure me that they could and the
offer was on the table indefinitely--I didn't need to take it right
that second if I didn't want it.
In spite of the Circuit City going-out-of-business sale across the
street, the Best Buy was overrun with customers, the company's blue
shirts were everywhere, and people were rushing to the checkout lines.
Even in its dying days when it should be the price leader and the most
willing to sell products, Circuit City still doesn't "get" it.
Under the guise of "Everything Must Go!" sales, Circuit City's
liquidators are doing their best to feign value to squeeze every dime
out of customers just one last time. Maybe it works (the company
announced it has sold $1 billion in merchandise over the past month),
but I still think it's a sad state of affairs. Circuit City is still a
wrinkled mess. Meanwhile, Best Buy is as vital as ever.
I wonder how much this hurt sales of Best Buy?
TMT
After 60 years Circuit City powers down
By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM, AP Business Writer Michael Felberbaum, Ap
Business Writer Sun Mar 8, 6:56 pm ET
RICHMOND, Va. – What began 60 years ago as a humble television store
in this sleepy Southern capital ended Sunday as Circuit City closed
its doors for good — its 567 remaining U.S. stores to be left broom
clean and vacant.
For the last month and a half, a group of four liquidators have
conducted going-out-of-business sales for what was the nation's second-
largest consumer electronics retailer, selling its remaining $1.7
billion worth of inventory weeks sooner than expected.
In its wake Richmond-based Circuit City Stores Inc. will leave more
than 18 million square feet of vacant space in a faltering real estate
market. And more than 34,000 employees, some who worked through the
liquidation announced in January, will be jobless. Shareholders will
likely get nothing and creditors may receive far less than what they
are owed.
Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November
with hopes of emerging as a stronger company able to compete in the
ever-expanding marketplace; shedding its $2.32 billion in debt and
getting out of older real estate.
Unable to work out a sale or secure new financing, the company will
instead spend its remaining days tallying money from the sale of its
assets, breaking or assigning its leases and paying off its growing
list of creditors.
Circuit City owes nearly $625 million to its 30 largest unsecured
creditors — mostly vendors who supplied the DVDs, flat-screen TVs and
headphones on Circuit City shelves. They must wait to be paid until
secured creditors such as bank lenders are satisfied.
A small staff will remain at the corporate office during the wind-down
process, but Circuit City's bookkeeping may ultimately be reduced to a
laptop computer running small business accounting software.
Over the last few years, Circuit City, which at its height had more
than 700 stores, faced heightened competition, pressure from vendors
and waning consumer spending. Ultimately, the hobbled credit market
and consumer worries proved insurmountable. The dismal environment
also has claimed retailers including KB Toys and Mervyns.
Circuit City, which posted losses in seven of its final eight
quarters, had its brand value diminished in the 1990s as it lost
significant traffic to rivals like Best Buy Co., which built bigger
stores in better locations and achieved greater economies of scale.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and others who have expanded their electronics
offerings also wooed Circuit City customers.
Around the country, stores once full of televisions, stereos,
computers and other consumer electronics had little merchandise left
on the last day of business, with many locations selling store
fixtures like shelves and other odds and ends.
Inside a store in Little Rock, Ark., a few tables sat in the middle of
an empty showroom, with discarded wireless phones and other electronic
wiring. A box nearby contained alarms, that once guarded the store's
digital cameras and camcorders, being sold for 25 cents each.
Families with toolboxes disassembled the store's racks and stands.
Terry Garner, 60, of Little Rock, struggled to shove a rack into the
back of his van.
"That's all they had left," said Garner who had previously bought a
keyboard and other items from the chain. Checking out the liquidation
sale was a smart move for "yard-sale shoppers" like he and his wife.
"We're going in there for bargains," he said.
At a Circuit City store on Manhattan's Upper West Side, store
employees spent time saying their last goodbyes. The store had already
been fleeced of all its inventory, and a makeshift sign outside the
store offered only fixtures. Shopping carts, store displays and even
check-out stands were for sale, although few customers streamed into
the two-story space.
Store employees huddled together, sitting on a check-out counter,
laughing and reminiscing. A store manager declined to comment about
the retailer's last day in business.
All but two small aisles and some scattered plastic bins overflowing
with tangled cables had been cleared out of a store in San Antonio.
The other aisles were blocked with yellow caution tape, while signs
warned "All Sales Are Final."
The parking lot was busy, but many customers came out of the store
empty-handed.
"Everything is picked over. They're going over wires and TV stands,
the little stuff," said Roman Garcia, 30, carrying a bag crammed with
videogames. He bought nine copies of an online multiplayer game called
"Team Fortress." He picked up the copies for $1 apiece and planned to
send them to other members of his online gaming group.
Alan L. Wurtzel, son of company founder Samuel S. Wurtzel and himself
a former chief executive of Circuit City, has previously said the
company didn't take the threat from Best Buy seriously enough and at
some points was too focused on short-term profit rather than long-term
value.
Still, Circuit City took arduous steps in an attempt to turn around
its struggling business.
In 2008, it defused a proxy battle, opened its books to potential
buyers like Blockbuster Inc., changed management, closed stores in
some locations and tested smaller concept stores in others. It laid
off about 3,400 store workers in 2007 and replaced them with lower-
paid employees, a move analysts warned could hurt morale and drive
away customers.
Circuit City also had hoped to make up for its diminished product
margins with its service and installation business called Firedog,
which opened in 2006 — four years after Best Buy purchased the similar
Geek Squad service.
"I wish there was one kind of fatal blow that we could all pick out,"
said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at market
researching firm, The NPD Group Inc. "Every time there was a
crossroad ... in hindsight they almost always did the wrong thing."
Baker pointed to many other missteps in management, among them: not
declaring bankruptcy sooner, not getting into the music and movie
business earlier, takeover bids in the mid-2000s, and exiting the
appliance business in 2000.
"When you make that many mistakes, eventually you end up at the edge
of the cliff," he said.
While the electronics retail giant as it has been known for years will
be gone, the Circuit City name may still live on.
Telecommunications company Bell Canada is buying a chain of 750 The
Source by Circuit City electronics stores across Canada operated by
the company's InterTAN subsidiary. And Hilco Merchant Resources LLC, a
Northbrook, Ill.-based retail consulting and liquidation firm, said it
hopes to buy the brand name and Web site.
When asked for comment on the company's store being shuttered
permanently, Circuit City offered only this from James A. Marcum, its
vice chairman and acting president and chief executive: "I want to
thank our associates for their hard work during this difficult time."
___
Associated Press Writers Jon Gambrell in Little Rock, Ark., Michelle
Roberts in San Antonio and Samantha Bomkamp in New York contributed to
this report.
.
- References:
- Astronomy vendors and their "sales"
- From: Too_Many_Tools
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