Tuesday, November 11, 2008

A Requiem for Circuit City

Times are tough, and stores they are a-closin. Even if you haven't been directly impacted by the economic crisis, chances are you have at least some emotional connection to one of the more recent companies in bankruptcy...Circuit City.

Yes, Circuit City is in trouble, they're closing 1/5 of their stores and laying off thousands of employees nationwide. It's possible that by 2009 the store will be just a footnote in our collective 20th Century nostalgia.



Anyone else remember this commercial? The idea of a kid having that much clout that they can just waltz into the adult world, present their case to a business-suited employee, and walk out of their with cash in hand...it's like a beautiful fantasy of what the free market can achieve.

But the dream could not last. Circuit City was ultimately done in by competition from Best Buy and some very shady HR practices, such as laying off 3,400 of their top-tier employees in order to replace them with lower paid workers. Capitalism: UR DOIN IT RIGHT WRONG.

Let's save our sympathy for all the red-shirted workers who are losing their jobs. If you go trawling for close-out deals, be cool to them. Times are tough.

4 comments:

turaho said...

I'll tell you why they're going out of business: because they were way too eager to hand out cash to any snot-nosed punk with a Walkman, a newspaper, and little proof that they even bought the thing at Circuit City.

Run this scam at all the Circuit Citys (Circuit Cities?) around town and you can bring down a company single-handed!

yssi said...

good to see the og is informing your geekanerd worldview hehe

Albo said...

I feel like they ran this commercial for years. Rewatching it, though, I'm struck by what a deadbeat dad this kid has. Seriously, "You bought it, you gotta handle it"? Then his kid has to trek across town, by the time he's crossing the expressway the sun is starting to go down? You couldn't give him a ride, you old bastard? What his dad was really saying is "Dammit, kid, get outta here and let me drink in peace."

AHR said...

The dad is trying to teach his kid about a little thing called "responsibility".

Unless it is a big scam, in which case dad just doesn't want to get his hands dirty.