Circuit City Plans to Lay Off More Than 3,500 Employees

[Mrs Behavin]

Circuit City Wednesday announced a plan to lay off 3,400 employees and replace them with newly hired employees that will be paid less.

Wichita has a Circuit City location at 6920 W. Kellogg Drive. A manager at the store referred a call from the Business Journal to a corporate spokesperson.


The spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

On its Web site, Circuit City said the layoffs were part of a "wage-management initiative." The layoffs occurred Wednesday and targeted employees who were paid well above the market-based salary range for their role, the company said in statement.

The employees were to be replaced with new workers that would be paid at a rate in line with the market.

Circuit City plans to lay off more than 3,500 workers - Wichita Business Journal:

 

[Charmer]

"...paid at a rate in line with the market."

You mean the keep-people-poor-and-only-let-corporate-execs-get-rich market line?!

Let's see: Illegals, outsourcing, stolen retirement and pensions plans, now fire everyone who makes just a little more than minimum wage to "refresh" the bank accounts of the executives?

Oh, to be powerful, rich and not have a conscious...

 

[TheOriginalJames]

Greed has a lot to do with it, and I agree quite a bit with your post Charmer, but sometimes big chains can't turn a profit on certain stores so they take measures such as these.

I worked for a large chain of stores which was a pizza place. One day they told us they were closing the store... actually they told us the day they were closing shop.

They couldn't turn a profit on it because there were 3 other large national chains within 2 miles of the store.

Owners and executives are in it for the profit of the store - why should they care about the little people who man their stores? It's cold yes, but it's business.

 

[ngdawg]

Retail seems to be the closest thing to legal slavery any more.
The retailer I work for pays crap wages, keeps store staff numbers abysmally small and then works us like mules. Every time we're given the 'Smile and say Hi' speech, I wanna choke'em.....customers give us lousy feedback on our customer service on the floor-if they knew why we're not happy little elves, maybe they'd direct their complaints accordingly. I check the wantads every week....:mad Retail in general pays lousy, just some more lousy than others; it's not a paycheck anyone can live on unless they're upper management.

 

[SilentSinz]

My brother worked for cirtcuit city , said it was hell, even though he was a hight end worker, the stores computer tech, they always had him making hous ecalls, and always adding more responsibilty to his job such as instalin sorround sounds....whats a computer tech know about installing a tv sorround soun. So needless to say I already hate circtuit city, and he no longer works there

 

[SilentEyz]

Actually It is not Even Greed In this case..

Reading the business reports today.. Best Buy is Kicking thier Ass, While Bestcuy saw a huge increase.. Circuit City suffered a huge loss in their Fiscal year, Which is Forcing them to have to remove thier highest paid employees. ( some of them)

The Downfall is, this is only going to hurt them even more, because their Highest paid employees are also their Most experianced employees, Which means they risk losing even more business to thier Competetors because people like to shop where their questions can be answered. And where the Employees know what they are talking about.

hence part of what has won Best buy the Market.. better service, better store layouts. and of course the implemation of The GEEK SQUAD.

 

[IntruderLS1]

I think we have a winner. Well done Silent. I agree with you exactly.

I know from personal experiance, Best Buy is VASTLY superior to Circuit City. I was in CC for the first time in about a year last night, and the guy I asked for help didn't know what he was talking about, the guys he sent me to told me it wasn't their department, and the store front was so crammed with crap, I was practically lost before I made it 20 feet into the store.

That's just no way to run a business.

Fry's has been impressing me lately though.... They've brought in a fresh business plan, and it's pretty slick.

 

[OUZBnd]

I predicted circuit city to be out of business in the next 5-10 years (that was about 3/4 years ago).