Circuit City Is In More Trouble Than The WSJ Portrays

So this weekend I decided to replace my old Sony Cybershot 5.0 Mega Pixel camera.  It was a total impulse buy otherwise I would have shopped online.  What caused this impulse?  I was upset that during the McCain Hamilton NJ event I just didn't get enough good pictures out of my camera and the delay between shots with the flash on was taking an eternity.  The kids were at a birthday party so Mary and I ran a few errands and one of our first stops was Circuit City in Ledgewood NJ.

The camera sales person was very helpful and steered me away from the latest Sony cameras over to the Canons.  Based on my needs he recommended the Canon Titanium 12 MP version but sadly after "closing the sale" he had no inventory.  He also "sold me" on the 8 MP version too, but gave the nod to the casing on the Titanium version.  Not wanting to give up, he checked all of the Circuit Citys (note:  Do you spell that Cities or Citys since City is a proper name?  I too comfy in front of my fireplace to go look that up).  Guess what none of them had any inventory either and didn't have any inventory on the 8 MP versions either.  So, we walked out without a camera.

After we picked up the munchkins we headed down to my Father's house and stopped off at Best Buy in Bridgewater.  The camera sales man there was not as helpful and when I walked in asking for the Titanium he said they didn't carry them because it was too expensive.  And guess what?  He didn't carry the 8 MP version either because it was too expensive.  So, we left Best Buy without a camera.

So like a good internet junkie I researched the cameras on CNET and found that not only don't I want the Canon Titanium, the Sony camera still had the annoying slow delay, and some of the newer Sonys had touch screens which were not recommended.  So even though CNET recommended one of the non-touch screen Sony cameras I was going for the Canon Power Shot 8 MP. 

OK, now I'm back to the local Circuit City in Eatontown where they not only didn't have the Titanium or the 8MP they also didn't have the Sony.  Mind you they were showing all of these cameras but didn't have any inventory.  The inexperienced sales man tried to sell me a 7 MP Canon that was on sale, but I just walked out totally frustrated and confused by Circuit City.  Besides the sales process which can be hit or miss, they had no inventory yet continued to try to sell me cameras.  Seriously, what's the purpose of a retail store in 2008 if you can't make an impulse purchase?

All was not lost and I walked into the 6th Avenue Electronics who had inventory and the smart sales person closed an easy sale (me).  They sold me camera case and a 2GB memory stick and I was out of there in 15 minutes with the camera that the original Circuit City person introduced me to - the Canon 8 MP camera that I'm playing with right now.

I was perplexed about Circuit City's sales process and obvious inventory problem until I read this article in today's WSJ called Can Circuit City Survive Boss's Cure?  The entire article talked about cost cutting, layoffs, and closing stores.  Based on my experience this weekend, I give an enthusiastic answer of NO to the article's question.  At least now I have the answer.  Circuit City with its beaten down employees and cost cutting have cut too much inventory, too much experience, and ruined what is the only reason to shop at big retailers in today's internet world - an impulse shopping experience. 

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Comments

[Randy]

Maybe that's at your local Circuit City, but not all of them are that bad. Go to Best Buy, all they try to do is sell you stuff that you don't need. Like wrong batteries for cameras, wrong memory sticks, wrong sd cards, etc. Depending on what you are buying, they are just totally trying to make a extra buck. You can't go in there without them hassling about their warranties, and all that mumbo jumbo. At least at Circuit City, it's not that bad.

[PardonMyFrench]

I agree with you regarding Best Buy and as you can see from my post I was a little surprised too at my Circuit City experience. Usually it has been very good.

Eric