Visiting a Circuit City (CC) store this morning clearly demonstrated the company doesn’t yet understand why their business failed.
While driving, I noticed a person standing by the road with a billboard sign advertising the Circuit City going out of business liquidation sale–with discounts of up to 30%. As I passed the store I saw it was busy and being the curious person I am, I went in.
The vast majority of items were discounted by only 10%. DVDs and CDs were discounted by 20% and perhaps a 30% discount existed somewhere but I didn’t see it. So, the majority of items were discounted 10% from their already 15-20% too high listed price.
This is a liquidation sale? You can still beat the liquidation price on-line without having to pay taxes. Circuit City prices have been non-competitive for some time now and it’s obvious they’ve carrying this same failed pricing model into their liquidation–still out of touch with competitive value and consumer expectations.
Before Christmas I entered a CC store to be handed a pamphlet proclaiming the prices in the store were now the same as on their web site. What was shocking to me was that they hadn’t always been.
It’s not surprising Circuit City finds themselves where they are and they still don’t get it!