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Circuit City Kaput
Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores
Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Circuit City is one of the largest retail bankruptcies in the current U.S. recession. Its demise paves the way for larger rival Best Buy Inc to boost sales and gain clout with suppliers as the leading electronics retailer. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Huennekens approved the plan to liquidate Circuit City, and the No. 2 retail player in U.S. electronics said it would begin closing stores on Saturday. "Regrettably for the more than 30,000 employees of Circuit City and our loyal customers, we were unable to reach an agreement with our creditors and lenders to structure a going-concern transaction ... and so this is the only possible path for our company," Vice Chairman James Marcum said. - - - That gurgling sound you hear is the United States going down the drain after eight years of Bush malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance. Who needs WMDs to take down the United States? |
Circuit City Kaput
hk wrote:
Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Circuit City is one of the largest retail bankruptcies in the current U.S. recession. Its demise paves the way for larger rival Best Buy Inc to boost sales and gain clout with suppliers as the leading electronics retailer. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Huennekens approved the plan to liquidate Circuit City, and the No. 2 retail player in U.S. electronics said it would begin closing stores on Saturday. "Regrettably for the more than 30,000 employees of Circuit City and our loyal customers, we were unable to reach an agreement with our creditors and lenders to structure a going-concern transaction ... and so this is the only possible path for our company," Vice Chairman James Marcum said. - - - That gurgling sound you hear is the United States going down the drain after eight years of Bush malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance. Who needs WMDs to take down the United States? So the Democrats in the Senate were paid for...nothing? |
Circuit City Kaput
"hk" wrote in message m... Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Good riddance. Circuit City was one of the worst retail stores for consumer electronics (or anything for that matter) that I can think of. Sales "associates" walking around with cell phones stuck in their ear, talking to friends or congregating in groups yuking it up while customers wait at the register to pay for purchases or need assistance. We had two in this area, one was in business for several years, the other relatively new. Both stores had the same cavalier culture when it came to the customers. Plus, typically they didn't know anything about the products they sold. Most were high school kids working after school. At least Best Buy has some trained sales associates that know something about what they sell. For the market it was supposed to serve, Circuit City was no better than a Target or Wal-Mart. I am surprised they stayed in business as long as they did, economic slowdown or no economic slowdown. Eisboch |
Circuit City Kaput
"Eisboch" wrote in message ... "hk" wrote in message m... Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Good riddance. Circuit City was one of the worst retail stores for consumer electronics (or anything for that matter) that I can think of. Sales "associates" walking around with cell phones stuck in their ear, talking to friends or congregating in groups yuking it up while customers wait at the register to pay for purchases or need assistance. We had two in this area, one was in business for several years, the other relatively new. Both stores had the same cavalier culture when it came to the customers. BTW, here's another recent bankruptcy that is really too bad, but it was inevitable. "Sound Advice" was a decent mid to low high end quality audio retailer based in Florida until they were purchased by Tweeter in 2001. Since then, both companies have been on a downward slide and recently threw in the towel and went belly up. Good write up on Sound Advice in the first link. The second link is why high end, good quality audio equipment is becoming a thing of the past. People are more interested in having "thousands" of files of compressed crap on their iPods instead of high quality recordings worthy of decent equipment. Sad. http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/sound-advice http://www.audioholics.com/news/edit...-down-of-audio Eisboch |
Circuit City Kaput
Eisboch wrote:
"Eisboch" wrote in message ... "hk" wrote in message m... Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Good riddance. Circuit City was one of the worst retail stores for consumer electronics (or anything for that matter) that I can think of. Sales "associates" walking around with cell phones stuck in their ear, talking to friends or congregating in groups yuking it up while customers wait at the register to pay for purchases or need assistance. We had two in this area, one was in business for several years, the other relatively new. Both stores had the same cavalier culture when it came to the customers. BTW, here's another recent bankruptcy that is really too bad, but it was inevitable. "Sound Advice" was a decent mid to low high end quality audio retailer based in Florida until they were purchased by Tweeter in 2001. Since then, both companies have been on a downward slide and recently threw in the towel and went belly up. Good write up on Sound Advice in the first link. The second link is why high end, good quality audio equipment is becoming a thing of the past. People are more interested in having "thousands" of files of compressed crap on their iPods instead of high quality recordings worthy of decent equipment. Sad. http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/sound-advice http://www.audioholics.com/news/edit...-down-of-audio Eisboch I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment. |
Circuit City Kaput
"hk" wrote in message ... I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment. I agree with the guy that wrote the article. Most sound like they were recorded in a coffee can. I occasionally use a mp3 for various purposes including burning cds or downloading to Mrs.E's iPod. But before I do, I use a program called "Audacity" to modify and enhance the file to get rid of that coffee can sound. I just cannot handle that overly compressed, airy and tinny sound. Different strokes. Eisboch |
Circuit City Kaput
"Eisboch" wrote in message
... "Eisboch" wrote in message ... "hk" wrote in message m... Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Good riddance. Circuit City was one of the worst retail stores for consumer electronics (or anything for that matter) that I can think of. Sales "associates" walking around with cell phones stuck in their ear, talking to friends or congregating in groups yuking it up while customers wait at the register to pay for purchases or need assistance. We had two in this area, one was in business for several years, the other relatively new. Both stores had the same cavalier culture when it came to the customers. BTW, here's another recent bankruptcy that is really too bad, but it was inevitable. "Sound Advice" was a decent mid to low high end quality audio retailer based in Florida until they were purchased by Tweeter in 2001. Since then, both companies have been on a downward slide and recently threw in the towel and went belly up. Good write up on Sound Advice in the first link. The second link is why high end, good quality audio equipment is becoming a thing of the past. People are more interested in having "thousands" of files of compressed crap on their iPods instead of high quality recordings worthy of decent equipment. Sad. http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/sound-advice http://www.audioholics.com/news/edit...-down-of-audio Eisboch iPods are having an effect, but the bigger issue, I think, is lack of imagination and just plain balls in retailing. That's why this retailer keeps growing every year: http://www.rowephoto.com/index.html Mid to high quality audio, full service, well-trained staff with outrageous product knowledge. Began as a photo store 110 years ago. Added audio & video in the mid-1980s. The stores are always busy. In a sense, the owner built the business by responding to the big discounters with "So what?" Wegmans (grocery chain) does the same thing. |
Circuit City Kaput
Eisboch wrote:
"hk" wrote in message ... I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment. I agree with the guy that wrote the article. Most sound like they were recorded in a coffee can. I occasionally use a mp3 for various purposes including burning cds or downloading to Mrs.E's iPod. But before I do, I use a program called "Audacity" to modify and enhance the file to get rid of that coffee can sound. I just cannot handle that overly compressed, airy and tinny sound. Different strokes. Eisboch MP3's? ipods can do better than that. |
Circuit City Kaput
On Jan 16, 10:37*pm, hk wrote:
Eisboch wrote: "Eisboch" wrote in message m... "hk" wrote in message news:tOKdnSJgIZhGpezUnZ2dnUVZ_jOdnZ2d@earthlink. com... Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Good riddance. *Circuit City was one of the worst retail stores for consumer electronics (or anything for that matter) *that I can think of. Sales "associates" walking around with cell phones stuck in their ear, talking to friends or congregating in groups yuking it up while customers wait at the register to pay for purchases or need assistance. *We had two in this area, one was in business for several years, the other relatively new. *Both stores had the same cavalier culture when it came to the customers. BTW, here's another recent bankruptcy that is really too bad, but it was inevitable. "Sound Advice" was a decent mid to low high end quality audio retailer based in Florida until they were purchased by Tweeter in 2001. *Since then, both companies have been on a downward slide and recently threw in the towel and went belly up. * Good write up on Sound Advice in the first link. The second link is why high end, good quality audio equipment is becoming a thing of the past. People are more interested in having "thousands" of files of compressed crap on their iPods instead of high quality recordings worthy of decent equipment. * Sad. http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/sound-advice http://www.audioholics.com/news/edit...-down-of-audio Eisboch I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Yes, but nothing beats a good Turntable. |
Circuit City Kaput
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message ... iPods are having an effect, but the bigger issue, I think, is lack of imagination and just plain balls in retailing. That's why this retailer keeps growing every year: http://www.rowephoto.com/index.html Mid to high quality audio, full service, well-trained staff with outrageous product knowledge. Began as a photo store 110 years ago. Added audio & video in the mid-1980s. The stores are always busy. In a sense, the owner built the business by responding to the big discounters with "So what?" Wegmans (grocery chain) does the same thing. Hopefully they will stay around because they are diversified. There used to be a couple of decent high-end audio shops around my area but they have all folded. The demand (or lack of) for quality equipment just doesn't pay the rent anymore. Even manufacturers of decent speakers are introducing lower performance, lower priced models of their equipment to be carried by places like Best Buy. It's too bad because people still spend a considerable amount of money for Best Buy's versions of Klipsch or Martin Logan thinking they are getting high end speakers. For a small amount more they could get the real thing. Eisboch |
Circuit City Kaput
"Eisboch" wrote in message ... "hk" wrote in message ... I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment. I agree with the guy that wrote the article. Most sound like they were recorded in a coffee can. I occasionally use a mp3 for various purposes including burning cds or downloading to Mrs.E's iPod. But before I do, I use a program called "Audacity" to modify and enhance the file to get rid of that coffee can sound. I just cannot handle that overly compressed, airy and tinny sound. Different strokes. Eisboch Audacity is a great program... and free. I use it a lot. My 1st experience with it was to "digitize" all of my vinyl... pops, and all. g --Mike |
Circuit City Kaput
Why is a $200 Ipod any better than a $30 Sansa if they are playing the
same compressed music? It's not. It's called marketing. Where Apple fell short in the hardware business, they made up for in the marketing department. This goes all the way back to the original Macintosh in 1984. They're geniuses in that category. More recently they moved from the PowerPC (Motorola/IBM) processors to Intel, to be able to compete better with Windows based PCs. Now you can boot to Windows! Wow... why not save a thousand bucks and just buy a windows based PC? lol --Mike wrote in message ... On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:37:17 -0500, hk wrote: Eisboch wrote: "Eisboch" wrote in message ... "hk" wrote in message m... Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Good riddance. Circuit City was one of the worst retail stores for consumer electronics (or anything for that matter) that I can think of. Sales "associates" walking around with cell phones stuck in their ear, talking to friends or congregating in groups yuking it up while customers wait at the register to pay for purchases or need assistance. We had two in this area, one was in business for several years, the other relatively new. Both stores had the same cavalier culture when it came to the customers. BTW, here's another recent bankruptcy that is really too bad, but it was inevitable. "Sound Advice" was a decent mid to low high end quality audio retailer based in Florida until they were purchased by Tweeter in 2001. Since then, both companies have been on a downward slide and recently threw in the towel and went belly up. Good write up on Sound Advice in the first link. The second link is why high end, good quality audio equipment is becoming a thing of the past. People are more interested in having "thousands" of files of compressed crap on their iPods instead of high quality recordings worthy of decent equipment. Sad. http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/sound-advice http://www.audioholics.com/news/edit...-down-of-audio Eisboch I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment. Why is a $200 Ipod any better than a $30 Sansa if they are playing the same compressed music? I think you really have to blame Al Gore for places like Circuit City going under. If he hadn't invented the internet people would have to go to a store to buy things. Now they can order from the comfort of their Lazy Boy and UPS will drop it at their front door ,.. cheaper. |
Circuit City Kaput
"Mike" wrote in message ... "Eisboch" wrote in message ... "hk" wrote in message ... I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment. I agree with the guy that wrote the article. Most sound like they were recorded in a coffee can. I occasionally use a mp3 for various purposes including burning cds or downloading to Mrs.E's iPod. But before I do, I use a program called "Audacity" to modify and enhance the file to get rid of that coffee can sound. I just cannot handle that overly compressed, airy and tinny sound. Different strokes. Eisboch Audacity is a great program... and free. I use it a lot. My 1st experience with it was to "digitize" all of my vinyl... pops, and all. g --Mike They just released a new beta version 1.3.6. Well worth the download. It has a neat feature for automatic, sound actuated recording based on an adjustable signal input level among several other improvements. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ Eisboch |
Circuit City Kaput
They just released a new beta version 1.3.6. Well worth the download. It has a neat feature for automatic, sound actuated recording based on an adjustable signal input level among several other improvements. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ Eisboch Thanks, I'll get it right now. --Mike |
Circuit City Kaput
"Mike" wrote in message ... Audacity is a great program... and free. I use it a lot. My 1st experience with it was to "digitize" all of my vinyl... pops, and all. g --Mike I spend hours doing the same. I found that if you zoomed in enough on the spectrum you could easily take the major pops out and when it was played you couldn't tell any editing was done. It works better than the Effects filter. But then I got tired of it and decided the digitized versions sounded better with the original "pops". What I like is that you can take an older, poorly recorded LP (or even a CD) and enhance it so it sounds very good. You can easily over-do it though. I also use it to record "me" playing a keyboard and then overdubbing a guitar on top of it, sometimes several times so I have tracks of both rhythm guitar and lead. Same with the keyboard. Works well and then you can go back and adjust levels, split into stereo, cross fade, etc. Kills a lot of rainy or snowy afternoons. Eisboch |
Circuit City Kaput
"Eisboch" wrote in message ... "JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message ... iPods are having an effect, but the bigger issue, I think, is lack of imagination and just plain balls in retailing. That's why this retailer keeps growing every year: http://www.rowephoto.com/index.html Mid to high quality audio, full service, well-trained staff with outrageous product knowledge. Began as a photo store 110 years ago. Added audio & video in the mid-1980s. The stores are always busy. In a sense, the owner built the business by responding to the big discounters with "So what?" Wegmans (grocery chain) does the same thing. Hopefully they will stay around because they are diversified. There used to be a couple of decent high-end audio shops around my area but they have all folded. The demand (or lack of) for quality equipment just doesn't pay the rent anymore. Even manufacturers of decent speakers are introducing lower performance, lower priced models of their equipment to be carried by places like Best Buy. It's too bad because people still spend a considerable amount of money for Best Buy's versions of Klipsch or Martin Logan thinking they are getting high end speakers. For a small amount more they could get the real thing. Eisboch Agree on Circuit City being crap. As to high end stores, some are probably better than others. We have one in Livermore. When I was going to put in a decent home theater system, went to them for a bid. They listened to what I wanted, and then just ignored it. The first bid was $10,000. About $8k above what I said my budget was. This did not include a TV, just the speakers and amp/ receiver. Do not know if they are around anymore either. Just a more expensive Circuit City. No one listening. |
Circuit City Kaput
On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:46:26 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote: "hk" wrote in message ... I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment. I agree with the guy that wrote the article. Most sound like they were recorded in a coffee can. I occasionally use a mp3 for various purposes including burning cds or downloading to Mrs.E's iPod. But before I do, I use a program called "Audacity" to modify and enhance the file to get rid of that coffee can sound. I just cannot handle that overly compressed, airy and tinny sound. Different strokes. Eisboch Mostly fixed with phase correction. .... and making your MP3's with a much higher sample rate than the default. try 192k |
Circuit City Kaput
On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:49:41 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote: "Mike" wrote in message .. . "Eisboch" wrote in message ... "hk" wrote in message ... I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment. I agree with the guy that wrote the article. Most sound like they were recorded in a coffee can. I occasionally use a mp3 for various purposes including burning cds or downloading to Mrs.E's iPod. But before I do, I use a program called "Audacity" to modify and enhance the file to get rid of that coffee can sound. I just cannot handle that overly compressed, airy and tinny sound. Different strokes. Eisboch Audacity is a great program... and free. I use it a lot. My 1st experience with it was to "digitize" all of my vinyl... pops, and all. g --Mike They just released a new beta version 1.3.6. Well worth the download. It has a neat feature for automatic, sound actuated recording based on an adjustable signal input level among several other improvements. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ Eisboch I run Adobe Audition 3 in my home studio, and it's wonderful, but I agree that Audacity is great to keep around. I sometimes use it for "Quick & Dirty" edits. Sort of like Irfanview being a companion piece to Photoshop for graphics. |
Circuit City Kaput
"hk" wrote in message
m... Eisboch wrote: "hk" wrote in message ... I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment. I agree with the guy that wrote the article. Most sound like they were recorded in a coffee can. I occasionally use a mp3 for various purposes including burning cds or downloading to Mrs.E's iPod. But before I do, I use a program called "Audacity" to modify and enhance the file to get rid of that coffee can sound. I just cannot handle that overly compressed, airy and tinny sound. Different strokes. Eisboch MP3's? ipods can do better than that. If the original recording was purposely broken to begin with, nothing will help unless the issuer remasters the album. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto..._high_fidelity |
Circuit City Kaput
wrote in message ... On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:46:26 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote: "hk" wrote in message ... I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment. I agree with the guy that wrote the article. Most sound like they were recorded in a coffee can. I occasionally use a mp3 for various purposes including burning cds or downloading to Mrs.E's iPod. But before I do, I use a program called "Audacity" to modify and enhance the file to get rid of that coffee can sound. I just cannot handle that overly compressed, airy and tinny sound. Different strokes. Eisboch Mostly fixed with phase correction. ... and making your MP3's with a much higher sample rate than the default. try 192k High sample rates (320kbps) certainly makes them better but the files get bigger. Wav files sound best because there's no compression, but the files are huge. People aren't into quality, they are into quantity, so they pack their iPods and mp3 players with low quality, low sample rate files. I just can't get into that. Despite what some claim, I can (and so can my wife) distinguish the difference of a high quality CD PCM track and a high sample rate conversion of it to mp3. You can't replace what isn't there. But, with Audacity you can add some depth to get rid of the coffee can sound. As discussed many times before, it all depends on what you are listening to them on. An iPod plugged into a docking station or a non-revealing audio system sounds ok for background music. Eisboch |
Circuit City Kaput
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message ... If the original recording was purposely broken to begin with, nothing will help unless the issuer remasters the album. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto..._high_fidelity That's another good article on the industry's *******izing of high quality recordings. It's all Bush's fault. Eisboch |
Circuit City Kaput
On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:40:58 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:
"hk" wrote in message om... Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Good riddance. Circuit City was one of the worst retail stores for consumer electronics (or anything for that matter) that I can think of. Sales "associates" walking around with cell phones stuck in their ear, talking to friends or congregating in groups yuking it up while customers wait at the register to pay for purchases or need assistance. We had two in this area, one was in business for several years, the other relatively new. Both stores had the same cavalier culture when it came to the customers. Plus, typically they didn't know anything about the products they sold. Most were high school kids working after school. At least Best Buy has some trained sales associates that know something about what they sell. For the market it was supposed to serve, Circuit City was no better than a Target or Wal-Mart. I am surprised they stayed in business as long as they did, economic slowdown or no economic slowdown. Eisboch I wish someone could explain the satisfaction Harry finds in the fact that companies are going out of business. Is this good for liberals somehow? Circuit City had employees who had jobs, even if those folks did nothing. Is it in the best interest of liberals that the unemployed numbers grow larger? I'm missing something somewhere. |
Circuit City Kaput
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"hk" wrote in message m... Eisboch wrote: "hk" wrote in message ... I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment. I agree with the guy that wrote the article. Most sound like they were recorded in a coffee can. I occasionally use a mp3 for various purposes including burning cds or downloading to Mrs.E's iPod. But before I do, I use a program called "Audacity" to modify and enhance the file to get rid of that coffee can sound. I just cannot handle that overly compressed, airy and tinny sound. Different strokes. Eisboch MP3's? ipods can do better than that. If the original recording was purposely broken to begin with, nothing will help unless the issuer remasters the album. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto..._high_fidelity Yes, of course. I've been really pleased with a CD of Mary Chapin Carpenter's...they're holiday songs, sort of. The performances sound just as they do when she performs live. Come Darkness, Come Light is the album. |
Circuit City Kaput
Eisboch wrote:
wrote in message ... On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:46:26 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote: "hk" wrote in message ... I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment. I agree with the guy that wrote the article. Most sound like they were recorded in a coffee can. I occasionally use a mp3 for various purposes including burning cds or downloading to Mrs.E's iPod. But before I do, I use a program called "Audacity" to modify and enhance the file to get rid of that coffee can sound. I just cannot handle that overly compressed, airy and tinny sound. Different strokes. Eisboch Mostly fixed with phase correction. ... and making your MP3's with a much higher sample rate than the default. try 192k High sample rates (320kbps) certainly makes them better but the files get bigger. Wav files sound best because there's no compression, but the files are huge. People aren't into quality, they are into quantity, so they pack their iPods and mp3 players with low quality, low sample rate files. I just can't get into that. Despite what some claim, I can (and so can my wife) distinguish the difference of a high quality CD PCM track and a high sample rate conversion of it to mp3. You can't replace what isn't there. But, with Audacity you can add some depth to get rid of the coffee can sound. As discussed many times before, it all depends on what you are listening to them on. An iPod plugged into a docking station or a non-revealing audio system sounds ok for background music. Eisboch It sorta depends on *what* you are listening to, too. |
Circuit City Kaput
hk wrote:
Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Circuit City is one of the largest retail bankruptcies in the current U.S. recession. Its demise paves the way for larger rival Best Buy Inc to boost sales and gain clout with suppliers as the leading electronics retailer. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Huennekens approved the plan to liquidate Circuit City, and the No. 2 retail player in U.S. electronics said it would begin closing stores on Saturday. "Regrettably for the more than 30,000 employees of Circuit City and our loyal customers, we were unable to reach an agreement with our creditors and lenders to structure a going-concern transaction ... and so this is the only possible path for our company," Vice Chairman James Marcum said. This could have been avoided if it weren't for the arrogance and hubris of the good old boys in Richmond. There were many offers, 4 or 5 years ago, to purchase Circuit City from some investors up North a couple of years ago but the Southern boys wouldn't sell to anybody up North. |
Circuit City Kaput
"John H" wrote in message
... On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:40:58 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote: "hk" wrote in message news:tOKdnSJgIZhGpezUnZ2dnUVZ_jOdnZ2d@earthlink. com... Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Good riddance. Circuit City was one of the worst retail stores for consumer electronics (or anything for that matter) that I can think of. Sales "associates" walking around with cell phones stuck in their ear, talking to friends or congregating in groups yuking it up while customers wait at the register to pay for purchases or need assistance. We had two in this area, one was in business for several years, the other relatively new. Both stores had the same cavalier culture when it came to the customers. Plus, typically they didn't know anything about the products they sold. Most were high school kids working after school. At least Best Buy has some trained sales associates that know something about what they sell. For the market it was supposed to serve, Circuit City was no better than a Target or Wal-Mart. I am surprised they stayed in business as long as they did, economic slowdown or no economic slowdown. Eisboch I wish someone could explain the satisfaction Harry finds in the fact that companies are going out of business. Is this good for liberals somehow? Circuit City had employees who had jobs, even if those folks did nothing. Is it in the best interest of liberals that the unemployed numbers grow larger? I'm missing something somewhere. Yes, you are missing something, and so is Harry. Circuit City was in bad shape way before the economy went down the toilet. There are badly run businesses and there are well run businesses. Capitalism is based on competition - the survival of the fittest. Circuit City deserved to die. I feel bad for their employees, but hopefully, a few of them will learn a lesson from their experience. Probably not, though, because their managers expected to make money for doing pretty much nothing special, so they were lousy role models. When I was in the audio business, we expected new employees to learn every piece of equipment in the store. On slow days, we'd send them to the upstairs office during lunch with a receiver or whatever, and told them to learn it until they could work it blindfolded. If there were no customers, we'd stick them in the sound room and tell them to listen hard to all the speakers until they could describe the differences adequately. We made them study, in other words. We all took home demo pieces overnight to learning purposes. A friend from those days is now an independent sales trainer. He said "no" to working for CC after one disturbing experience. He played customer & called our local store, asking if they had a certain Harmon Kardon receiver in stock. The employee told him they didn't carry Harmon Kardon. My friend knew, of course, that they carried HK, and several HK items had been featured in their Sunday newspaper ad that same week. When he told their regional manager about his experience, the guy pretty much yawned and said "That's why we want you to do training for us." My friend said no thanks, figuring that if the employees didn't care enough to walk around their own store and see what brands they carried, sales training was the least of their problems. Even worse was that the manager didn't have clue about the real problem. The only advantage CC offered me was the ability to order online and pick up an item at the store. That's pretty expensive real estate for what amounts to nothing but a warehouse. Meanwhile, we have the perfect model of capitalism here. Maybe Rochester customers have high expectations because of this company: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3795 http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/1124/166_print.html http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortu...4048/index.htm |
Circuit City Kaput
On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:02:23 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote: wrote in message .. . On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:46:26 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote: "hk" wrote in message ... I sometimes play my ipod through my stereo...sounds just a hair below a well-done CD. Nothing beats an ipod for portable entertainment. I agree with the guy that wrote the article. Most sound like they were recorded in a coffee can. I occasionally use a mp3 for various purposes including burning cds or downloading to Mrs.E's iPod. But before I do, I use a program called "Audacity" to modify and enhance the file to get rid of that coffee can sound. I just cannot handle that overly compressed, airy and tinny sound. Different strokes. Eisboch Mostly fixed with phase correction. ... and making your MP3's with a much higher sample rate than the default. try 192k High sample rates (320kbps) certainly makes them better but the files get bigger. Wav files sound best because there's no compression, but the files are huge. People aren't into quality, they are into quantity, so they pack their iPods and mp3 players with low quality, low sample rate files. I just can't get into that. Despite what some claim, I can (and so can my wife) distinguish the difference of a high quality CD PCM track and a high sample rate conversion of it to mp3. You can't replace what isn't there. But, with Audacity you can add some depth to get rid of the coffee can sound. As discussed many times before, it all depends on what you are listening to them on. An iPod plugged into a docking station or a non-revealing audio system sounds ok for background music. Eisboch I think we mostly agree on this. I was just pointing out that not all MP3's are created equal. I don't know how much time you like to spend on your music hobby, but you sound like someone who could probably enjoy Adobe Audition 3. It's about $350, and worth every penny. I prefer it greatly to Pro-Tools, and it's much cheaper to buy. When the heads on my 8 track Tascam wore out, I saw the handwriting on the wal. Replacing the heads was going to be VERY expensive, and the last few years have seen 1/2 inch tape go in and out of production. l took the plunge and went 100% digital. It's a whole new world, and I'm loving it. I'm even enjoying re-learning recording, which has some differences from tape. First rule: Saturation BAD with digital recording. With tape, it could be used to advantage. No more. Minus 12db is your friend! BTW - there's a guy making really good U-47 microphone replicas for about 2k. I mean REALLY good. Once you get seriously into recording, microphone collecting becomes a companion addiction... |
Circuit City Kaput
"John H" wrote in message ... I wish someone could explain the satisfaction Harry finds in the fact that companies are going out of business. Is this good for liberals somehow? Circuit City had employees who had jobs, even if those folks did nothing. Is it in the best interest of liberals that the unemployed numbers grow larger? I'm missing something somewhere. Some companies deserve to go out of business due to the lack of quality of their service, products or internal culture. In the case of Circuit City, it was on the edge anyway. The economic crisis and retail downturn was simply the straw that broke the camel's back. Eisboch |
Circuit City Kaput
"Calif Bill" wrote in message m... "Eisboch" wrote in message ... "JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message ... iPods are having an effect, but the bigger issue, I think, is lack of imagination and just plain balls in retailing. That's why this retailer keeps growing every year: http://www.rowephoto.com/index.html Mid to high quality audio, full service, well-trained staff with outrageous product knowledge. Began as a photo store 110 years ago. Added audio & video in the mid-1980s. The stores are always busy. In a sense, the owner built the business by responding to the big discounters with "So what?" Wegmans (grocery chain) does the same thing. Hopefully they will stay around because they are diversified. There used to be a couple of decent high-end audio shops around my area but they have all folded. The demand (or lack of) for quality equipment just doesn't pay the rent anymore. Even manufacturers of decent speakers are introducing lower performance, lower priced models of their equipment to be carried by places like Best Buy. It's too bad because people still spend a considerable amount of money for Best Buy's versions of Klipsch or Martin Logan thinking they are getting high end speakers. For a small amount more they could get the real thing. Eisboch Agree on Circuit City being crap. As to high end stores, some are probably better than others. We have one in Livermore. When I was going to put in a decent home theater system, went to them for a bid. They listened to what I wanted, and then just ignored it. The first bid was $10,000. About $8k above what I said my budget was. This did not include a TV, just the speakers and amp/ receiver. Do not know if they are around anymore either. Just a more expensive Circuit City. No one listening. Wow...your bugdet of $2K demnded a tv also? Big spender! |
Circuit City Kaput
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"John H" wrote in message ... On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:40:58 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote: "hk" wrote in message m... Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Good riddance. Circuit City was one of the worst retail stores for consumer electronics (or anything for that matter) that I can think of. Sales "associates" walking around with cell phones stuck in their ear, talking to friends or congregating in groups yuking it up while customers wait at the register to pay for purchases or need assistance. We had two in this area, one was in business for several years, the other relatively new. Both stores had the same cavalier culture when it came to the customers. Plus, typically they didn't know anything about the products they sold. Most were high school kids working after school. At least Best Buy has some trained sales associates that know something about what they sell. For the market it was supposed to serve, Circuit City was no better than a Target or Wal-Mart. I am surprised they stayed in business as long as they did, economic slowdown or no economic slowdown. Eisboch I wish someone could explain the satisfaction Harry finds in the fact that companies are going out of business. Is this good for liberals somehow? Circuit City had employees who had jobs, even if those folks did nothing. Is it in the best interest of liberals that the unemployed numbers grow larger? I'm missing something somewhere. Yes, you are missing something, and so is Harry. I'm not missing a thing in circuit city, nor was my comment in any way intended to express "glee" over the closing of circuit city and the loss of its jobs. The few times I shopped at circuit city were uneventful. My comments simply served to point out yet another large business failing at least partially as a result of the failed Bush Administration. We're going to have more of these as President Obama and his team attempt to dig us out of the hole blasted to the core by the Bush administration and its enablers. As for Best Buy, the only times I have found anyone there who knows anything is on the days the manufacturers or distributors have "reps" around for a special event or sale. I don't fault the regular sales staff for this; there are too many products at the store, the employees aren't paid well, and the margins are tight. We internet-shop a lot, although the Annapolis Mall has gotten a lot more attractive the last year or so with its major league expansion. All that's missing there now is an L.L. Bean and a Restoration Hardware, which I frequented at the Tysons Corner Mall in Virginia. The only other store in Virginia where I shop is the big MicroCenter computer store, but they now have one in Rockville, MD. We have a nice Apple computer store at Annapolis, where I bought my laptop and will soon be buying my new desktop. We're big fans here of Amazon. |
Circuit City Kaput
wrote in message ... When the heads on my 8 track Tascam wore out, I saw the handwriting on the wal. Replacing the heads was going to be VERY expensive, and the last few years have seen 1/2 inch tape go in and out of production. l took the plunge and went 100% digital. It's a whole new world, and I'm loving it. I'm even enjoying re-learning recording, which has some differences from tape. First rule: Saturation BAD with digital recording. With tape, it could be used to advantage. No more. Minus 12db is your friend! BTW - there's a guy making really good U-47 microphone replicas for about 2k. I mean REALLY good. Once you get seriously into recording, microphone collecting becomes a companion addiction... I'd love to get my hands on an old, working reel to reel tape deck with sound on sound and sound with sound. I used to have a Teac deck that was fantastic, but it's long gone. I bought a Boss 900CD last year with intentions of learning about digital recording. It's still around here somewhere but the learning curve is extensive. I thought it was because I was just plain stupid, but apparently other users of it have had the same experience. http://www.bossus.com/gear/productde...?ProductId=718 The "easy to use" claim was written with a bit of poetic license. Eisboch |
Circuit City Kaput
Eisboch wrote:
"John H" wrote in message ... I wish someone could explain the satisfaction Harry finds in the fact that companies are going out of business. Is this good for liberals somehow? Circuit City had employees who had jobs, even if those folks did nothing. Is it in the best interest of liberals that the unemployed numbers grow larger? I'm missing something somewhere. Some companies deserve to go out of business due to the lack of quality of their service, products or internal culture. In the case of Circuit City, it was on the edge anyway. The economic crisis and retail downturn was simply the straw that broke the camel's back. Eisboch Herring is correct: he is missing something somewhere. |
Circuit City Kaput
Eisboch wrote:
wrote in message ... When the heads on my 8 track Tascam wore out, I saw the handwriting on the wal. Replacing the heads was going to be VERY expensive, and the last few years have seen 1/2 inch tape go in and out of production. l took the plunge and went 100% digital. It's a whole new world, and I'm loving it. I'm even enjoying re-learning recording, which has some differences from tape. First rule: Saturation BAD with digital recording. With tape, it could be used to advantage. No more. Minus 12db is your friend! BTW - there's a guy making really good U-47 microphone replicas for about 2k. I mean REALLY good. Once you get seriously into recording, microphone collecting becomes a companion addiction... I'd love to get my hands on an old, working reel to reel tape deck with sound on sound and sound with sound. Pawn shops. |
Circuit City Kaput
"hk" wrote in message m... Eisboch wrote: wrote in message ... When the heads on my 8 track Tascam wore out, I saw the handwriting on the wal. Replacing the heads was going to be VERY expensive, and the last few years have seen 1/2 inch tape go in and out of production. l took the plunge and went 100% digital. It's a whole new world, and I'm loving it. I'm even enjoying re-learning recording, which has some differences from tape. First rule: Saturation BAD with digital recording. With tape, it could be used to advantage. No more. Minus 12db is your friend! BTW - there's a guy making really good U-47 microphone replicas for about 2k. I mean REALLY good. Once you get seriously into recording, microphone collecting becomes a companion addiction... I'd love to get my hands on an old, working reel to reel tape deck with sound on sound and sound with sound. Pawn shops. You know what? I don't know of a Pawn shop within a 30 mile radius of here. I am sure they exist, but I sure don't know of any. I've had good luck posting a "Wanted" listing in Craigslist. It's how I got one of the Hammond B3s and Leslie, and at a good price. As salty pointed out though, good quality tape is getting hard to find as well although I am sure it exists. Eisboch |
Circuit City Kaput
"Don White" wrote in message ... "Calif Bill" wrote in message m... "Eisboch" wrote in message ... "JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message ... iPods are having an effect, but the bigger issue, I think, is lack of imagination and just plain balls in retailing. That's why this retailer keeps growing every year: http://www.rowephoto.com/index.html Mid to high quality audio, full service, well-trained staff with outrageous product knowledge. Began as a photo store 110 years ago. Added audio & video in the mid-1980s. The stores are always busy. In a sense, the owner built the business by responding to the big discounters with "So what?" Wegmans (grocery chain) does the same thing. Hopefully they will stay around because they are diversified. There used to be a couple of decent high-end audio shops around my area but they have all folded. The demand (or lack of) for quality equipment just doesn't pay the rent anymore. Even manufacturers of decent speakers are introducing lower performance, lower priced models of their equipment to be carried by places like Best Buy. It's too bad because people still spend a considerable amount of money for Best Buy's versions of Klipsch or Martin Logan thinking they are getting high end speakers. For a small amount more they could get the real thing. Eisboch Agree on Circuit City being crap. As to high end stores, some are probably better than others. We have one in Livermore. When I was going to put in a decent home theater system, went to them for a bid. They listened to what I wanted, and then just ignored it. The first bid was $10,000. About $8k above what I said my budget was. This did not include a TV, just the speakers and amp/ receiver. Do not know if they are around anymore either. Just a more expensive Circuit City. No one listening. Wow...your *bugdet* of $2K *demnded* a tv also? Big spender! Yikes... Sunday morning... should be *budget* and *demanded* |
Circuit City Kaput
On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:56:23 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote: wrote in message .. . When the heads on my 8 track Tascam wore out, I saw the handwriting on the wal. Replacing the heads was going to be VERY expensive, and the last few years have seen 1/2 inch tape go in and out of production. l took the plunge and went 100% digital. It's a whole new world, and I'm loving it. I'm even enjoying re-learning recording, which has some differences from tape. First rule: Saturation BAD with digital recording. With tape, it could be used to advantage. No more. Minus 12db is your friend! BTW - there's a guy making really good U-47 microphone replicas for about 2k. I mean REALLY good. Once you get seriously into recording, microphone collecting becomes a companion addiction... I'd love to get my hands on an old, working reel to reel tape deck with sound on sound and sound with sound. I used to have a Teac deck that was fantastic, but it's long gone. I bought a Boss 900CD last year with intentions of learning about digital recording. It's still around here somewhere but the learning curve is extensive. I thought it was because I was just plain stupid, but apparently other users of it have had the same experience. http://www.bossus.com/gear/productde...?ProductId=718 The "easy to use" claim was written with a bit of poetic license. Eisboch Yeah, before the 8 track Tascam, I had the 4 track for many years. I wore that out, too. The 4 track also had a few weaknesses that needed repair periodically. The reel tables, especially were noted for not holding up under heavy use. With availability of 1/2 inch tape becoming an issue, I decided it was time to make the change. I had already seen what digital could do in the hands of others, and I finally succumbed. I don't regret it. It sure was an adjustment, though. A lot of previously good habits and techniques are now bad habits and techniques. Adobe Audition 3 certainly has a steep learning curve. It's too much fun, though, to let that stop me. I'm enjoying having something new to learn. The change over really re-invigorated my interest in composing, playing and recording music, which had atrophied the past few years. Buying new stuff is always fun, too. I'm currently looking for a drop dead deal on this: http://www.roland.com/products/en/TD-9KX/index.html check out the demo video! |
Circuit City Kaput
"Don White" wrote in message ... Yikes... Sunday morning... should be *budget* and *demanded* Check your watch. It's Saturday. Eisboch |
Circuit City Kaput
On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:31:19 -0500, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote: "John H" wrote in message .. . On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:40:58 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote: "hk" wrote in message news:tOKdnSJgIZhGpezUnZ2dnUVZ_jOdnZ2d@earthlink .com... Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Good riddance. Circuit City was one of the worst retail stores for consumer electronics (or anything for that matter) that I can think of. Sales "associates" walking around with cell phones stuck in their ear, talking to friends or congregating in groups yuking it up while customers wait at the register to pay for purchases or need assistance. We had two in this area, one was in business for several years, the other relatively new. Both stores had the same cavalier culture when it came to the customers. Plus, typically they didn't know anything about the products they sold. Most were high school kids working after school. At least Best Buy has some trained sales associates that know something about what they sell. For the market it was supposed to serve, Circuit City was no better than a Target or Wal-Mart. I am surprised they stayed in business as long as they did, economic slowdown or no economic slowdown. Eisboch I wish someone could explain the satisfaction Harry finds in the fact that companies are going out of business. Is this good for liberals somehow? Circuit City had employees who had jobs, even if those folks did nothing. Is it in the best interest of liberals that the unemployed numbers grow larger? I'm missing something somewhere. Yes, you are missing something, and so is Harry. Circuit City was in bad shape way before the economy went down the toilet. There are badly run businesses and there are well run businesses. Capitalism is based on competition - the survival of the fittest. Circuit City deserved to die. I feel bad for their employees, but hopefully, a few of them will learn a lesson from their experience. Probably not, though, because their managers expected to make money for doing pretty much nothing special, so they were lousy role models. When I was in the audio business, we expected new employees to learn every piece of equipment in the store. On slow days, we'd send them to the upstairs office during lunch with a receiver or whatever, and told them to learn it until they could work it blindfolded. If there were no customers, we'd stick them in the sound room and tell them to listen hard to all the speakers until they could describe the differences adequately. We made them study, in other words. We all took home demo pieces overnight to learning purposes. A friend from those days is now an independent sales trainer. He said "no" to working for CC after one disturbing experience. He played customer & called our local store, asking if they had a certain Harmon Kardon receiver in stock. The employee told him they didn't carry Harmon Kardon. My friend knew, of course, that they carried HK, and several HK items had been featured in their Sunday newspaper ad that same week. When he told their regional manager about his experience, the guy pretty much yawned and said "That's why we want you to do training for us." My friend said no thanks, figuring that if the employees didn't care enough to walk around their own store and see what brands they carried, sales training was the least of their problems. Even worse was that the manager didn't have clue about the real problem. The only advantage CC offered me was the ability to order online and pick up an item at the store. That's pretty expensive real estate for what amounts to nothing but a warehouse. Meanwhile, we have the perfect model of capitalism here. Maybe Rochester customers have high expectations because of this company: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3795 http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/1124/166_print.html http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortu...4048/index.htm Doug, it's not the focus on CC that prompted my question. It's the posting of any article which discusses the problems companies are having, and the gloating that occurs therewith. *That's* what I don't understand. Why take pleasure in the fact that companies (any company) is going out of business? |
Circuit City Kaput
"John H" wrote in message
... On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:31:19 -0500, "JoeSpareBedroom" wrote: "John H" wrote in message . .. On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:40:58 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote: "hk" wrote in message news:tOKdnSJgIZhGpezUnZ2dnUVZ_jOdnZ2d@earthlin k.com... Circuit City to liquidate, shutter stores Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:08pm EST By Karen Jacobs and Emily Chasan ATLANTA/RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Stores said on Friday it will liquidate its assets and shutter hundreds of U.S. stores after failing to reach a deal to sell the company. Good riddance. Circuit City was one of the worst retail stores for consumer electronics (or anything for that matter) that I can think of. Sales "associates" walking around with cell phones stuck in their ear, talking to friends or congregating in groups yuking it up while customers wait at the register to pay for purchases or need assistance. We had two in this area, one was in business for several years, the other relatively new. Both stores had the same cavalier culture when it came to the customers. Plus, typically they didn't know anything about the products they sold. Most were high school kids working after school. At least Best Buy has some trained sales associates that know something about what they sell. For the market it was supposed to serve, Circuit City was no better than a Target or Wal-Mart. I am surprised they stayed in business as long as they did, economic slowdown or no economic slowdown. Eisboch I wish someone could explain the satisfaction Harry finds in the fact that companies are going out of business. Is this good for liberals somehow? Circuit City had employees who had jobs, even if those folks did nothing. Is it in the best interest of liberals that the unemployed numbers grow larger? I'm missing something somewhere. Yes, you are missing something, and so is Harry. Circuit City was in bad shape way before the economy went down the toilet. There are badly run businesses and there are well run businesses. Capitalism is based on competition - the survival of the fittest. Circuit City deserved to die. I feel bad for their employees, but hopefully, a few of them will learn a lesson from their experience. Probably not, though, because their managers expected to make money for doing pretty much nothing special, so they were lousy role models. When I was in the audio business, we expected new employees to learn every piece of equipment in the store. On slow days, we'd send them to the upstairs office during lunch with a receiver or whatever, and told them to learn it until they could work it blindfolded. If there were no customers, we'd stick them in the sound room and tell them to listen hard to all the speakers until they could describe the differences adequately. We made them study, in other words. We all took home demo pieces overnight to learning purposes. A friend from those days is now an independent sales trainer. He said "no" to working for CC after one disturbing experience. He played customer & called our local store, asking if they had a certain Harmon Kardon receiver in stock. The employee told him they didn't carry Harmon Kardon. My friend knew, of course, that they carried HK, and several HK items had been featured in their Sunday newspaper ad that same week. When he told their regional manager about his experience, the guy pretty much yawned and said "That's why we want you to do training for us." My friend said no thanks, figuring that if the employees didn't care enough to walk around their own store and see what brands they carried, sales training was the least of their problems. Even worse was that the manager didn't have clue about the real problem. The only advantage CC offered me was the ability to order online and pick up an item at the store. That's pretty expensive real estate for what amounts to nothing but a warehouse. Meanwhile, we have the perfect model of capitalism here. Maybe Rochester customers have high expectations because of this company: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3795 http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/1124/166_print.html http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortu...4048/index.htm Doug, it's not the focus on CC that prompted my question. It's the posting of any article which discusses the problems companies are having, and the gloating that occurs therewith. *That's* what I don't understand. Why take pleasure in the fact that companies (any company) is going out of business? Because it represents the potential for an improvement in the industry. But, I realize that's idealistic at best. We get what we deserve, so as long as there are customers who think a $3.99 bottle of detergent is cheaper at one store than the exact same $3.99 bottle at another store, because the first store yells "We're cheaper!" all the time, then we will always have bad retailers around. |
Circuit City Kaput
On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:40:10 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:
"John H" wrote in message .. . I wish someone could explain the satisfaction Harry finds in the fact that companies are going out of business. Is this good for liberals somehow? Circuit City had employees who had jobs, even if those folks did nothing. Is it in the best interest of liberals that the unemployed numbers grow larger? I'm missing something somewhere. Some companies deserve to go out of business due to the lack of quality of their service, products or internal culture. In the case of Circuit City, it was on the edge anyway. The economic crisis and retail downturn was simply the straw that broke the camel's back. Eisboch Agreed. Circuit City just happened to be the company 'du jour'. Harry, or other liberals, continuously post articles of companies losing money or going out of business. And then make gleeful 'I told you so' comments. That's what I can't understand. What is there about companies going out of business that brings joy to the heart of a liberal? Is it just simply 'anti-corporation'? |
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