Actual Circuit City employee offers liquidation tips

We’ve seen (and written) our fair share of advice concerning the Circuit City liquidation, but now it’s time to hear from an actual Circuit City employee about what’s really going on.

Circuit City employee Sam wrote in to Consumerist with the following tips:

It’s true that “not much is actually on sale.” High-margin items like blank CDs and flash drives are particularly jacked up – basically “anything in the computer area.” Curiously, Sam notes that cables have been marked down somewhat but they’re “still way more than online.” Video game consoles are also somewhat affordable.

It’s also true that the remaining employees don’t care about customers all that much. “It is hard to care when you know the job is gone in 2 months anyway.” They’ll show you where stuff is located and answer product questions, but motivation beyond that seems to be almost non-existent. Managers, especially, seem to be taking it especially hard. Says Sam:

“They have been stripped of all of their power, and are relegated to people that are allowed to have keys. Chances are they needed their job more than the part-timer like me, and they are not very happy about being jobless soon, and they are making it known.”

Sort of along those lines, none of the prices in the store can be changed. Everything is set by the liquidation firm and, as such, neither the employees or managers can change prices on anything.

Finally, on behalf of all Circuit City employees, Sam asks that people try to keep their opinions about Circuit City to themselves.

“I have had more than a few qualms with my job and the company the past few years, trust me. But I am still sad to see it go. I helped out a lot of very nice people, and I genuinely believe I helped them out and went above and beyond for them. I may be the exception, but I helped as much as I could and didn’t sell people things that I didn’t think they could use. Part of what is so depressing about working there right now is how smug people seem to be about us closing. You don’t think the price on that camera is good? Neither do I, and I am sorry that I and 34,000 other people losing their jobs could not have saved you 12 more dollars on a camera. See how much better it gets in 6 months when Best Buy is the ONLY option for that TV you are looking for.”

I’d think it would get irritating to help customers dig through what’s left of your store while they complain about prices being too high and saying stuff like, “No wonder you guys went out of business.” Not to say that all customers are like that, but I’m sure there are more than a handful that run their mouths as though the employees had any control over the stores closing.

Anyway, some of us here used to work at Circuit City way-back-when (I worked at #3136 in Edina, MN and Matt worked at #3631 in Flint, MI) and we wish you guys the best of luck.

6 Liquidation Sale Tips From A Circuit City Employee [Consumerist.com]