So now Circuit City is going under and the vultures have arrived. I dropped in on day two of our local store’s liquidation and it was a madhouse. People were all over the place picking at the carcass of the former leader of electronics sales.
One of the first thoughts I had was "Where were all you damn people only a few weeks ago?" This company needed you then, but you’re here now after the pulse has stopped. But judging by the people crowding the store today, they weren’t there for the company; they just wanted the plunder. Maybe a "Yeah! We killed the dragon, now let’s rob the treasure room!" kind of sentiment.
The other thought I had was that some people scrambling for purchases took their local store for granted. They just always assumed it would be there to provide an alternate shopping location when Best Buy pissed them off. Now, Circuit City is going away and these people need to grab what they can before it’s gone. Because when it’s gone, so is their option of buying somewhere else.
It has been reported that the liquidation company marks up the prices to mark them down over time. These first few days of the sale would be the most profitable Circuit City would experience in a long time, if only it were them that got the revenue.
The shopping atmosphere in the store was pretty harsh. The liquidator had obviously taken over. They blocked off one entrance so you had one door to enter and exit through – inconveniencing incoming and outgoing customers at the same time. But what do they care? The liquidator is operating under another company’s name and has no obligation to please anyone. The customer has no power and no rights. A threat like "I’m never shopping here again!" would be met with "You’re correct."
So when the company selling off another company’s inventory purposely deceives customers into thinking they are getting good deals and purposely disposes of customer service because there is no value in it, who are the real vultures?
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