Circuit City Short-Circuits High-Paying Salesman (Apr 3, 2007)

Welcome to the bizarro world of retail.

The March 29 story of the Union-Tribune told a story about Circuit City firing longtime employees that may be knowledgable enough to help me with my shopping for electronics. Now, the pussies at Circuit City (I'm not mincing words, I'm incensed) have decided that it's time to screw things up by replacing the experienced salesmen with lower-paid workers that are for the most part inexperienced and unknowedgable in the products that they are supposed to sell.

I run into these zombie salesmen all the time as they just don't have a clue when I ask about technical details for some of the products. For example, I asked a clerk about when we will start seeing 17 inch SDTV sets in the store for me to purchase. The clerk pointed out that it's digital. I pointed out that just because it's digital (all TV sets are digital), it's not necessarily ATSC compliant that can pick up digital channels such as KNSD-DT channel 40. The clerk pointed me to an HDTV monitor and I would need a separate HDTV converter to watch the channels on it. I asked where the converters were. The clerk pointed out to a DVD recorder that didn't have an ATSC tuner. I gave up and walked away in disgust.

You can see where this is going. Circuit City is going to end up like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, K-Mart, Frys, Sears, and all those other electronics retailers (except Tweeter which is closing its stores) with all those low-paid salespeople who do nothing more than to ring up the price and ask you for your credit card. Is Radio Shack next?

I'm done with Circuit City. I'm shopping and researching electronics items on amazon.com and crutchfield.com from now on. Circuit City is Circuit Sh*tty to me.

Another reason why San Diego is America's Behindest City: lack of knowledgable electronics salesman. Any idiot can get a job where electonics are sold. All they need to know is how to run a cell phone or any of those other gizmos that have been invented since Law & Order premiered on NBC in 1990.

Unfortunately for me, I don't have that kind of knowledge, as I still rely on Magnum P.I.-era technology such as VCRs, land-line telephones, and analog cable TV.