5 ms·

I would have expected more of a fire sale. It's one of the oldest retailing tricks in the book: advertise a fire sale, and then don't have one. There are peopl

I would have expected more of a fire sale. It's one of the oldest retailing tricks in the book: advertise a fire sale, and then don't have one. There are people who will convince themselves they are getting great deals, regardless.

pj 18y ago
I think people are wising up. We are beginning to demand truth in advertising. When we are lied to, we are walking away. When we had lots of money, we would tolerate it, but not anymore. In times of surplus, we can act without reason, but in times of scarcity, rationality wins. It was funny walking around the store -- like a bad garage sale. People would pick things up, look at them with this confused look on their face like they were thinking, "Are these people serious?" and then put it down and walk away. People don't have any money. Where is the mystery? People want bargains and Circuit City has 1.3 BILLION dollars worth of inventory they have to move. Marking up 20% then down 10% isn't going to move product. That kind of arrogance is why they are going out of business. I hope the other big boxes don't learn this lesson the easy way and they go out of business too. It's sounds very cynical to say it, but I think the world will be better off without brick and mortar stores like Circuit City. Actually, it makes me very excited to see them going out of business. I know it is painful for a lot of the employees and I don't mean to relish in their pain, but it's proof that rationality wins in the end. The Circuit City bankruptcy is a metaphor for the U.S. It's a signal that the old world is dying and a new world is being born -- online. Consumers are being smarter about their money. They don't have anymore credit cards to max out, the housing ATMs are broken and people are wising up. We're all going to be smarter and better and more rational after the fire. Slash and burn. Plant a new crop.
- tdavis 18y ago
  You have far more faith in people than I do. Something tells me within the next 5 years Americans will have forgotten about the whole "maybe spending way more money than I make is a bad idea" and things will go back to the way they were. Whenever I have to choose between lasting rationality and history repeating itself, I almost always choose the latter.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
  - pj 18y ago
    Now my mind is going crazy with the "faith" part of it. Having faith seems naively optimistic and hopeful. It feels right now like we, or at least I, need faith in something. God's not going to help us -- we might be the evil ones. Obama, while I like him /way/ more than any other president I've known, I have little faith that he will turn things around. I wanted Ron Paul. Obama is too soft, we need some of RP's tough love right now. Spending more money in the wrong places isn't the way to get our country out of debt and Obama has already shown that he doesn't understand that concept. Who does that leave? The other politicians up there are still corrupt. CEO's are still greedy. Banks are still crooks. Retail outlets are still lying to consumers. All we have left to have faith in are the people. I have faith in Hacker News. What a breath of fresh air this place is! It's the only rational place left on the Internet. Please PG, work your magic and keep HN sane! Somewhere in "the people" is someone with the charisma and the intellect and the wherewithall to be a real leader. Obama is a leader and he is extremely intelligent, but lacking in the wherewithall... Doesn't mean I don't like him. He was our best choice after Ron Paul. We need to find a Ron Paul the people can relate to. RP is too smart. Too rational. Too extreme for the media to support. The media are people too and they have jobs and their jobs are on shaky ground and they know it. They punished RP because the Internet that loved him hated the media and the internet also threatens the media... In 4 years though, things are going to change. The Internet will be stronger. More truth will be available. The people will have better access to knowledge and resources they can trust. Someone, probably not Ron Paul, but someone as thoughtful and honest as him, though not so far outside the comprehension of the mainstream will take over the reigns. Sounds like I'm going from faithful to hopeful. Man, we gotta do something!! Obama isn't gonna do it by spending money and listening to the same people that have been making all the mistakes that got us into this mess! Shoot, I'll do it! I'm going to get rich and buy ads and listen to people and travel around the country and talk to them and understand them and hold their hand when I tell them it's going to be really really hard and we are going to have to make sacrifices and trust rationality even if we don't understand it and move forward knowing that we have to make things real again. We have to get out of our grandiosity and look around the world and understand that we are people in a big world and we are just /one/ country and everyone is mad at us for being so arrogant and Obama has a lot of work to do and I love him and I know he is going to do better things for the country than that last guy. I'm going to take it a little bit further and make it all better! I'm tired of people complaining and not doing anything about it. They say washington is corrupt and no one wants to get in that mess and they're afraid of getting killed by the military industrial complex. Who cares!? I'm gonna die anyway. I'll go out with a bang! I'm going to try it! If I don't make it, it'll be a fun ride. Going to make this place a better world and start right here at home. Someone's going to have to because we're in a serious mess people. A serious mess. This isn't going to be pretty. I don't think it's really hitting people how extremely f'ed up this place is going to get because of our greed and irresponsibility and hubris. Maybe I have some of that too, but I /want/ it to be better, not just for Americans, but for the world and if we are going to be the leader of the free world, then by damn we better start acting like we are part of that world instead of swimming around inside this tiny little fishbowl...
rbanffy 18y ago
"advertise a fire sale, and then don't have one" That's tricky when your customer can pop-up a smartphone from a pocket and do a quick on-line search for better deals.

pj 18y ago

I think people are wising up. We are beginning to demand truth in advertising. When we are lied to, we are walking away. When we had lots of money, we would tolerate it, but not anymore. In times of surplus, we can act without reason, but in times of scarcity, rationality wins. It was funny walking around the store -- like a bad garage sale. People would pick things up, look at them with this confused look on their face like they were thinking, "Are these people serious?" and then put it down and walk away. People don't have any money. Where is the mystery? People want bargains and Circuit City has 1.3 BILLION dollars worth of inventory they have to move. Marking up 20% then down 10% isn't going to move product. That kind of arrogance is why they are going out of business. I hope the other big boxes don't learn this lesson the easy way and they go out of business too. It's sounds very cynical to say it, but I think the world will be better off without brick and mortar stores like Circuit City. Actually, it makes me very excited to see them going out of business. I know it is painful for a lot of the employees and I don't mean to relish in their pain, but it's proof that rationality wins in the end. The Circuit City bankruptcy is a metaphor for the U.S. It's a signal that the old world is dying and a new world is being born -- online. Consumers are being smarter about their money. They don't have anymore credit cards to max out, the housing ATMs are broken and people are wising up. We're all going to be smarter and better and more rational after the fire. Slash and burn. Plant a new crop.

tdavis 18y ago
You have far more faith in people than I do. Something tells me within the next 5 years Americans will have forgotten about the whole "maybe spending way more money than I make is a bad idea" and things will go back to the way they were. Whenever I have to choose between lasting rationality and history repeating itself, I almost always choose the latter.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- pj 18y ago
  Now my mind is going crazy with the "faith" part of it. Having faith seems naively optimistic and hopeful. It feels right now like we, or at least I, need faith in something. God's not going to help us -- we might be the evil ones. Obama, while I like him /way/ more than any other president I've known, I have little faith that he will turn things around. I wanted Ron Paul. Obama is too soft, we need some of RP's tough love right now. Spending more money in the wrong places isn't the way to get our country out of debt and Obama has already shown that he doesn't understand that concept. Who does that leave? The other politicians up there are still corrupt. CEO's are still greedy. Banks are still crooks. Retail outlets are still lying to consumers. All we have left to have faith in are the people. I have faith in Hacker News. What a breath of fresh air this place is! It's the only rational place left on the Internet. Please PG, work your magic and keep HN sane! Somewhere in "the people" is someone with the charisma and the intellect and the wherewithall to be a real leader. Obama is a leader and he is extremely intelligent, but lacking in the wherewithall... Doesn't mean I don't like him. He was our best choice after Ron Paul. We need to find a Ron Paul the people can relate to. RP is too smart. Too rational. Too extreme for the media to support. The media are people too and they have jobs and their jobs are on shaky ground and they know it. They punished RP because the Internet that loved him hated the media and the internet also threatens the media... In 4 years though, things are going to change. The Internet will be stronger. More truth will be available. The people will have better access to knowledge and resources they can trust. Someone, probably not Ron Paul, but someone as thoughtful and honest as him, though not so far outside the comprehension of the mainstream will take over the reigns. Sounds like I'm going from faithful to hopeful. Man, we gotta do something!! Obama isn't gonna do it by spending money and listening to the same people that have been making all the mistakes that got us into this mess! Shoot, I'll do it! I'm going to get rich and buy ads and listen to people and travel around the country and talk to them and understand them and hold their hand when I tell them it's going to be really really hard and we are going to have to make sacrifices and trust rationality even if we don't understand it and move forward knowing that we have to make things real again. We have to get out of our grandiosity and look around the world and understand that we are people in a big world and we are just /one/ country and everyone is mad at us for being so arrogant and Obama has a lot of work to do and I love him and I know he is going to do better things for the country than that last guy. I'm going to take it a little bit further and make it all better! I'm tired of people complaining and not doing anything about it. They say washington is corrupt and no one wants to get in that mess and they're afraid of getting killed by the military industrial complex. Who cares!? I'm gonna die anyway. I'll go out with a bang! I'm going to try it! If I don't make it, it'll be a fun ride. Going to make this place a better world and start right here at home. Someone's going to have to because we're in a serious mess people. A serious mess. This isn't going to be pretty. I don't think it's really hitting people how extremely f'ed up this place is going to get because of our greed and irresponsibility and hubris. Maybe I have some of that too, but I /want/ it to be better, not just for Americans, but for the world and if we are going to be the leader of the free world, then by damn we better start acting like we are part of that world instead of swimming around inside this tiny little fishbowl...

rbanffy 18y ago

"advertise a fire sale, and then don't have one" That's tricky when your customer can pop-up a smartphone from a pocket and do a quick on-line search for better deals.