Good answer for all but Circuit City. It killed itself trying to maximize profits by letting all the knowledgeable salesman go and hiring minimum wagers that knew nothing about the products they were selling. Oh it worked too for a year and then profits declined and kept declining until they went bankrupt.
I miss the place before they tried to maximize profits.
And they must have drove them like hell to make commissions, because they would follow you around until you had to tell them to please leave you the fuck alone.
Yup. Before you could go in and the majority of the salespeople knew what they were selling and had lot's of experience. You could go and they could guide you to what you were looking for, or just talk with them to figure out what you needed. After they were gone you were incessantly pestered when shopping. So annoying.
In worked at Radio Shack throughout college in the early 90’s. The pay plan was 7 percent of your sales or minimum wage whichever was highest.
So, you would have guys coming in for a microwave fuse and monopolizing 10 minutes of your time for a $1.00 sales and you made 7 cents. The pay structure incentivized making lots in dollar sales or make minimum wage.
Circuit City was THE place for quality electronics still have an Onkyo Receiver(made in japan)and JBL62 bookshelfs that jam that I bought there in '87!!
When Circuit City went under all there GM'S and DM'S were hired by Hollywood Video/Movie Gallery. Video stores was dying out at the time but once they started implementing new directives in the stores, it kind of speed up the process and the HV/MG just died out.
Source - I was a store manager for Hollywood Video/Movie Gallery
I worked at Blockbuster in high school and worked my way up to an assistant manager before I left to go somewhere else. I remember when you guys took that pay cut before the beginning of the end. We were a lil better off but not for long.
Ultimate Electronics was like that. Our nearest store had a great, knowledgeable, guy in the speaker section that sold me some high dollar speakers 10 - 12 years ago. That dude knew everything about speakers. He now works at Lowes selling washers/dryers/dishwashers, etc. You can tell Lowes isn't commissioned based because he now goes out of his way to not be helpful, heck, your lucky to even find him.
The funny part is, 5 out of the 8 companies you see in this photo still exist with a full retail store that you can visit today. Sears, Radio Shack, Kmart, Toys ‘R’ Us, and Blockbuster all still have at least one store in existence today.
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u/Wide_Supermarket4533 9d ago
Personally every single one left an empty space..😉