Random Thoughts And Memories From Circuit City

For those who haven’t heard yet, Circuit City as a corporation has called it quits. I worked for Circuit City for about four and a half years and it’s finally closing actually invokes some emotion in me. I made a lot of fiends during my time there, and through the years we’ve had a lot of good times. I am still close friends with some of them, even though I haven’t worked there since 2004.

When I first started working, I remember loving it. Then I quickly grew to hate it. I remember coming to work at eight am (at the time, I thought that was too early) Monday morning to perform cycle counts and shelve stock. Grumbling under my breathe and remember thinking I wanted to be anywhere but there, counting the minutes until I could take a break and head over to the next-door Panera Bread for some over-priced coffee.

I remember (for whatever reason) wanting to pull the “bell shift”. Working 8am until the half an hour after the store closes. I remember both the feeling of regret on Thanksgiving night because you had to be to work at 5am on black Friday, but also the quasi-excitement that morning when 12 angry people are yelling at you because you’re sold out of some cheap little plastic thing that nobody would ever want any other time of the year. But because it was Black Friday, and it was in the ad for only $9.99, now all of a sudden everybody wants it. One guy ever pushed me once when I told him we were out of Sega Dreamcasts. I was really happy after that.

I actually went through a rough spot in life and took a year off of school and worked there full time. That was a mistake, but in a way it motivated me to the place I am now. Working full time at CC convinced me that I needed to get smarter if I didn’t want to do this type of work for the rest of my life.

I saw how the Circuit City management “used up” young people, enticing immature, under-qualified, inexperienced workers to the ranks of middle management with the promise of long hours and small sized performance bonuses. The turnover rate for these people was amazing. In my four years there I must have seen at least 15-16 managers come and go. A couple smart ones (and there were 2) who got in that position got out almost just as fast, and from what I heard got out of the company not long after.

I also won a bunch of contest there. During the first year, when they actually had an employee of the month program, I picked that up once. When I got pushed into the role of “Video Games Sales Lead” (or whatever they called it at the time, which by the way was the equivalent of putting a junkie in charge of a drug store) I won 3 sales contest. One of them winning me an Xbox and accessories, one of them winning me a Gamecube and accessories, and one of them netting me $250 cold hard cash.

Looking back, even though I the time I thought I was miserable, Circuit City was a good job. The work was easy and sometimes even rewarding. The responsibility was just enough to make you feel important but not enough to make you even think about the place once you clocked out. But the best part about it really was the people I got to meet. I actually miss the social aspects of the work. I miss going for drinks with my friends after work. Or haning around on the Sunday afternoon waiting for whoever to get out so we could go see whatever movie was playing.

If I really over think this, without Circuit City, I never would have made friends with Greg (and subsequently Jon), Pat C., Nicole (even having some good times with her then boyfriend Josh), Paul R. and Jill, Dan, Matt, Matt and Matt. I guess that Paul R. never would met and married my friend Danielle. Dana and I wouldn’t get to go to Greg’s Christmas party every year and never would have met Phil and Mike whom I find very interesting. I would have never met Matt Sayles, and by relation never have met Rhaz, and by relation never would have met Chuck B. or even Joe R. who ended up giving me my first non-retail job and some real world programming experience. And the effect ripples on and on.

You know, all and all, Circuit City was pretty good to me.

Greg worked the last day the Albany store was open and snapped a couple photos for me: