Why Mervyn’s And Circuit City Are Going Out Of Business
With even the Morgan Hill Times finally acknowledging the accelerating business closures in our sleepy little burg (why do they never report on the local businesses opening and closing?) I thought it might be time to take a ‘real person’ look at exactly why these businesses are going under. The “big three” closures of late are Ross, Circuit City and Mervyn’s. I don’t think I’ve ever made a purchase at Ross, so can’t directly address that one, but have been a regular Mervyn’s shopper and spend quite a chunk of change on electronics as well.
Circuit City-
I used to be a huge Circuit City fan, but then they laid off all of their knowledgeable salespeople a couple years back to replace them with lower paid clerks who don’t know what the heck they’re talking to about. That was the death of the superior service that made their higher prices more palatable.
I stopped by our seven-month old Circuit City here in Morgan Hill the day after the announced closure to see if there were any bones worth picking. Although the store would be receiving no more stock the discounts were minimal (10% to 30%) and still left their prices significantly higher than even such local competition as Fry’s. When I needed a new DSL modem last week I went by again and the highest visible discount was still 40%. Additionally, they only had a single DSL modem which was still overpriced by at least 20%. A quick trip to San Jose and I had more than a dozen modems to choose from, half of which cost less. So why should I shopt at Circuit City again?
Others apparently feel the same way as even last week you couldn’t tell the store was closing (except for the roughly 8.5 million signs) based on stock levels. Since they haven’t been restocked all month that means that no one’s buying even at these supposed “closeout” prices.
Mervyn’s -
Meanwhile Mervyn’s at least seems to be actually going out of business. With discounts as high as 70% and empty shelves sprouting up like Christmas Trees even if it wasn’t for the sign forest you’d know this store was not much longer for this world. Which doesn’t address why they’re going out of business. Well, here’s a real world example for you…
Z needed some new bras last week so we decided to take advantage of the (then) 40% savings at Mervyns. She found a couple of their least expensive she liked but their original price was $30 making the “discount/closeout” price $18 each. Not satisfied with these so-called savings we drove to the other side of 101 and visited Target where the original price on their most expensive bras was only about $25. We picked up five bras (including a couple of “closeouts”) for $30 total with tax! Still wondering why they are closing? I’m not.
