Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our Joel spots a bit of astute analysis explaining what happened to drive Circuit City into disrepute, and how the idiot execs responsible were rewarded with a cool million each:
The basic story is that last March, the wise men who run Circuit City came up with the brilliant idea of laying off their more senior salespeople, who get $14-$15 an hour, and replacing them with new hires who get around $9 an hour. It turns out that this move was not very good for business. One of the reasons that people go to a store like Circuit City, rather than buying things on the Internet, is that they want to be able to talk to a knowledgeable salesperson. Since Circuit City had laid off their knowledgeable salespeople, there was little reason to shop there. … The Post reports that Circuit City’s executive vice-presidents will get retention awards of $1 million each.
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