And why do people say unions are irrelevant these days?

Great. Fire anybody with experience. So they are making sure that the sales staff in their stores is TOTALLY ignorant and unhelpful.

So they are making sure that the sales staff in their stores is TOTALLY ignorant and unhelpful.

They have to make sure they can compete with Best Buy.

So how is Bush to blame for this, Kevin?

You're falling down on the job here. You have to ensure that the average liberal knows how to pin this on the President.

What ExBrit and dj moonbat said.

It's only been the past 2-3 years that Circuit City has finally convinced me that I can get tolerable service in their stores. Guess that just went out the window.

Yes, the execs are being overpaid, if the company has to complain about affordability of "help" at all. As for CEOs: What free-market fairies don't like to admit is that setting CEO pay isn't a true free market choice anyway. In a true free market, the buyer has to spend his or her *own* limited money for what is bought, even inside a company. If a classical private owner pays a supervisor $1,000 more year, that's $1,000 less in his pocket per year accordingly. However, the Boards that set CEO etc. pay don't have a dollar less to spend themselves for every dollar more they give the CEO - they are just deciding how much he or she should get, from company funds. There is a feed-back reward system there (even George Will called them "each other's poodles.")

Why can't shareholders limit the waste? Well, why can't voters limit government waste either?

american hawk... keep working on your trolling skills

Are AH and Al some kind of Weekly Standard RSS feeds? I mean, we know they're not sentient.

This and they have the worst customer service in the history of the universe. Eff 'em.

"... executives are being laid off? Surely some of them are being overpaid too?"

Er... that's different. Executives produce value for shareholders at rates beyond the comprehension of ordinary mortals.

Their minds and hands are literally blazing with extra productivity! Sometimes their hair even catches fire from all the heat coming off their
brains!

[note: this is sarcasm]

Appalling, one wonders where the so called "Christian" Right is among their Republican brethern when it comes to taking care of the lower classes?

It is folly -- it is madness -- to suppose that you can worship Jesus in the Sacraments and Jesus on the throne of glory, when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of His children."

† Bishop Frank Weston

If I recall correctly, Circuit City also requires employees to accept a no-lawsuit, binding arbitration clause as a condition of their employment.

sglover: "Are AH and Al some kind of Weekly Standard RSS feeds? I mean, we know they're not sentient."

An on-going Turing Test. Just wait until the liberal models come out, in 2009. By 2025, the expression of political opinions will be completely automated, and, of very much higher quality. And, we hope the design of automated politicians will be well-advanced; the scope for quality improvement there is, of course, far greater.

Time to fire up that blog-based Circuit City boycott!

On the contrary, Kevin -- stunts like this are what justify those high executive salaries! If management didn't do this, then they'd definitely deserve to have their own pay cut.

Sigh...4 weeks pay for working seven years and giving up a zenith wage of 18.14 an hour, God Bless. Janitors average about 20 an hour, right? Yeah...right.

It's all part of the beauty of globalization. These are high-tech skilled jobs that the power of the global free market has created. There's just a little friction as Labor is revalued, that's all.

Hey, who wants a new credit card?

It's just sad.

I heard "Circuit City layoff" and no more on the TV last night, and I commented to my wife that "it's a shame for workers involved, but retail employment is sort of a zero-sum game, someone else is probably hiring." Now that I've read this I see it's worse than that, it's another step to turning the US into a low-cost labor market.

"Are AH and Al some kind of Weekly Standard RSS feeds? I mean, we know they're not sentient."

They're the same person. And so is eggbeater or egbert. Notice how AH and Al both always post close to the top of the comments? How often all three lead off with "Ah, Kevin"? They're all the same guy with nothing to do all day but post from his mother's basement.

Al and AH are overpaid. They should be fired. In 11 weeks, they can re-apply for their old jobs, at a nickel per post.

That's how much we're paying for trolls at our new Troll shop in Pune, India. Unfortunately, they tend to only post between 11pm and 4am EST, because of the 15.5 hour time-difference.

Wow. They are firing all of these people in a tight labor market and probably rehiring most of them back with big pay cuts. Can you imagine what things would look like in a bad recession? Business has gotten way to powerful and labor to weak. Wages are generally considered to be downward inflexible. Not anymore, huh? In the Great Depression there were drastic pay cuts that drove down demand and made everything worse very rapidly. That's the last time wages weren't downwardly inflexible.

And why do people say unions are irrelevant these days?

Because increasingly, unions are irrelevant. They are ineffectual at stopping or ameliorating situations like the one faced by Circuit City employees.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that it is government-provided social insurance -- not dinosaur-like labor unions -- that is the only way to reconcile the flexibility demanded by the global economy with the security that everybody wants. Unlike unions - who push social costs onto the overly narrow base of individual firms or industries (google "GM" and "health insurance") -- the costs of a government-provided safety net are spread across the entire $13 trillion economy.

Ummm...The bottom line of a business is to sell something. If a clerk loses a sale, that can, also lead to a bankrupt company if enough sales are lost. In fact, morons, that's why companies go bankrupt; Not enough sales. In a business, Everyone is important.

So who's more important. A CEO or a floor salesperson? Easy. Try this little experiment.
Have a CEO quit, then have all the sales people quit. See which group destroys the incoming revenue the fastest.

CEO's sign the checks; but that money came from the sales people. A CEO's job is to maintain company operations so the sales people can do their job.

AH doesn't get it.

No point in working hard at Circuit City either; Looks like a badly run business.

An on-going Turing Test.

Naw. Nowadays a reasonably competent Turing Test machine can fool people. But AH and Al never come within a light-year of demonstrating sentience or self-awareness.

american hawk, you're an idiot. these people are highly paid because they sell more than anybody else. this is a prime example of corporate stupidity. the lesson here is that the more you do, the less you should be rewarded, just the opposite of how capitalism is supposed to work. the ceo by the way made something like $9 million. stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that it is government-provided social insurance -- not dinosaur-like labor unions -- that is the only way to reconcile the flexibility demanded by the global economy with the security that everybody wants.

I'm with you in spirit, but I note that you're describing what is supposed to be one of the functions of the unemployment compensation system, and as near as I can tell that's been frayed about as much as "guaranteed" pensions. And who agitates for robust unemployment systems? Outside of unions, I can't think of anyone -- can you?

Look, the central reason to strive for a revived labor movement isn't so much to get service workers a decent wage (which itself is nothing to scoff at), but to give them political muscle.

Ah, the Betsy DeVos theory of economics:

Many, if not most, of the economic problems in Michigan are a result of high wages...
-Press release, April, 2004.

Betsy sit on the board of Circuit City?

No wonder customer service is so bad.

In the USA, I noticed that when my dishwasher was recalled, I had to call into a nightmare of a touch tone telephone tree to schedule service.

During the call I got disconnected and when I redialed, I accidentally dialed the Canadian number, and got a human on the line without pushing multiple buttons designed to trick me into hanging up and designed to let the USA hire the least expensive people to man the lines as possible.

No wonder customer service is deteriorating. As a nation, we are becoming like Wal Mart, lots of crap at low, low prices.

Time to fire up that blog-based Circuit City boycott!

glover, it has apparently been a while since you visited a Circuit City. Clearly someone has been leading a boycott of their stores--a very successful one too--for the past several years.

Don't believe me? Just go in and try to find the customers.

Leaving out the issues about union/non-union and executive pay, here is what I don't get: why did they feel that they have to fire everyone and ask them to try again in 10 weeks? If they can decide the salary of the employee, why not simply lower their salary? If this is not about performance but only about salary level, then I guess the company should be interested in keeping them if this can be done at a lower salary level. Maybe some of them might be willing to work for a little less.

NOTE: I am not saying this would be a nice thing to do either, but it seems they are going out of their way to humiliate these employees. Or are there some state or federal rules that make layoffs easier than salary reductions? Why do companies feel they have to behave like jerks towards their employees? It can't be in their economic interest.

Costco, damnit!

*crossing Circuit City off of personal list of place to shop due to corporate cretinism*

Not that I was a frequent shopper or anything.

This reminds me of Wal-Mart's decision a few months ago to scrap regular shifts and make store employees work whatever hours the corporate planners decided were needed from week to week.

Apparently, corporate America has decided that retail workers are the new migrant field hands. No matter how badly you treat them, they'll aways be more showing up looking for work.

This is real 19th century stuff. Al and American Hawk must be so proud.

I guess some of the neoliberals (the Hayek-Road-to-Serfdom kind) promised us a deunionized, deregulated race to the bottom (or was it raising all boats? I forget). Remember you are free to loose your job to the Chinese, or to a low wage American who lost their job to the Chinese, if you are not willing to work for the going value of labor in China.

The New York Times, which I read via the Houston Chronicle, tells us about a new study of income disparity in the US. Seems like we are nearing the much anticipated neoliberal free society after an age dominated by the oppressive communism of the broad middle class.

Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans — those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 — receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis of newly released tax data shows.

The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000, also reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression.

Who says class war isn't rewarding?

Nice to see Circuit City joining the ranks of Home Depot and Wal-Mart in the race to the bottom of the employee food chain. Hopefully this will work out as well for them from a PR standpoint as it did for HD and WM. I suppose it's lucky they don't have far to fall as the chain has been irrelevant for years now. Is there a pool going anywhere on how long before they close up shop altogether?

This is also happening in larger corporations. I used to work for a Fortune 100 company that laid off experienced engineers and system designers, and then offered them the opportunity to reapply for positions 4-6 salary grades lower (e.g. $15,000 to $30,000 less salary a year).

Also, when they reapplied they could nor re-enter the pension plan; which was also being phased out for all 'new' hires as of that same year.

The corporate director of benefits also cashed in almost 2 million dollars in stock options that same year... Fancy that. She must have been doing a real kick-ass job... :-(

Anyway, the good news is that many of these systems designers went to competitors or independent engineering shops that then took business away from their former employer. :-)

Even though I was not one of those laid off, I have left that company and now happily work for a privately held firm and plan to avoid EVER working for a large public corporation again (if I am lucky enough to have a choice).

Will be interesting when their next Proxy comes out in May. Comparing 2006 to 2007 should be very, very informative.

"Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans — those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 — receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis of newly released tax data shows.

The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000, also reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression."

It's a good thing history doesn't repeat itself. Right?

Greed is good!

Boy the way Glen Miller played songs that made the hit parade.
Guys like us we had it made, those were the days.

And you knew who you were then,
Girls were girls and men were men,
Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.

Didn’t need no welfare state, Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee our old LaSalle ran great. Those were the days.

What's a "LaSalle"? Sounds French. (damn cheese-eating surrender monkeys).

What does it say the rest of the staff ? Work hard, keep your nose clean and maybe you'll get a raise (and then get laid off). Where's the incentive ?

Seems like a bad move on managements part...

Contrast that with executives, who are forced to continually learn and adapt to a new market place. If a floor guy makes a mistake, it costs them the sale. If the executives make a mistake, it could bankrupt the business.

Yeah, all those talented executives...I guess thats why there stock is tanking. While the rest of the market reached record highs, CC has plummeted.

Looks like those laid of workers may be competing with the talented executives of CC
for jobs at Best Buy.

Take care of your workers and your workesr will
take care of you.

These people need a union badly. Both for the immediate economic clout and for the political muscle.

Until people can successfully strike and back management down, you will see more and more of this crap. And until there are enough politicians in power who care more about the guy making $10 - $15 an hour than CEOs this shit will continue.

And idiots like Al and AH will celebrate the victory in the great race to the bottom. Dicks.

What's a "LaSalle"? Sounds French. (damn cheese-eating surrender monkeys). - Extradite Rumsfeld

Cadillac LaSalle

Costco, damnit!

Posted by: Blue Girl, Red State (aka G.C) on March 29, 2007 at 2:04 PM

We're about toget a Costco finally right up the street. Can't wait.

My wife went to work for Circuit City when they first came to the St.Louis area probably about 1992. They were treating their employees like shit within months of opening. I went in the same store on a couple of occasions and they never had anything in stock that they had advertised for sale. Carpet-bagging assholes.

Any company who treats their employees like disposable dirt treats their customers the same.
Who needs 'em? Not I.

Costco, damnit!

Posted by: Blue Girl, Red State (aka G.C) on March 29, 2007 at 2:04 PM

We're about toget a Costco finally right up the street. Can't wait.

Posted by: FitterDon on March 29, 2007 at 3:34 PM

=================================================

Costco also has very good prices on generic pharmeceuticals. See here.

Seems like a bad move on managements part...

Nah, that can't be. They all wear swell suits and get paid a lot more than the people they're firing...they must, therefore, be Right and Good and Deserve What's Coming to Them.

Sounds like Circuit City is a poorly managed enterprise that will lose market share to better-managed competitors. If the workers had a union, Circuit City would be in even worse competitive shape, so they'd shrink even more. When the employer shrinks, the workers lose their jobs. A union can't force a firm to maintain jobs when that firm is going out of business.

Retail sales is a difficult area to do business -- competing with giant retailers and a growing internet retailers. Lots of brick and mortar companies will be laying off workers. Unionized retailers (if there are any) will lay off more workers than non-union retailers, since they will be less able to meet the competition.

If the workers had a union, Circuit City would be in even worse competitive shape, so they'd shrink even more.

Care to back that bullshit assertion up, you lying neocon toad?

Lots of brick and mortar companies will be laying off workers.

I bet you're rubbing your hands (or is it twisting your moustache?) at the prospect, too.

Unionized retailers (if there are any) will lay off more workers than non-union retailers, since they will be less able to meet the competition.

Given the damage in perception Circuit City is enduring as a result of this announcement, and the inevitable drop in the quality of service due to lesser-paid and lesser-skilled workers, there's simply no other conclusion but that you're just, once again, citing your bullshit neocon articles of faith rather than any valid opinion.

It isn't interesting, "ex-liberal." You shame yourself. Why do you bother?

I worked for a chain bookstore with the same philosophy - they believed people came to the store ready pretty much committed to a purchase already so the value to the company of knowledgeable employees was small. We were actually ordered not to direct customers to the correct section because they might stumble across an impulse buy while wandering lost around the store.

It should be no surprise that the chain has been out of business for years.

I see ... so the worker has a right to terminate his employment for a better deal with a third party - but the company doesn't.

no-lawsuit, binding arbitration clause as a condition of their employment. Posted by: Quaker in a Basement on March 29, 2007 at 12:58 PM

Perfectly good legal system in this country, and big business gets to make their own legal system to benefit themselves. Wonder which political party allowed that.

I don't do business with anyone who makes arbitration "mandatory". My Hyundai had arbitration hidden in the owners manual, one has to opt out by a certain date. I knew they had it somewhere and found it in time.

My realtor did the same thing but I said I would use another company if they required it (ERA) and suddenly they didn't require it.

Most of those dumb kids who work at CC don't realize what arbitration is until they need to take the company to court. Adults too.

Boycott arbitration and any company that "forces" you to sign up for it.

Okay, jumping down off my soapbox....

Stuart,

Why don't you go hump some hot CEO leg you pathetic dog?

Why doesn't every company in America pay their employees as little as humanly possible -- and then in a few weeks try to reduce that. Wouldn't that be great? Why we'd be on the road to utopia in no time.

Ex (never actually was) liberal -

There are in fact plenty of unionized retail establishments in America, Costco included, that are doing quite fine.

The ability to identify with the oppressor among the troll class here is living proof that the Republican Party will never die.

Go corporation Go! Stomp those workers -- make them understand how insignificant they are each and every day. Why do they think they are entitled to a decent life and wage? Presumptious bastards.

My own experience with Circuit City has not made me want to ever buy anything from them again. Feh.

The Apple Store, by contrast.....

Oh well. Some of us like paying for excellent service because it's less of a headache in the long run. One reason why I stick to Japanese car dealerships as well.

Here's what I just sent to Circuit City via the "contact us" e-mail link on their website:

"Very bright: let go of all the most experienced sales and service people, but keep the less experienced ones. Is that what they teach in B-school these days?
Thank you for making my electronics buying decisions (couple thousand a year on average, between my personal and business purchases) easier -- from now on, I'll have one less place to visit for every such purchase.
No reply will be necessary -- and by the way, whoever's reading this? Just how secure do you feel about YOUR job now, hmm?"

Was that bad of me, do you think?

O, and Zit, thanks very much for that headsup -- I probably would have had to learn the hard way, and it might have been a very expensive lesson, but for your warning. This is why I loves me some internets.

My own experience with Circuit City has not made me want to ever buy anything from them again. Feh.

Same here...I cant say this lost me as a customer; they lost me ages ago, when their commission-based compensation system caused their sales staff to constanly pressure me to buy computer euipment that I neither wanted or needed, and about which, not to brag, I knew more than they did.

meanwhile....

Income Gap Is Widening, Data Shows

By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
Published: March 29, 2007

Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans — those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 — receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis of newly released tax data shows.

speaking of the late 1920's...that was one of the last times the Republicans had a 3-branch majority, it ended in the Great Depression.

For the record, Costco kicks total ass.

Good prices, quality product, damn fine selection for a "buy-100-boxes-of-ravioli-for-$10" store, and has helpful associates.

Amazingly, quite a few of their stores are union shops. Even more amazingly, even non-union workers get collective bargaining rights.

Oh ... as a bonus: COSTCO MAKES TRUCKLOADS OF CASH! And all without screwing over their workers.

So suck it, AH, exlib, Al, and all you other anti-worker fuqtards.

You know, if I was a cc employee making eighteen dollars an hour, getting canned like this, I'd make sure to fuck over cc any way i could before I left.

If I recall correctly, Circuit City also requires employees to accept a no-lawsuit, binding arbitration clause as a condition of their employment.

And their severance package includes a beating in the back alley.

CC will probably end up shuttering half their stores like CompUSA did recently.

Frys is kicking their butts in the major urban areas.

Can someone explain what difference the presence of a union would have had here? At best, the union contract would have a no lay off provision but those clauses are few and far between these days. The union might be able to bargain about the lay off decision but that boils down to bargaining over wage concessions. And the union certainly would have the right to bargain about the effects of the layoff but that's a severance argument and where union bargaining leverage is at its weakest. So what am I missing?

Costco has made me a comfortable woman and indirectly financed grad school. I bought a house on spec on Hospital Hill in Midtown KC for little of nothing. A year later, a Costco went in two blocks away. I sold my house for a hell of a lot more money than I paid for it, and bought a coop unit two blocks another direction from the same Costco. For karmic purposes, I invested some of the money I made in their stock, and it does quite well.

Yes, Costco indeed kicks ass, and I am thankful for having them in my neighborhood every single day.

Since I've never succeeded in getting the attention of a Circuit City employee during any of my visits of the past 35 years I can't imagine why they need sales clerks at all. How about drafting all the laid-off and sending them to Iraq?

Scouser,

During the term of a collective bargaining agreement, an employer cannot make changes to wages and benefits. Only if the union consented to reopen the agreement could this be done. Or the employer would have to file for bankruptcy, go through a process of negotiations while in Chapter 11, and then get a court to agree that rejecting the collective bargaining agreement was a necessity.

In other words, CC could not just do what it pleases.

They would also most likely face seniority protection in layoffs. CC would have to let go its most junior and low paid workers before it could touch the more senior (and presumably) higher paid workers.

At the expiration of the agreement, CC would still have an obligation to bargain over proposed changes to terms and conditions. Only after impasse could the company unilaterally implement these cuts. At that point, the union could strike, but it could also engage in various other tactics such a shareholder activism, consumer boycotts and the like to push back at management. It's the difference of the employees having a host of protections, options and support and being out there on your own.

It doesn't guarantee ultimate success, but it would be a lot different scenario from what has gone on here.

"I'd make sure to fuck over cc any way i could before I left.
Posted by: TomK on March 29, 2007 at 5:46 PM | "

Which might help explain why, if the announcements I read are to be believed, the terminated were escorted off the premises posthaste.
I wonder how the inventory-shrinkage rates compare at CC vs, say, CostCo? That could be an interesting study.

Gregory -

You question my claim that unions cost jobs, rather than save them. Take the auto industry for example. Which workers have more job security -- the unionized workers of General Motors or the non-union workers of Totoya?

I'm sure you know the anwer. GM has no choice but to lay off workers, because they're shrinking. Toyota would be permitted to lay off workers, but they are keeping their workers, because they're growing.

I'm working in consulting, so much to my dismay, I have to deal with Hawk's executives and their "talent" on a daily basis.

This may have been different 20 years ago, but today ye average executive is an overpaid, good-looking wannabe.

Hawk,I am worried about you. Maybe you should screw the lid back on your potato-schnapps bottle and get a job.

Cave: Once sober, Iraq doesn't look pretty.

Nice anecdote, "ex-liberal." Now all you have to do is either 1) establish that GM is shrinking because it's unionized, rather than just because it makes shitty cars, or 2), admit that you're adding "false analogy" to your bag of intellectually dishonest tricks.

Oh, and nice moving the goalposts -- I challenged you to support your assertions that unions cost jobs. Being unionized may not be saving GM's workers for the incompetence of its highly paid executives, but you have not at all established that it's what damaged the company.

Oh, and Toyota pays its workers a comparable wage in part to remove an incentive for organizing, dipshit, so Toyota's workers benefit from unions anyway.

You aren't dumb, "ex-liberal," but you're incredibly dishonest. Your obvious hostility toward unions is further evidence that your handle, like everything else you post, is a lie. Shame on you.

Klein - understand all that just not sure any of it applies (except maybe seniority). I think you're focusing on the right to reapply but the dispositive event here is the employees' layoff which as manning falls under management rights absent a guaranteed work provision or something similar. IOW there is no unilateral change to wages occuring. Since the layoffs are directly tied to labor costs decisional bargaining would kick in but that's concession bargaining and the company (technically anyways) doesn't have to agree. If agreement on the decisional is reached then lower wages (or other t+c's) if not then implement. Maybe effects bargaining would result in some separation pay but maybe not. And all seniority would do, assuming out a job class based layoff, is push the layoffs lower down the wage scale. So my reading of this is that even with a labor contract in place the company could do pretty much what it wanted and so achieve it's goal of $x in labor cost savings.

Methinks its time to shop elsewhere than Circuit City. They haven't been any good in years, so it's no great loss.

I wonder how much of a paycut the MBA who came up with this genius move will be taking? How much of a pay cut the CEO will be taking?

In 11 weeks they'll need a job somewhere else to make ends meet, besides nobody will be shoping at Circuit City anymore due to classless acts of stupidity.

AND Laying-off is never a good sign since service was NEVER a state of art at that place, and now we all know why, because employees who are spit on never have the motivated to perform well.

Circuit City: Wait 11 weeks on unemploymeent and than re-apply if you feel lucky?

Lets face it, only the drift wood would re-apply but then Circuit City is proving to be the place to get work if your a loser.

Scouser,

You can't lay people off and then force them to reapply for a job under any union contract I've ever seen. A layoff that results in a unilateral change in wages without bargaining is an unfair labor practice. I think even this NLRB would find such layoffs pretextual.

A contract that protected seniority would also thwart the attempt to shed the highest priced workers as a general rule.

Effects bargaining would only come into effect if there was a true shutdown of the facility or a permanent layoff of a significant chunk of the work force.

So a contract would help a lot. Not fool proof, but a much better scenario than this.

The Circuit City near our house suddenly closed recently. It was IN Detroit but in a successful mall complex so it had to have considerable traffic. This news about layoffs suggests that Circuit City is on the verge of collapse.

Well, in fact until today I've been shopping at CC rather than Best Buy because the the staff seemed more knowledgeable and the whole experience was rather better.

Never going back now. It's just joined the Walmart League.

"It's only been the past 2-3 years that Circuit City has finally convinced me that I can get tolerable service in their stores. Guess that just went out the window."

Say what? My experience in the past two years has been that it's impossible to get service at CC stores. If you're know what you want and it's 'shelf goods', that's possible but if it's
'secured goods', forget it.

And only a fool would depend on store staff for product knowledge. I'm sure that some of these people really know their stuff but don't bet on it . What you can bet on is that your best interest and their best interests are infrequently aligned. You need to have done your homework in advance rather than depend on in-store advice.

No response, "ex-liberal," to having your goalpost moving false analogy exposed as more of your mendacious neocon bullshit? I'm disappointed.

Or more accurately, I'm not, because you've long since demonstrated that you're beyond shame, you lying neocon toad.

Now that I know this I will, of course, never shop at Circuit City again.

Yes, but Costco only locates in the most affluent areas to begin with. Kind of stacking the deck, eh?

According to their web site the newest is in the bright red outlying suburbs of that well known liberal haven: Dallas.

MsNThrope, could you pls define most affluent areas? Because Montebello, Azusa, Daly City, and La Puente, CA would never be considered affluent and all of them have had Costcos for at least 10 years. Middle-class cities? Yes. Affluent? Not even close.