Apparently Circuit City isn’t doing well. And to fix things they’ve decided to lay off 3,400 “high paid” clerks. High paid means anywhere from $8-15.  Once they’re laid off, they will be replaced with lower paid clerks. Brilliant.

I wonder how much in bonuses Circuit City executives are paid? But did they cut these?

I worked at Circuit City when I was in college. It paid well, and my co-workers were sales professionals; mostly men, well dressed, articulate men that knew the products they sold. What did Circuit City do? They replaced this highly qualified staff in the late nineties with low-wage workers with little training and where product knowledge is not as important as taking the order. And now it’s time to take on the low paid worker?

It is particularly galling that they trying to right their company (and stock price) on the backs of people who are barely making the minimum wage. I have an idea - how about selling more products? Cutting executive perks? Cutting customer service is not the way to increased sales. But it is the way to increased stock prices, which of course went up when this news broke.

So I will not be shopping at Circuit City, and neither should you. Any company that so blatantly builds profits on the backs of the poor, doesn’t deserve your patronage.