Inspired by this image I figured I should warn people about a scam at Circuit City.
The other day I wanted to connect my iPod to a pair of speakers I have that have a normal stereo mini jack. I was in Union Sq, so I thought I’d head on up to Circuit City – I managed to find what I was looking for - A Belkin 3.5mm audio cable. I then looked at the price tag - $21.99! Let me emphasize – this is a piece of wire with two little simple ubiquitous plugs on it! That’s almost an order of magnitude more than Belkin’s own price ($3.99) - or, as it turns out, Virgin Megastore’s price ($3.99) on the same block!
And yes, it’s the same item # – F8V203-06-APL.
June 6, 2007 at 8:58 pm |
It might have been mispriced and confused with the monster brand, which run $20 and up.
I often shop at Circuit City and find their prices are pretty competitive. And no, I’m not affiliated with them in any way.
June 6, 2007 at 9:06 pm |
It’s a pretty impressive mistake… Surely someone must run a report at Circuit City every few months stating which items have the largest markup. A 450%+ markup would probably stick out a bit…
As for them being a good deal, I am not sure I agree with you. I am looking for a few things for my HTPC, and here’s a comparison between Amazon and Circuit City:
Logitech Z-5500 – $349 with rebate. Amazon – $269 no rebate needed
Harmony Universal Remote 890 – $400. Amazon – $224
June 6, 2007 at 9:26 pm |
Is anyone still doing business with Circuit City?
Remember, this is the company that made a list of all their hourly employee who made more than the average retail salary (due to good performance reviews) for their position and fired them. Then they offered to hire them back at lower pay!
Circuit City is a dead store walking.
June 6, 2007 at 9:28 pm |
Yeah, now compare ‘Best Buy’… LoL. I don’t shop there any more due to the same corporate over pricing that goes on at BB.
June 6, 2007 at 10:27 pm |
Pah – a bargain I say.
Yesterday I went into my local phone shop looking for a Nokia N-Series USB charger. So that’s a foot cable with a USB connector on one end and 2mm (?) jack on other.
Now this part (CA-100) is 9 British Pounds (that’s
US$17 or NZ$23)
The New Zealand Nokia distributor wants the cable sold for $69!!!
Now that’s a mark up.
June 7, 2007 at 12:00 am |
[...] How Circuit City make their money… Inspired by this image I figured I should warn people about a scam at Circuit City. The other day I wanted to connect […] [...]
June 7, 2007 at 2:29 pm |
I’ve purchased hundreds of computer case fans for around $12, so imagine my surprise on finding what appeared to be the exact same fan for $29.99 at Circuit City.
I live in a small town, there’s no other place to go and I had to finish the computer I was building, so I bit my lip and bought it.
Imagine my further surprise when I got it back to my shop and opened the case and found there were no plugs on the end of the power wires (conveniently hidden in the package). I guess I was supposed to solder the wires to something inside the computer case???
I took it back and ordered one to be shipped from the city. After paying for shipping, it was still much cheaper and this one had plugs I could use to plug it into the motherboard.
I won’t ever go back to Circuit City for anything, let alone their cheap, crappy computers, monitors, etc.