Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Circuit City

Does anyone know if Circut City wants to build in Pullman? I think it would be SO much fun to have them try to build a store here. I would love to hear the arguments from PARD to keep them out.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Based on this story , PARD would have no choice:

Circuit City Stores Inc. has a message for some of its best-paid employees: Work for less or work somewhere else.

The electronics retailer on Wednesday laid off 3,400 people who earned "well above" the local market rate for the sort of jobs they held at its stores.

In 11 weeks they'll be able to apply for their old positions — which will come with lower hourly wages.

The move put Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City, which has more than 40,000 employees in the United States, at the forefront of a new way of controlling labor costs in the service industry. Employers determine the prevailing market wages for particular jobs in various geographic regions and then find ways to make sure that their workers' salaries stay within that range.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., for example, last summer capped the pay of its veterans at levels consistent with competitors' top wages. Wal-Mart didn't lay off those who earned above a certain amount but did stop giving them raises, saying that would encourage them to advance through the ranks to higher-paying positions.

Circuit City is being more aggressive about it, said Peter Doeringer, a professor of labor economics at Boston University. "What's unusual is to say we're doing this deliberate swapping of high for low."

PARD had better hope Circuit City doesn't pick Pullman. This latest incident shows Wal-Mart is actually better than normal in the retail industry. Yet another hopelessly indefensible hypocrisy for PARD.

Barenjager said...

No Circuit City for me, please. I'd much rather have a store where I can buy new fluffie little bunnies to replace those being wiped out by horrible strip malls in meadows and houses in wetlands.

Aargh!

P.s.

April E. Coggins said...

Nice. Wal-Mart can build but Circuit City can't because of a personal shopping preferences? Ummmmm, I am pretty certain that is what we in the free enterprise corner are fighting against. How about allowing the business to build without interference and allow shoppers to decide for themselves. I don't like people who make their money exploiting enviro-mental laws, but who am I to judge?

WSUCollegeRepublican said...

That would be awesome. Then I could use my new gift card there. Cheers.