Boycott City

For Circuit City staff, good pay is a bad thing
The retailer cuts 3,400 who its says earn well above the going rate. They can apply for their old jobs -- for less pay.
LA Times | March 29, 2007

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.

[...] "It had nothing to do with their skills or whether they were a good worker or not,"[MF: that should make them feel better and work harder] Cimino said. "It was a function of their salary relative to the market."

Circuit City expects to reap $110 million in savings in the next year [...] Not everyone on Wall Street is sure the layoffs will pay off [...] The highest-paid employees can be some of the best and most experienced, and if Circuit City's customer service suffers, so may the company's fortunes against Best Buy Inc., whose reputation for high-quality help has helped make it the industry leader.

"Staff meeting for all our top sales people in the back: You're all fired. Comeback in three months and fight each other for your old jobs at way less money." Should really pay dividends...

I'm sure the brilliant executives who losing the market to Best Buy are not forced to "reapply for their old jobs at significant reductions." Way to try and make up the marketshare on the backs of the company's workers... Those $8-$13/hour wages are crazy!

I will confess that I don't spend much time or money in ANY of these stores, but when I have, I've found myself in Best Buy over Circuit City almost every time. Here's hoping Best Buy continues to eat their lunch, and I'll be sure to do my part.

[h/t Kevin Drum]

UPDATE: Thought I'd mention the others on the "boycott" list:
Wal-Mart (big surprise, right?)
ExxonMobil (Big Oil is all relative, but they are the worst. I try to go to Citgo and BP whenever possible—no Mid-East imports)
Domino's Pizza

List of companies to support.