Case Study One
Daniel Smith
Southern Wesleyan University
April 2, 2016

1) Think back on our discussion in the chapter section, Caveat Emptor-Be An Informed Consumer, evaluate whether the replacement of highly paid workers with lower-paid workers did or did not cause Circuit City to perform so poorly. How confident are you in your evaluation? Why?
After reviewing the article, one can be confident that the replacement of highly paid workers was what made Circuit City perform poorly, which led to Circuit City closing. One can be confident that high paid skilled workers is what hurt Circuit City due to Best Buy being able to outperform Circuit City with less quality people and lower wages. Highly paid workers hurt Circuit City due to Circuit City not being able to compete with Best Buy; then replacing the high paid skilled workers with lower paid unskilled workers is what put Circuit City over the edge. The only way that Circuit City could compete with Best Buy is through customer service and when it replaces the high paid workers, it lost the customer service too.

2) Do you believe that the compensation changes at Best Buy are a major reason for its current difficulties?
Since Best Buy is making cuts in departments that will not affect customer service, one can determine that the compensation changes are not a major reason for Best Buy’s current difficulties. The major reasons for Best Buy’s difficulties are increased competition from discount stores like Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target.

3) Why are Walmart, Sam’s Club and Costco doing better than Best Buy (Circuit City)? Do they have high pay?
Walmart, Sam's club and Costco are performing better than Best Buy due to the fact of better priced products, skilled staff, and better management. In an article written by Forbes.com shows that the pay scale of employees between Walmart and Costco are