I worked at store 0422 and we were in the first wave of layoffs. And we were still using that system that you see in the photo.
I worked there for a long time, but I had never seen mad magazine there.

If only stores would have the good sense to destroy all copies of MAD.

Yeah that was some pretty shady stuff. I was a third party vendor and had to be laid off because of the lack of employees in the store to even initiate PC sales

I did a bit of surfing on this issue & ran across this:

[news.moneycentral.msn.com]

It seems Circuit City isn't as humorless as it seems.

@Kitteridge:

I am so glad SOMEONE on this thread mentioned this. For those of you who don't know, a few years ago Circuit City, in an attempt to save money, laid-off the majority of their in store employees who had THE MOST senority because they made too much money.

So, for those of you who have gone into a CC and been frustrated by the lack of product knowledge by the employees, you can thank CC for getting rid of anyone who had been loyal enough to hang around & become knowledgable.

The day after CC made this announcment I paid off my CC credit card, cut it into little bits & mailed it to their corporate office with a letter. I have never stepped foot into a CC since.

Oh, and that Mad Magazine ad was funny as chit!! I haven't seen a Mad Mag in 30 years but now I'm thinking about getting a subscription to it for my son.

The new Best Buy herds you around a corner past a rack of magazines while you're waiting at the checkout though.

This damn world is never is as cool as I wish it was...

Ok, so the flyer itself, not that funny.

Making up a fake takedown notice, having the thing go viral (Digg + Consumerist) duping everyone, hilarious!

The irony that the Consumerist fell for it.... Even more hilarious!

Brilliant, really.

For everyone else, believe it or not, Best Buy sells some books. I walk right by them when I go there to buy computer equipment. Why wouldn't CC sell Mad Magazine? I think they're impulse purchase things because they're positioned near the checkout counter. You're supposed to look while you're standing in line, I guess, since sometimes you can spend quite a while in line.

FWIW, I hope CC stays in business. It keeps Best Buy working harder to keep my business. They don't know I'll NEVER go back to CC.

"Lurch and Seizure"

LOL!!!!!!!!

@goodkitty:

Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM) is a huge retailer in the region. Unlike the big box retailer's relatively static pricing model, NFM will deal with you. Part of that is because they employ traditional salespeople. Also, their financing deals often blow Best Buy out of the water.

The downside though is NFM's credit card is secured credit, which means they can seize the asset if you default. Also, they are higher up on the creditor foodchain if you go into bankruptcy.

@HurtsSoGood: I suppose that the PR person simply took this one "seriously," I mean personally. Probably a really bad hotheaded move. I never would have even known this existed without this publicity. Of course, I pretty much say the same things to myself when I read a CC advert. "Sale price? That's the regular price! New game? That was out a month ago! Need a map? Why, I can just look for the Best Buy (or Costco) across the street!"

If it works, don't fix/replace it. Newer doesn't always mean better. Look at Vista.

At any rate, It's a joke. I'm surprised that CC is making a big deal about this.

Wow we used that when I was in college....back in 93.

I still swear by circit city... the one on 5th ave in NYC is the greatest.... it is right next to a best buy... not even accross the street.... RIGHT NEXT DOOR

I'm seriously tempted to take a copy of this into a Circuit City store and demand a Shiitake 96" TV for $4300 just to see what the reaction is.

They tried to change the strategy in my area and open one across the street from a Nebraska Furniture Mart 10 years ago. It was only open a few years.

I dont this email sounds fake too

I don't this email sounds fake.

lolumad?

If this isn't an act of desperation from a dying company, I don't know what is.

Standard operating procedure for any store interested in protecting their brand?

I don't blame Circuit for doing this. They don't need any more hits to their legitimacy, and this is just the sort of thing that really does stay in people's minds.

Also, it could just be to avoid financially supporting MAD magazine, who is biting one of the hands that feeds them.

The only thing that would make this PR blunder more entertaining would be if some environmentalist group got ahold of this story 1) CC is advising its stores to THROW AWAY the magazines (not recycle them), and 2) they are throwing them away before anyone could read them therefore wasting the resources (paper, ink, electricity and fuel) that it took to create them (before any benefit could be obtained from them) which makes the situation almost as bad as cutting down old growth trees, shredding them, and placing the wood chips in non-biodegradable containers and throwing them in a landfill...100% wasteful!

Now, if they'd dare do a Walmart* flyer like that...

Seriously, when did everyone lose their sense of humor. I'd have a copy of the page on every employee bulletin board in the company. Of course, if I ran Sucker City, we wouldn't be ludicrously inept enough for MAD to lampoon, and we'd be looking at at Worst Buy lampoon ad instead.

Welcome to Circuit Shitty Where Sevice is state of the FART.

did most of it in printshop but allways gave folks a good laugh.

pissed off the managers cus it mainly made fun of them ;p

Not cheap.

I can see this is cause for concern. After making so many customers wait 24 minutes for the online order IN the store... they need something to look at to kill the time.

What's worse... is that MAD isn't really picking on Best Buy... what gives!

@DeafLEGO:

"Being an avid MAD Magazine reader"

I think you mean "the," not "an."

Were I representing CC's PR efforts, I'd have returned them, not shredded them, chortling publicly about how we won't get caught. It seems they're opening themselves for quite reasonable claims from Mad Inc demanding they prove the unsold copies were in fact, unsold.

Which would be a great comeuppance. Genuinely, a Steisand Effect writ large.

Normal corporate response.

I have seen companies pull their advertising from their ad agency just because of poor ad placement in a single magazine, the typical corporate response to a negative article is always far worse.

The flip side, I just love the reference to Best Buy. IN my town BB is building a new store on the main mall entrance road to CC... one can't get to CC without passing BB.

Not to stick up for Circuit City but DDR1 is creeping up everywhere..

When I worked at Circuit Shitty we never carried magazines though.

OK, so Circuit City isn't showing much of a sense of humor, but I can understand that they would be reluctant to have stuff that makes fun of them in the store.

And I have to admit that I have a bit of a soft spot for Circuit City, for the simple reason that they are not Best Buy (and that they at least give BB a little competition).

That parody ad is very funny indeed. Go Gang of Idiots Go!

This is so true. Best Buy just opened a store here last year 30 FEET from Circuit City. The delivery trucks only have to turn around in the parking lot to make both deliveries.

Being an avid MAD Magazine reader... CC can go fuck themselves. I was laughing at the products not the seller but now I am laughing at CC. Who the heck runs their PR dept? Ahh... what do I care, they will be out of business in a few more months anyway.

No, Circuit City sells magazines here, as does Best Buy. Mostly Gadget Mags (PC Magazine, Wired), Lad Mags (Maxim, FHM), Gaming magazines, and other stuff that appeals to 15 year old boys.

Circuit City removes Mad Magazine from their shelfs, and the whole Internet reads it.

Circuit City 0
... well no one won here, Circuit City just shot themselves in the foot.

I love doing that.

Was funny in its own way though, wouldn't call it hysterical though.

Paperback books and Magazines generally aren't stocked by major stores, they have a service which comes in and takes care of it for them. Carrying magazines never results in a loss, because you "destroy" the unsold copies by taking the front cover off and mail that back to your Magazine distributor or give it to the magazine service. If you get 6 copies of Mad in and mail back 5 covers, you're only charged for the one issue you sold.

You'll see a notice in paperbacks that says something along the lines of:

"If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher."

Circuit City is pulling all copies of Mad off the shelf, pulling the covers off and reporting them all as unsold because they lose absolutely no money by doing so.

Now that's funny.

So aren't they saying to take all copies without paying Mad Magazine, Inc for "using" them, then taking advantage of the fact that Mad Magazine trusts them enough not to make them account for every copy? In other words, isn't Circuit City scamming Mad Magazine?

If they choose to destroy them, they should have to pay Mad. You break it, you bought it!

Oh damn well...they still have some DVD's for less that Wal-Mart. I'll never figure that out...

[en.wikipedia.org]

Perhaps they are upset because it really isnt parody, but the truth!

I use to be a "Mad" man, when I was a young lad. "Cracked" was okay, but just not the same. These days, I find a lot of the content of the new online "Cracked" to be quite amusing...although I miss that janitor character.

This is GREAT! Nice find!

LOLOLOLOL!

Is anyone else going to go to Circuit City and ask where to find the Mad Magazine's?

Dear Circuit City Investors,

The reason why your stock is tanking might have something to do with the fact that there is a person in Corporate Operations who is being paid to sit on her ass and tell employees to remove magazines from the shelves. You know, "s-h-e-l-v-e-s" ...those horizontal planks that should contain awesome products that customers actually want to buy. Cause the few times I've been in there since Xmas 07, I couldn't find a darned thing reasonable priced or interesting enough to use my $100.00 gift card on. Just a heads up :) KTHXBAI!

Sincerely,

Ex-Circuit City Shopper Who Now Frequents Costco.

I wouldn't be surprised if unscrupulous employees gave themselves a few free subscriptions.

Clemens on the Shiitake TV shot is a nice touch

Can't take a joke, eh, Circuit City?

Or maybe I simply grew up.

@TonyTriple: I don't know what that means, CCA?

When did Circuit City carry Mad Magazine, or magazines in general?

@Ben Popken: Same here, incredibly accurate!