Write a letter to the editor
Just a week after announcing the impending closure of 20 percent of its stores, including the one in Charlottesville, struggling electronics retailer Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reorganize its finances.
Write a letter to the editor
Monticello making TJ hip
Monticello has launched a new website (that has a signature graphic showing Thomas Jefferson listening to an iPod) called Jefferson Today (www.jeffersontoday.org), which will highlight how TJ’s ideas are still relevant today. It also appears to be an aggregator of all things remotely Jefferson–the site includes a story from Newsday about the recent crash landing of a passenger jet into the Hudson River, which mentions that one of the ferry boats that came to the rescue was named the Thomas Jefferson. The featured topic on the site is the election of Barack Obama, with commentaries by Julian Bond and Annette Gordon-Reed, who won a National Book Award this year for her book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. As we witness the election of America’s first African-American president, Gordon-Redd discusses the paradox of a slave-owning Jefferson penning the immortal words “all men are created equal.” (0)
Circuit City shorts out
A month after closing its Charlottesville location, Richmond-based electronics retailer Circuit City announced today that it is liquidating all of its assets, and its 30,000 employees will now find themselves out of work. The company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November, and in a last ditch effort to cut costs, closed its Seminole Square store along with 154 other locations on December 20, 2008. (2)
Warner crosses the aisle for Obama's AG nominee
Even though he officially retired last Tuesday, former Senator and present Hook cover boy John Warner (R) is still making headlines with his bipartisan streak. Today, he reached across the aisle to testify on behalf of Eric Holder, President-elect Obama’s nominee for Attorney General, before the Senate Judiciary Committee and called for his confirmation by the committee. Warner called Holder “a good man,” and told his former colleagues, “I felt I wanted to be among those all across the nation who are working for a bipartisan approach to support the president-elect.” (1)
Lost Charlottesville: W.W. O'Toole's
Here’s another “Lost Charlottesville” dispatch, and this time it’s W.W. O’Toole’s. Located at 333 W. Main Street, this place was Bull Alley when I got here in 1989, then W.W. O’Tooles, then Mingles (the town’s first Karaoke bar), then Awful Arthur’s, and now West Main. While taking a break from beer-fueled Mingles’ singing, I purchased this hand-carved, gilt-covered sign from a certain Inauguration-happy Mingles manager and Kool Kat named Ray for $100. Flash forward to last August, and the sign’s collecting dust, so I sold it at the Consignment House for $160. That brought me a check for $96, so it only cost me $4 to enjoy it all these years. (7)
Remember when Circuit City was a favorite in “Good to Great” by Jim Collins? Remember when we thought being big gave you clout with customers and vendors to produce long-term returns (Michael Porter’s 5 Forces Model)? It’s time we recognize that the old approach to management doesn’t work in a rapidly shifting competitive world. There are winners in today’s market, but they follow a different approach. Read more at http://www.ThePhoenixPrinciple.com
Circuit City is about to go Tango Uniform.
RIP Circuit City = Celestial Eternal Dirt Nap.