Egeliah: To answer your question, being that PS is the CEO of Circuit City and anything/everything that takes place in that store is under his guidance, we don't really need specific words out of his lips. It's just like the President of the United States. Do we hear everything out of his mouth directly? No. That's why they have presidential spokesmen. In corporate America, especially w/ the larger companies who's CEO's are here/there/everywhere, it's often times hard to track them down for "their words", so they have others do it for them to convey the collective thoughts of the company (often times, governed by a BOD). CC did have this to say though...
"We want to offer a variety of products and services to our customers and the GameZnFlix's program allows our customers to experience the convenience of renting both movies and games through the mail," said Bill Cimino, director of corporate communications for Circuit City.
You think that they're just putting some GnF jewel cases on a shelf and hope they sell themselves? Wrong. They're going to offer this as an added benefit to enhance a related purchase. If I just bought a game system, why wouldn't I want a game rental option? If I just bought a home theater system, why wouldn't I want a DVD rental option? It takes time and energy to train the employees to properly sell a service and they'll want a ROI for that as well. They'll also help the push by making in store "competitions" between the employees for selling the service. That's the way they work and it's been a proven motivativating tool used for their associates to sell whatever it is they want them to sell...and what they want them to sell is exactly what GnF offers them exactly as you said, "high ROI items on the shelf".
If GnF is on the CC shelves and CC pushes them (as they currently are in print, online, and in store) for this first full year and suddenly GnF "disappears" from CC altogether, you ask, "what has CC really lost?". I'll tell you what they would lose: 1) a great opportunity to capitalize on this high ROI service that's "on the shelf", and that's bottom line - money lost; 2) a great deal of money, time, effort and energy wasted not only bringing GnF into their stores (at that point) for the past year including all the DD they put into it beforehand but also in the training of management and associates to sell the service; 3) credibility in the eyes of their customers for at that point, if that happened, by offering a service that for whatever reason was NOT a benefit or enhancement to their customers and possibly NOT "just what they needed", would reflect very poorly on their their entire organization. That's a lot to lose, IMO, especially AFTER all the stores are rolled out.
Although yes, Reed Hastings has managed NFLX sucessfully, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. IMO, to suggest and think that he could've garnered NFLX the exposure and credibility that was gained through the big push by BestBuy, on their own, I personally think is being naive. Again, we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one.
Also, to think that JF is such a blundering buffoon and lacks very little of the skills necessary to grow a successful company, flies in the face of better judgement, IMO. If he was the "bad management" you'd like to suggest, then you must also be suggesting that he was just "lucky" to have gotten this break that he "obviously" doesn't deserve. Well, large corporations that promote products directly to consumers aren't about being "nice" and "giving chances" to little company's ran by "bad management". Precisely because they know that whatever they put on their shelves, ultimately, is a direct reflection of themselves. So, the product and/or service better be of the same like that they want to portray of themselves to the consumer; which is that they are a great company looking out for their customers by offering the best products and services to enhance their lives.
Lastly, of course it's a stretch to assume PS, CEO of CC, has
"great plans for the success of this little company", because he's not the CEO of "this little company". But, what he does have are great plans for the succes of the big company which he runs, and a part of the plan to help in that quest for success is by offering, and I quote again, "a variety of products and services to our customers and the GameZnFlix's program allows our customers to experience the convenience of renting both movies and games through the mail," said Bill Cimino, director of corporate communications for Circuit City.
This "little company" is on the fast track to success and being that they need "fast money" necessary to quickly build the infrastructure to serve a large public. Hence the NECESSARY DILUTION that WILL go DIRECTLY toward the ECONOMIC SUCCESS AND VIALBILITY this "little company" needs to accomplish that goal.
It takes money to make money and, unfortunately, it doesn't grow on trees.
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