Death of an Icon

Like many people, I wasn't shocked by the recent announcements of Circuit City. Having worked there during the heydays of the early 90's I could see the writing on the wall a long time ago. I started there in July of '93 and worked there until January '97. I then worked at DiVX from January of '97 until April of '98. When I first got there I realized that this place was the coolest place to work in town. Capital One hadn't started sucking all of the good people away yet. I worked in IT and came to become part of a group of guys that are still around in Richmond IT, although scattered to the four winds.

Our group was extremely tight, closer than many families. Everyone knew that if you picked on one you had the whole group to fight. We even had the nickname of "LAN GODS". I told everyone during those years that they would have to pry the keyboard out of my cold, dead hands to get me to leave. That was of course, youthful ignorance talking as in later years corporate (and others) greed began to seep its way into things. Promises were broken, shady things began to happen and overall it became a lot less fun to work there.

When DiVX came along I jumped at the chance to try something new. I had helped from an IT perspective to start CarMax, Answer City and other failed opportunities like the home security, furniture and other ventures. I bought into DiVX hook, line and sinker. Again, it was a very cool job and I worked with many great people. The problem came when I found out that the major studios had gone back on their promises of releasing "DiVX-only" formats. As soon as I heard that I began looking for a job. Of course, I got the traditional "you're not a team player" speech. Six months after I left DiVX folded....you tell me.

I wish I could say it was surprising that CC has imploded in the last 10 years but it isn't. Even when I worked at CC I wouldn't shop there. When you went into a store it was so loud with rap music blaring from the car stereo section you could barely hear. You would look around for someone to help and find them all crowded around just talking to each other. Honestly, like a lot of people I would do my shopping online at Crutchfield and then go buy what I wanted from Best Buy. The only time I shopped at CC was in the early days when they used to let employees buy at cost. Once that went away I stopped shopping there altogether.

I feel bad for some of my old friends who have remained there for these past 10 years. I know lots of people who left and came back several times. Others went to more stable jobs at Capital One, the Federal Reserve and now VITA and Northrup Grumman. I have many opinions on why this happened but I think I'll keep them to myself.

RIP.