Some sad news...

Well, sad for me anyway...

Two retailers, Circuit City and CompUSA, are closing a slew of stores. Circuit City is apparently shutting down a small handful of stores in the U.S. and dumping a slew of their outfits in Canada.

CompUSA, however, has announced that it's shutting down over half of their operation. Of 225 stores, they are shutting down 126, going to under 100 stores left in operation.

Why is this sad? Well, I couldn't give two shits about Circuit City, having worked for Ultimate Electronics, I've known my share of those that jumped ship from Circuit during their switch from commissioned to non-commissioned sales. No, my sorrow comes from the fact that the CompUSA stores here in Minnesota are shutting down, specifically, store #787. My store.

No, I don't work there now, and actually haven't worked there since the latter half of 2002, but, I was the Front End Manager there for a long time, before one of their management restructures left me with a hard decision: Keep doing the same job at reduced pay, or move on.

I chose to move on. I won't say I haven't regretted that decision from time to time, because, in all honesty, I really miss working there. But, I know it was the right choice, they've gone through a lot of hard times. The entire retail world has gone through hard times, of course. It's funny how few people, even those that have actually worked in retail during their lives, really know how hard retail operations are.

It's just a little sad to think that my store, my first stint in retail management, is going to be gone. Just like that. I had a lot of good times there... and I'm not afraid to admit that I had some INCREDIBLE times in the training center there... of course, it's not appropriate to discuss that...

I started there while I was in high school as a cashier, and within a month had gotten my first promotion. I had a lot of pride while working there. I still have many of my work shirts, the red one's from before I was a manager (even my "Ask me about Windows 98!" shirt), and my white management shirts. I've also still got my original white name tags with the Brother P-Touch labels, and my gold "Certified" name tags, my named stamped into them 'professionally'.

It's funny how certain things will make a person nostalgic. Hearing this news definitely stirred a twinge of sadness. My loyalty to CompUSA has never wavered, because, if not for the aforementioned reasons for leaving, I'd likely still be there. A lifer.

"Everyday's a good day at CompUSA." We'd say it when things were good. We'd say it when things were rough. It's always stuck with me, even though I haven't worked anywhere since with a name that rhymed so well with "day".

Goodbye Minnetonka Store 787, I shall miss you.