76. Circuit City bankruptcy

76. Circuit City bankruptcy
Tags: Top 100 Retail
January 12, 2010

Perhaps the writing was on the wall when the Wall Street Journal added Circuit City's Philip Schooner to its "Worst CEOs of the Year" list in December 2007. Barely more than a year later, all 567 stores were shuttered, leaving 34,000 unemployed. Financial analysts and the blogosphere alike pointed to one particularly disastrous decision: Schooner's cost-cutting scheme of firing 3,400 veteran salespeople in March 2007 to replace them with beginners.