Circuit City closing down 150+ stores in midwest (and now all of the stores) (1 Viewer)

[Jason Adams]

I guess i'm amused with how personally you guys take DIVX. As long as your wives and mothers and children are still alive, I see it as a really daft mistake rather then an affront to your lives. But the other things with sales staff, store conditions I totally understand. The store on 14th creeped me out whenever I went in. But thank goodness that Apple is opening down the street...wont be for a while though. I could always go back to Pottery Barn. A college student's gotta eat.

 

[DaveF]

Actually, my experience is it's exactly those things that cause the problems. Rebates printing with receipts slows checkout times; clerks taking customer rebate info slows more; slow thermal printers brings it to a crawl. And the registers scattered around cause the lines to to be confused (where do I checkout?) and extend into shopping aisles (am I shopping or checking out?)

The new store doesn't have the pokey old thermal receipt printers and the main registers are in the front, with a good buffer to the shopping area. So I'm hopeful now the new store will run smoother come busy shopping days.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Jason, this site was established in the 1990's in part as an anti-Divx site, many members finding their way here after the collapse of Steve Tannehill's old very anti-Divx site, DVD Resource. A lot of the old timers here have long memories.

 

[DaveF]

Circuit City files for bankruptcy.

 

[SteveA]

Is CC still honoring its gift cards? Retailers often quit accepting them once they file for bankruptcy. You are considered a creditor from which they are protected.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I went in and got a couple of XBox games for $8 a piece, and the guy at the head of the line was arguing with the clerk about something. I think it was about honoring gift cards. They initially told him they wouldn't, but a manager said to go ahead.

 

[DaveF]

I don't know. But this is not a going-out-of-business bankruptcy, but protection from creditors to stay in business bankruptcy. They want to keep selling you things and attempt to stay in business for years to come, so I would assume they will continue to honor gift cards.

 

[Malcolm R]

They said they expect to keep honoring the gift cards, but with the formal filing, they may have to wait for a judge's approval first. But I expect they'll continue to redeem them, perhaps after a short transition period. Everything on their web site/press release indicated they will continue to accept gift cards. As Dave said, they want to keep selling stuff, so they'd better not anger the few customers they have left.

 

[Greg_S_H]

This store might have been a special circumstance, because it is one of the ones shutting down. Or, they might have just been discussing coupons. The guy was asking about both.

 

[Mike Frezon]

An interesting development.

As I was researching this week's Weekly RoundUp, I went to circuitcity.com to research prices on this week's new releases.

DVDs and Blu-ray discs are no longer being listed on their site. The directions on the site as well as from those people manning their toll-free phone lines are to direct customers to shop in their local stores. They are crimping my style!

Most electronics still seem to be listed there.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

How odd. What's even more ironic is that CC bought out "800.com" years ago rather than develop their own webstore from scratch. And 800.com was IIRC a media store.

 

[Scott Strang]

Sooner or later it won't matter. It will all be Wal-Mart.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Well it looks like they all will be shut down now, as CC goes into liquidation.

Circuit City to liquidate U.S. stores - U.S. business- msnbc.com

 

[Jason Adams]

Eh...it was a good run. I feel sorry most of all for those who have families and depend on Circuit City to make ends meet. *cue souless bargain hunters in 5,4,3...*

 

[Todd Stout]

Here's another article about the chain closing:
Circuit City to liquidate remaining US stores - Yahoo! News

What a shame. I really liked Circuit City before they remodeled most of the stores in my area to look more like Best Buy stores. Just a few short years ago they were really a high class operation. The local Circuit CIty stores had employees that actually knew what they were talking about and seemed to really enjoy helping customers. They also used to have sound rooms that allowed you to audition audio equipment before you bought it.

Boy, we've lost The Good Guys, Tweeter, Silo, The Federated Group and now Circuit City from Southern California over the years. Of those, I think I miss The Good Guys and The Federated Group the most.

Edit: Speaking of The Federated Group, they had some rather amusing commercials:




I see a new thread has already appeared in the bargain hunters section of this forum.

 

[Malcolm R]

I figured it was inevitable. That's why I was sure to use up my remaing gift card balance prior to the holidays.

I won't really miss the store--I seldom found anything there I was looking for--but I do feel bad for all the people that will be losing jobs.

 

[Travis Hedger]

The ripples of DIVX finally hit the shoreline.

I wonder what Dick Sharp thinks about all this.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I don't think of bargain hunters as "soulless" just because a store is going out of business.

I feel as bad as the next guy that CC employees are going to be losing their jobs. But if I think there's going to be a good deal on something at my local CC as they liquidate, I don't think that makes me "soulless."

Does it?!?

 

[DaveF]

Now we'll have two empty CC buildings within a mile of each other. A brand new store, with the new layout, was built last summer and opened in August, just when the closings started. The old one is an empty building across from BestBuy. The new one is an anchor store in a new plaza.

And now we're down to one big-box electronics store.

And count me in for some soulless bargain shopping. The problem is inattentive shoppers are mezmerized by the 10% off coupons, not realizing that the prices were first taken up to full MSRP by the liquidation company. So I don't expect to get anything good; maybe I'll find some video games cheap.

 

[WillG]

As much as I hate to see a one huge electronics retailer close down, I must say that in recent years, I found shopping at CC to be a virturally futile effort. I'm a huge DVD buyer and it was miserable shopping at CC for DVDs. Racks were always an unorganized mess and you could seldom find anything that was less than a major release every Tuesday. As far as I could tell, you couldn't check online to see if a DVD was in stock at your local store, then reserve it for pickup like you can at Best Buy. I hardly shop there anymore, unless the severly undercut BBs price (which wasn't often) or there was good "DVD Bin" deals. The only thing I'll really miss them for would be price matching.