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

[Todd Stout]

I worked at Builders Emporium when they decided to close down all of their stores back in 1993 and liquidate inventory. It was amazing how quickly the sheer volume of customers increased as soon as it was announced that we were closing and "everything in the store is now 10%-20% off!" A lot of merchandise was sold at that low mark down which really amazed those of us who hadn't been laid off yet. After a couple of weeks at 10%-20% off, the discount gradually increased by 10% per week until it reached 70% off the final week the store was open. Of course there wasn't much left on the store shelves that most people would have any interest in by that point.

I guess my point is that the trick to shopping going out of business sales is timing.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

As one of the old-line anti-DIVX crusaders (I was even scolded publicly by Ron once for being too harsh against Circus Shitty), I have one word:

FINALLY!

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Todd,

Don't forget Pacific Stereo. Or are you too young for that?

 

[mylan]

Wow, someone who hates them even more than me! The Divx debacle turned me against them and I haven't been in one of their stores but maybe twice since, additional I never cared for the layout of their stores.
Still I hate that one more B&M store has bitten the dust and we now have less competition, never a good thing.

 

[Todd Stout]

OH YEAH! I actually do remember those guys. I think they closed down before I really got into music and stereos however. I started building my first "real" component stereo back in 1984 when I was a freshman in high school. Most of my components came from The Federated Group and Fedco's stereo department (the now defunct Fedco near me used to carry high end stereo equipment and Laserdisc players).

What about Leo's Stereo? That was another place similar to Pacific wasn't it?

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I got a Shure V15 type IV cartridge for $45 at Pacific Stereo's going out of business sale.

 

[Matt Butler]

I hate seeing stores close but Ill admit I f-kn hated CC!! They did get a bit of my money though perioically. I hadnt been in there in a long time though due to the craptacular service and disorganised sections, I just gave up on them one day and went to Best Buy or bought on Amazon or alocal chain called Dimple for music and DVDs/Blus

 

[Greg_S_H]

I miss Highland Appliance. It closed down so long ago that they had an Atari 2600/Intellivision/Colecovision blowout sale at the end. We lost Federated a very long time ago, too. But, the one I mourn is Incredible Universe. It turned into a Fry's, but it lost its fun.

 

[Malcolm R]

It is amazing how the crowds will swarm over the dying corpse of a retailer they wouldn't patronize under other circumstances.

 

[Steve Berger]

I've wondered if CC might have gone self-insured on it's extended warranties again; (They have done it both ways at times in the past: third-party and self-insured) and that added to their debt because they didn't envision that 3-5 year old flat panels were generally unrepairable and had to be exchanged. Self-insured warranty coverage is what killed most of the old Curtis-Mathis dealerships.

 

[DaveF]

What makes Circuit City's failure more amazing is that it was a "best of breed" store not too long ago.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I really grew to respect their early mail-order store, "Dixie Hi-Fi", back in the early 1970's. They, along with Wisconsin Discount Stereo, didn't have rock-bottom prices but did give decent delivery and customer service. The outlets who did have rock-bottom prices would often sit on your order for months - they had no stock and only ordered from their wholesaler after YOU placed an order. :rolleyes

One thing I think hurt them badly - the rise of Home Despot and Lowes in selling major appliances. Back in the mid-1980's when Circuit City first appeared in California, they had a large section of each store dedicated to major appliances. Home hardware chains like Home Base and Handyman didn't sell major appliances at the time so CC had a great market share to themselves. But later on HD and Lowes pushed aggressively-priced appliances and CC pulled them from their stores. I note that it's difficult to retail stoves, dishwashers, and refers from a web-site. With internet retailers taking CC's market for "small box" merchandise (e.g. DVD players, receivers) and HD/Lowes taking the major appliances, CC was left with very little to call its own.

 

[gene c]

There's a couple of names I haven't thought about in a long time. The first CC in my neighborhood took over the vacated Handyman store.

Wasn't there another hardware/warehouse store called Pay N' Pak or something like it?

Back to CC, it was inevitable. I wonder what the retail landscape is going to look like in 10 years with the horrible economy and so many of us buying things on-line now days. This (and things like car dealerships going under) has to really hurt our local cities revenue stream. Are we shooting ourselves in the foot?

 

[Todd Stout]

I worked at a couple of Homebase stores back in 1997-1998 before I started working where I do now. Homebase originally started as a membership home improvement store called Home Club. From what I heard, about half of the chain was performing poorly by the late 1990s so they started examining their options. They opened a store called House2Home which I think was like Home Depot's Expo stores (kitchen & bath and housewares type of stuff) and it was successful. They then decided to close about half of the Homebase stores and turn the remaining locations into House2Home stores. In late 2001 House2Home filed for bankruptcy citing poor sales in the months after 9/11. All of the stores went through the liquidation process and were closed sometime in early 2002.

I remember the first Circuit City to come to town. It was located in Montclair, CA across from the Montclair Plaza (it's still there actually). If I remember correctly it opened sometime around 1986 or 1987. That was where I got my first taste of Onkyo. I was amazed at just how warm sounding even the Onkyo rack systems that Circuit City were to my ears. I guess I can thank Circuit City for turning me into the longtime Onkyo fan that I am today.

I have some bad memories of Circuit City too. That same store really butchered the hell out of the dashboard of my 1979 Toyota pickup sometime back in 1987. They jammed a DIN sized head unit into a space meant for a small shaft type model (my dad had it done before he sold that truck to me). When that old JVC started acting up, I took it in to have it repaired. After a few weeks of calling the store and asking what the status of my radio was, they finally told me they had lost it. I was a bit ticked off until they told me they'd give me a full refund on a head unit that was over a year old.

 

[Bryan^H]

Circuit City had the best buyers protection program that I know of. I got a 3 year warranty on my Panasonic dvd recorder. After 2 years of use it conked out. I brought it in to CC, and about a week later I got it back in perfect working condition. They even called to ask if I was happy with the service and thanked me for shopping with them.


I was in Best buy about a year ago. I was browsing dvd titles. I had an associate ask if I needed help. I said "no thank you". He proceeded to ask me that same question 3 more times in the next ten minutes. INSANE!! I left empty handed, and went to CC where I browsed at their(much better) dvd selection for about a half hour. No one bugged me. I left with a handful of titles.

I'm going to miss Circuit City.

 

[TravisR]

^ I think it all depends on each individual store and the people working in it. Years ago at the CC in my area, I used to have a hard time getting an employee to even look at me since they were always busy talking to each other and avoiding all customers. In the past couple of years, there were hardly any employees in the store. I haven't seen an employee in the DVD/CD section in at least a year.

 

[Bryan X]

All the CC stores in my area are crap. In addition to the employees leaving much to be desired, the stores themselves were awful. They were all dark, cluttered, dirty, and very disorganized. A stark contrast to the generally clean, spacious, and organized Best Buys in my area.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Our local paper saw fit to write up the beginning of the liquidation sale at our Circuit City in Albany, NY.

 

[gene c]

My biggest issue with CC was the employees. Appologies to any ex CC'ers out there but the ones in my nearby stores did seem dis-interested. But in all honesty, over-all Best Buy isn't much better. There's no way to auditon a speaker in that place with the music blaring so loudly and the concert dvd section has all but disappeared. The checkout stands are better placed and the stores do have a better layout but for me, the shopping experiencs is as good as I'd like it to be.

I used to really like Fry's a few years ago, and it's still my favorite, but not as much as I used to. Maybe I am getting old .

They say in a few years when things start to turn around again that new businesses will replace the one's that vanished. Maybe a new electronics store will imerge.

So, what's left for national and regional electronics stores? Here in the S.F Bay Area we have Fry's, Best Buy, Video Only and (I think) Ultimate Video(?) for sure. Maybe a Cambridge Soundworks in Palo Alto. Any others?

 

[Patrick Sun]

For me, the nearby electronics store options:

Best Buy
HH Gregg
Sears
Fry's
BrandSmart
Target
Wal-Mart
Costco
Sam's

In the past 5-10 years, we've lost:
Circuit City
CompUSA
Hifi Buys
Another Universe
and maybe 1-2 other ones.