islandclaws

I'm glad I verified that extended warranties are done through a third party before I bought my set last month. I wish I could say I hate to see them go, but with such shitty service and a total lack of good, in-stock product it's really no surprise.

DeanoBKN

I feel very bad for the employees, but after following the company through many years of blunders, I say good riddance.

Jeremy517

They don't handle the liquidation, it is handled by a liquidation company. Companies like that will mark things at MSRP, then put a "discount" on it to make it seem like it is actually a bargain.

Mad Dawg

I don't know why anyone would be happy that Circuit is gone. There was nothing wrong with the company and it would have been nice to see it sold to someone capable of making it a better place to shop. The problem people have was with leadership, not Circuit's general existence. It's not like poor service or lack of selection or OOS sale items would have magically transferred under new ownership.

reverie

Same here.

Travis McClain

I never really had a problem with Circuit City. As many have mentioned, I fear for the employees and the impact this will have on the economy. Selfishly, though, I'm wondering how quickly we can get our grubby little paws on our tax rebate money.

DarthVong

Circuit City to shut down
Court filing shows bankrupt electronics retailer seeks approval to sell merchandise in its remaining 567 stores.
By Parija B. Kavilanz, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: January 16, 2009: 12:50 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Bankrupt electronics retailer Circuit City Inc. said Friday it has asked for court approval to close its remaining 567 U.S. stores and sell all its merchandise.

The company said it has 34,000 employees.

"We are extremely disappointed by this outcome," James Marcum, acting CEO for Circuit City, said in a statement. "We were unable to reach an agreement with our creditors and lenders to structure a going-concern transaction in the limited timeframe available, and so this is the only possible path for our company."

In a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Circuit City - the No. 2 electronics retailer after Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500) - said it had reached an agreement with four companies to start the liquidation process.

The company said the sale would begin Saturday and run until March 31, pending court approval.

The retailer's Web site and call center will cease to operate after Jan. 18.

Circuit City said employees will receive 60 days notice of the termination.

Employees who are laid off earlier will get pay and benefits for the 60-day period beginning Friday, the retailer said.

Those who remain with the company to assist with the liquidation, will receive pay and benefits.

Circuit City also operates about 765 retail stores and dealer outlets in Canada. The company said its Canadian operations, which employ 3,000 workers, will continue to operate.

The company said it will redeem its gift cards through the liquidation sale, but the cards will have no value once the stores are closed.

"This is very significant. It shows you how bad things are for the the retail industry," said George Whalin, president and CEO of Retail Management Consultants.

Whalin said management mistakes over the past few years combined with the recession brought down Circuit City.

"This company made massive mistakes," he said, citing a decision to get rid of sales people and other mismanagement.

What's more, given the credit market freeze, Whalin added that no manufacturer wants to sell to any retailer who doesn't have money to pay for the merchandise.

At the same time, Whalin said there's still a very slim chance that one or more firms that have expressed an interest in buying Circuit City could still buy it out of bankruptcy over the next few days.

"I wouldn't say it's completely over yet for Circuit City, but it's almost over," Whalin said.

Love Goel, CEO of Growth Ventures Group, an investment banking firm focused on retailers, agreed with Whalin.

"Circuit City isn't a viable business in its old incarnation when half of electronics sales have moved online," Goel said. "CompUSA and Tweeter also didn't make it for the same reason."

However, Goel speculated that Circuit City could still find a lifeline if Golden Gate Capital, one of the reported lead bidders for the merchant, bought the company and restructured it primarily as an online business with very few physical stores.

"This would eliminate overhead costs, vendor conflicts and other issues," he said. "Circuit City has an almost $1 billion online business. So there is a future for it in that regard." To top of page

6669

This is horrible news. Thousands of people will lose their jobs. I loved CC's clearances, since no one ever marked down the price tags, whatever I was looking for was pretty much always there. We can also say goodbye to Best Buy's competitive prices now.

stingermck

And they can join the thousands of people CC fired due to making too much. CC brought this on themselves.

BuckNaked2k

What competitive prices? BB is a retail heist.

jwbbud

no good once liquidators take over

fumanstan

What's different about their Canadian operations that allows them to still be open?

fujishig

? The article says that gift cards can be used throughout the liquidation process...

PopcornBandit

Wait, so the store closing sales start tomorrow?

My Other Self

Media Play's going out of business sales were a joke. All of their merchandise was marked up, so the percentage off really brought it back down to Media Play's regular price.

KMH

I think they are mostly smaller stores in Canada. Circuit City bought InterTAN in 2004 and rebranded Canadian Radio Shacks as "The Source by Circuit City."

maingon

this sucks, sad that there will really only be one big electronics store now. Sad to see CC go. Even though I perfer Best Buy Circuit City always had some pretty good deals.

Josh-da-man

Yeah, that's the way it is with "liquidation sales" around here.

They start at something like 10% off, and anything worth buying is gone the first day. (Which, at 10% off, generally means I can still buy it somewhere else much cheaper.)

And I'd never want to buy something that might be defective, since the liquidators won't take returns. So if I buy a DVD boxed set and it turns out one of the DVDs is missing or won't play, I'm SOL unless the studio will let me do an exchange.

I don't bother.

Josh-da-man

Best Buy won the war a long time ago. They have the name recognition and market penetration to the point where most people will just automatically wander into a Best Buy store when they need a new computer or television. They don't have to price competitively with other places since they've captured the market.

Snowmaker

DVD-wise, yes. I only bought 2-3 DVDs the whole time they were liquidating. But I must have bought 20-30 CDs for $6-10 a pop. I was at the two stores near me every week 2-3 times a week during the whole process.

I even bought one of those cheap "Fender" electric guitar/amp combos for $100.


Of course, Circuit City doesn't have HALF the CD selection Media Play had.

Tarantino

We have no plans to raise our prices.

Actually, our meeting yesterday was to figure out how we can keep the customers coming over from Circuit by use of better customer service.

Not that this matters to any of you.

= J

lastdiplomat

After reading the story last year about how they treated their employees, I'm glad Circuit City is shutting down for good. For those who missed the story, CC fired 3400 full-time employees and only offered to hire them back part-time to avoid paying them $11 an hour and giving them benefits. People who had worked there for 7+ years were fired for no good reason. I suppose it was the first sign that CC wasn't doing well, but I stopped shopping there after reading that story.

Franchot

Seems like this is just the normal cycle of things in the electronics retail business. In the 70s there were many different electronics stores selling TVs, stereos, speakers, etc. They all advertised how much cheaper and better they were than the competition and then they got bogged down with upper management money wasting. Finally, they all went out of business due to crappy customer service and rising prices which were needed to keep the upper management in place.

Hopefully, someone new will emerge and knock the crappy Best Buy for the same loop that they knocked Circuit City.

Darth Maher

I always had to look for sales people when I went there. And the workers I finally did find to help me didn't seem to know anything about what they were selling. Not that Best Buy is much better sometimes in the "knowledge" department. But at least, when Best Buy advertises something, they usually have it in stock. I've walked out of Circuit City empty handed countless times simply because the were out of stock of the item(s) I went in there for.

jpb07

It has been touched on just a few posts above...wouldn't this be one hell of an opportunity for Fry's to expand into the old CC stores? I mean there are a ton of newer CC stores in major markets that are ripe for the picking. For one, I'd be shocked if the Waterford Lakes (East Orlando) CC store that was built a couple of years ago didn't become a Fry's over the summer.