Circuit City goes titsup

The bankrupt US retail giant Circuit City will be fully liquidated after the company failed to find a buyer in time. The company will be presenting the results of an auction for its assets at a hearing in US Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia later today. Circuit City said in a statement that it will seek approval to …

[J]

No wonder...

There is a CC close to my place, and sometimes I stop there to see if there's anything interesting. They made no effort to sell more. Prices are high and salespeople are scarce, I once waited about 10 minutes trying to ask someone about a TV. I asked if they could give me a better price, and the answer was simply "no". Not even tried. And the price, quite normal, was not lower than anywhere else, so of course it was not true that they could not give at least some discount.

I would say they won't be missed, but I'm wary of having only one vendor around (Best Buy). First, CompUSA gone. Now CC. No competition at all now...

[Mark Dowling]

Canada

If The Source (Circuit City's Canada ops) goes under, Best Buy should be forced by the Competition Bureau to spin off Future Shop - should never have been allowed buy them in the first place

[Doug Glass]

No Surprise

Having sworn off CC because of no customer appreciation, no customer service and a staff that would have been better at selling used cars... this is no surprise.

[Rick]

good riddance

They were horrible. I for one am glad they are gone and as for J's post there is competition in the form of WAL-MARX or the internet. And if you are lucky there is a Fry's in your area like there is one in mine.

/will have to go to the one by my place to see if there is anything worth pilfering

[Anonymous Coward]

@J : Fry's

When I was working in the US there was an electronics retailer called Fry's - would that be another competitor ?

[ThinkingOutLoud]

American answer to...

...PC World?

While in Atlanta several years ago a friend and I bought bits n' pieces at one of their branches. The staff might as well have stood behind the counter at Wendy's for all they knew about their products.

Ho, hum...

Paris because I'd forgive her ignorance in return for other services.

[kain preacher]

Fry's

There not every were though. To J they guy that wouldn't even check for a discount I can tell you why. He already knew the answer. To say there is always is a discount is far from accurate . If CC was going to give you a decent price they wouldn't of jack the price up that far.

[Gary]

Meh at another "monopoly" born

Not that I was a big fan of CC, but at least they provided *some* competition to Best Buy. There are no Frys on the east coast, and Wal-Muck hardly counts. Just another case where a monopoly was born because it was the only remaining competitor in the market. Meh.

(Though if this provides a push for Frys to also set up shop on the east coast, that would be nice)

[Jared Vanderbilt]

One less McShack.

I never saw much point to the store, or Best Buy. I used to go in there to look at products before buying them on the internet for 40% less. Haven't needed to do that since the manufacturers started publishing complete specs and highres photos. Hopefully the day will come when there are no more brick and mortar superstores. Just the web & FedEX (I could use another 20% discount and an unrestricted view of the mountains).

Paris - Matriarch of the unemployed

[Jodo Kast]

Fry's are scarce

Fry's stores are scarce. They are all over California, and there is 1 in Chicago.

Not a true competitor to Best Buy because they aren't in 90% of the same markets.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fry's?

The first time I heard about Fry's, was when one of my friends went on a trip to LA.

I don't know about Circuit City, but I do remember that our local (El Paso) Computer City went down because CompUSA bought them out, then closed them down. If these stupid mergers and takeovers were not allowed, we wouldn't have a Best Buy monopoly these days.

[Kevin]

wtf

"Regrettably for the more than 30,000 employees of Circuit City and our loyal customers,"

all 10 of them?

Seriously though I shopped at that shit hole probably 5 times in the last 14 years. 4 of which was for what I seen in a sales ad went in the very next day miraculously they never had the item in stock the day after the item was off sale they had 15 on the shelf...

Bought a Sega Dreamcast there after they were discontinued (last place to have any) told the cashier literally 15 times and got in a argument about not wanting the service contract and that it was discontinued still they pestered me to the point I told them to shut up or they can keep it.

The last one was for a 500 gig drive a year ago ended up going to best buy and price matching seeing Circuit city had absolutely 0 in stock in any store within a 50 mile radius, BTW this was the 1st day of the sale.

Circuit city so long you shall not be missed.

[James Woods]

aw

What, I won't get to see all the circuit city commercials on tv anymore? This rumor has been going on for quite awhile and while it's all been going on the circuit city commercials have been full force.

These companies should be ashamed of themselves advertising like that when they know darn well they are on the way out.

[Skyraker]

DSG

I hope they're next.... wankers.

[Jeremy]

Fry's? God no.

Never have I been to a store and been made to feel more uncomfortable and unwelcome than Frys (they have at least one in the Atlanta area, I don't know of any others).

They treat all their customers like criminals. They bag search on entry, insist you leave any long coats in your car, their customer service is dreadful, won't take a card payment without a driver's license, prices are quite high, they bag check on the way out, won't take a bill bigger than a twenty without taking it away (!) to be checked by a manager and more. Shall I go on?

All this in a low-crime area where other stores all seem to be able to operate normally without shoplifters bankrupting them. Worst. Store. Ever. Hopefully they'll be the next up against the wall for treating honest customers like shit.

I won't go in there unless I have absolutely no choice.

[Wayland Sothcott]

Nerds needed

You have to staff your shops with various types of people, you need some nerds. You need people who understand the products and can get this accross to nerdy customers and technophobes.

I was in PC World and a staff member helpfully asked if I needed any help. I asked for a memory card reader that could do a cirtain two types of card. "Oh I don't think one like that exists" he said.

I went and looked anyway and found exactly what I needed.

These shops run on the pretense of knowing what they are talking about but you don't have to have any brains at all to be smarter than the average consumer electronics shopper. They make all their money on the overpriced HDMI leads anyway.

[Gulfie]

@Skyraker

I agree with the sentiment WRT PC World but I like to be able to browse/try the products before I pull out my iPhone and find the best deal ;-)

Plus we'd lose Currys, I'd have to go to Tesco for my next HDTV.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Skyraker

From what I hear (from people trying to supply to them), you wish might come true.

Then what - no competition on the high-street...

[Cortland Richmond]

How do we do it? We make it up...

Stopped by my local CC. Everything ten percent off. Employees say "the liquidator" raised prices to MSRP so it could take off ten percent (cables were thirty percent) and still make money. Lots of empty spaces on the shelves, though prices are still mostly noncompetive, IMO.

I've SEEN a liquidation sale -- ten cents on the dollar. This isn't one.

[Anonymous Coward]

Did they sack their top sales staff?

Was it Circuit City who paid their sales staff on commission, and then sacked the ones earning most because they were getting "more than their share"? So they retained only the staff with no track record of selling stuff, and then wonder why their finances went down the toilet?

Or was that some other outfit?