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Circuit City will disappear from the retail landscape by Sunday night. All of the retailer’s remaining 500-plus stores will close by then, ending an era for a chain that began in a small downtown Richmond storefront in 1949 and later became the nation’s largest consumer-electronics chain…

A consortium of four liquidating companies has been conducting going-out-of-business sales since mid-January at Circuit City’s 567 U.S. stores. They were selling off the Henrico County-based chain’s remaining $1billion-plus worth of inventory at reduced prices. The group initially thought the stores would close by late March, but sales have gone better than expected, Circuit City spokesman Bill Cimino said.

About 70 stores already have closed, he said…

The demise of Circuit City will flood the commercial real estate market with about 22 million square feet of retail space at more than 600 locations nationwide.

They weren’t very sharp. They rarely paid for competent help. They relied on discount pricing to turn the inventory. But, then, there probably is a spot in the marketplace for stores just like that.

When folks can afford to buy stuff.




  1. Paddy-O says:

    I’m just glad we have Fry’s.
    http://frys.com/

  2. bobbo says:

    Paddy==right you are. Local Frys just had the ONE terabyte freeagent external drive on sale for $109. Cheaper than the same drive without the usb device for $20 less. I bought one as its cheaper than DvDs.

    The future is so bright, I gotta wear shades.

  3. Paddy-O says:

    #2 Thanks, I need some more external storage.

  4. Xwing71 says:

    Looks like circuit city is just the first of many. Office Depot looks to be falling into the same hole, and for the same reasons. Poor management at the corporate level. Good CEOs and boards are so hard to find.

  5. SparkyOne says:

    They are leaving those butt-ugly buildings behind? They should have been forced to clean the spoiled architecture before they went out of business.

  6. George says:

    Visited the Circuit City yesterday on a whim (90% off according to the signs) and found 4 laptop computers, a pile of Charter connection kits (cables and a splitter), and some iphone cases. No thanks.

    I never liked CC, especially one time after I ordered a harddrive online for instore pickup. When I showed up with my confirmation/pickup paperwork, the pickup desk people couldn’t find it, and told me someone must have “stolen” it. I didn’t get an apology, gift certificate, nothing. Adios M’F’s.

  7. Bill says:

    While I’m also a Frys/Outpost.com fan, you might want to steer clear of the FreeAgent drives. Just google search for buzz noise FreeAgent and peruse Seagates forums looking at all of the issues with them.

    I bought one that died within two weeks, and the replace came with a bad power adapter. I had to mix n match to get a working set.

  8. bobbo says:

    #8–Bill==seriously. I read about the firmware/lack of reliability issues about the freeagent or really just the 1.0 and 1.5 Seagate Terabyte drives. But the warranty is still 5 years and the return to Fry’s is still 30 days.

    I’m in the market right now for a Kitchen Aid 600 Pro and when I go on line all I get is “Its Great” or “It is Crap” reviews==the percentage based on the purpose of the website.

    Isn’t the simple truth that almost NONE of the reviews on the web are valid at all? What to do?

    Consumer Reports rates the Cuisenart Mixer slightly above the KitchenAid that was last years winner.

    You pay your money, and take your chances.

  9. Cephus says:

    The problem with Circuit City locally was that they were more expensive than the Best Buy about half a block away. I can’t remember the last time I actually bought anything at Circuit City, if I even walked in at all, I looked at the prices and went elsewhere.

    While Fry’s is cheap, their policies suck and trying to return anything for any reason is an annoying process. I bought something from them that was obviously repackaged and broken once I opened the package, but wasn’t marked that way, I took it back and they gave me a serious hassle exchanging it. Since the closest Fry’s is about 30 miles away, I don’t go there very often.

  10. Brian says:

    All the big electronics stores suck – Best Buy, Frys, CC. Why anyone would consider purchasing anything computer related there when newegg is infinitely better, cheaper, and has way better policies is beyond me. For electronics, I gladly spend the few extra bucks and deal with a local specialty home theater shop. DVDs? Again, why would you shop at one of them, when you can find much better pricing online?

    F all those big box chains. My only hope is Best Buy is right behind CC on the way to bankruptcy.

  11. jescott418 says:

    I don’t see another big retailer expanding. Most are just trying to not go bankrupt. It’s sad traveling the country how many large empty office and retail spaces are around. It’s hard to imagine much buildng going on for some time to come. But then Obama says the Depression I mean Recession will be ending by the end of this year.

  12. Brian says:

    The number of buildings sitting empty is a result of too many businesses trying to make their bottom lines look better by talking about how many new locations they added, all the while their existing businesses were losing money. They would target the new stores and set expectations for year over year growth when there was no previous year to set expectations off of. The end result was far too many businesses occupying far too many locations.

    The short term of course is extremely painful – thousands out of work, billions lost in the stock market, but it was an inevitable market correction that was coming, just like it was with the housing market. The billions that the republican administration pushed through corporate welfare in Bush’s tenure only (a) delayed the problem and (b) amplified it. Instead of letting businesses fail as they should have, billions of tax payer dollars were spent propping them up, paying executives millions in bonuses and perks, all the while these businesses were bankrupt.

    For the long term health of this country, this correction HAD to happen.

  13. PhoneBoy says:

    With all that commercial real-estate popping up, thanks to the closure of Circuit City, perhaps Frys CAN go national?

  14. John Paradox says:

    Just went to Office Max right next to the closed Sucker CC… literally would be just to the left of the one in the photo.
    Imagine they are getting more biz now.

    J/P=?

  15. Ron Larson says:

    Now the Fry’s is not longer being looted for millions to pay for their purchasing manager’s gambling habits, they might have a good chance of thriving in this economy.

  16. Tomas says:

    Mom and Pop’s rule…fuck the big box stores. It is killing this country. You are the same people who bitch about outsourcing to China and you whine when the same people doing the outsourcing fail. What the fuck is wrong with you idiots?

  17. rzwo says:

    RIP CC… went there twice during the closing and everything was still cheaper at Walmart and elsewhere. Only thing that may have been worth it was the movies/music… but never found anything worth buying.


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