Circuit City to close 155 stores
Retailer Circuit City is expected to announce the closure of 155 stores, representing around 20 percent of the chains 714 US locations and a full withdrawal from 12 markets.
The closures, reported by The Consumerist are expected to immediately put some employees out of work, including those working in its Firedog on-location tech support and car installation departments. The stores will be liquidated over the next two months and close permanently at the end of the year.
Circuit City is the nation's second largest electronics retailer. A Reuters article from October 20 noted the closures of 150 stores were reported to be under consideration in a Wall Street Journal report.
Reuters cited an analyst who stated that 80 percent of Circuit City's stores were within five miles of a Best Buy location. The beleaguered chain is also reported to face strong competition from general retailers such as WalMart.
Apple split with Circuit City in 2000, but reopened a test pilot retailing agreement with the chain in 2006 to sell iMacs, notebooks, and Airport base stations. Last fall, Apple terminated its trial program with Circuit City and focused its resources on selling through Best Buy, the largest electronics retailer in the country.
Last year, Apple's other retail partner, CompUSA, also liquidated and closed most of its stores before having its remaining 16 stores acquired by the parent company of TigerDirect.
A listing of stores is presented in this PDF.
The closures, reported by The Consumerist are expected to immediately put some employees out of work, including those working in its Firedog on-location tech support and car installation departments. The stores will be liquidated over the next two months and close permanently at the end of the year.
Circuit City is the nation's second largest electronics retailer. A Reuters article from October 20 noted the closures of 150 stores were reported to be under consideration in a Wall Street Journal report.
Reuters cited an analyst who stated that 80 percent of Circuit City's stores were within five miles of a Best Buy location. The beleaguered chain is also reported to face strong competition from general retailers such as WalMart.
Apple split with Circuit City in 2000, but reopened a test pilot retailing agreement with the chain in 2006 to sell iMacs, notebooks, and Airport base stations. Last fall, Apple terminated its trial program with Circuit City and focused its resources on selling through Best Buy, the largest electronics retailer in the country.
Last year, Apple's other retail partner, CompUSA, also liquidated and closed most of its stores before having its remaining 16 stores acquired by the parent company of TigerDirect.
A listing of stores is presented in this PDF.
Comments
Edit: I do feel bad for the retail folks entering the world of unemployment, though...
That's one sale they lost...I never shop there, even if they have a lower price...
Just today I was in the local mall and a new tenant was in the center of the mall a new Apple reseller and they had better prices then even Best Buy. This store sold everything that Best Buy sold and more. I am seeing more and more of the local stores coming back after a dark spell and that makes me glad to see.
[edit: Off topic. Please, no political comments or further political replies, go to "Political Outsider" for that]
Had to send back (for the very first time EVER) my MB Pro 17" with the bad nVidia card. It failed last Thursday afternoon, met with the Genius Friday morning, barely had to explain what had transpired, and watched as he promptly and professionally boxed up my baby and sent it off for healing.
No treating me like an idiot, no interrogation of my motives or handling of the machine. (In fact, the moment I pre-offered the PMU/SMC diagnoses I had already performed over the past 24 hours, I was treated almost as an equal.) Can you imagine this kind of interaction at a Best Buy or Circuit City? Yeah, right.
I'll never buy another Mac product ANYWHERE but at an Apple retail store. They speak my language.
I never had any problem with CC at all. BB sucks big time.
Yeah so go out and vote for John McCain tomorrow so we can ensure even more business's go down the tubes in this country in next four year's
oh please...
Yeah so go out and vote for John McCain tomorrow so we can ensure even more business's go down the tubes in this country in next four year's
Nice grammar.
Reporting my first visit to an Apple store Genius Bar:I'll never buy another Mac product ANYWHERE but at an Apple retail store. They speak my language.
But even if you did purchase it from circuit city, the Genius bar will still fix it!
I'm sure Apple will have to rationalize their stores at some point too. It seems unlikely that they all have turned out profitable.
Unlikely you say, but true.
Yeah so go out and vote for John McCain tomorrow so we can ensure even more business's go down the tubes in this country in next four year's
LOL that's very ironic.
Anyway, in 15 years I have bought one thing at Circuit City. I would go there first, then go over to Best Buy and find it cheaper. I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did.
Very sad. At least the commissioned salesmen KNEW what they were selling because that is how they made their income. They were educated on the products they sold.
Now when you walk into either store, they know nothing about the products they sell.
Also, there is no such thing as a liquidation sale. The prices are not reduced. I went to the Good Guys so-called liquidation and all the tags were removed from the items being sold. The company hired to handle the sale replaced the real tags with plain tags with prices that did not seem reduced at all. No model numbers were listed so you couldn't search the model numbers to see if you were saving any money. So typically a liquidation company will mark up prices and then claim they are "drastically" reduced by removing the original store tag. So if a store is closing, I would note the prices now to see if you really are saving money.