Circuit City Gives Up The Fight

[sultan_emerr]

Circuit City Gives Up the Fight

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflas...8059_133176.htm

The electronics chain puts out the "For Sale" sign, hiring Goldman Sachs to assist on a deal, most likely with Blockbuster

Edited July 3, 2008 by sultan_emerr

[blim]

Well, I honestly am amazed CC has lasted as long as it has. In my area, I gave up on 'em because they rarely had their advertised items on the shelves and of course never offered rainchecks. So, no matter how good a deal they advertised, it wasn't worth the 60 mile round trip to likely come back empty handed...hey, how can you already be "sold out" on SUNDAY????

Liz

[irregularjoe]

CC employees always reminded me of the type of kids that just didn't have what it takes to get into McDonalds. And we know how difficult that can be.

The times that I was forced to go to CC (it was never willingly) I witnessed a cocophony of ear shattering noise coming from 50 or so different sources all which seemed like the point was to get the customer out of the store asap.

The staff always knew LESS about the product than I did.

I don't think they had any smart people in leadership roles.

Edited May 10, 2008 by irregularjoe

[JDoors]

I never liked their stores either. Too industrial. I mean, bare bones supposedly says, "low prices," but their stores were like shopping in a dark back alley. Unnerving. (At least that's what they looked like when I stopped going there, I dunno if they spruced them up later 'cause I never went back.)

And I never understood why any store would open close to an indentical store. I understand, for example, a Sears and a JC Penney being close to each other. They have a slightly different product mix and sell to a slightly different clientele. But Circuit City and Best Buy? Both have an identical product mix and sell to an identical consumer base. We all know how well that worked out for K-Mart vs Wal-Mart, right?

[irregularjoe]

I never liked their stores either. Too industrial. I mean, bare bones supposedly says, "low prices," but their stores were like shopping in a dark back alley. Unnerving. (At least that's what they looked like when I stopped going there, I dunno if they spruced them up later 'cause I never went back.)

And I never understood why any store would open close to an indentical store. I understand, for example, a Sears and a JC Penney being close to each other. They have a slightly different product mix and sell to a slightly different clientele. But Circuit City and Best Buy? Both have an identical product mix and sell to an identical consumer base. We all know how well that worked out for K-Mart vs Wal-Mart, right?

"And I never understood why any store would open close to an indentical store."

That's an interesting point.

I noticed out here in AZ that they do exactly that. It's not just them either. The REAL bigboy, Fry's, is within a stones throw of both of them. And that's in two different areas of town.

Maybe it's a "catch up" way of store location? BB sees a CC and decides that they need to be on the same corner? And visa versa?

It does make things easier on me though. When I need something I drive to one and check the price, then just check out the local competition.

And back to the point, I usually have a headache when I come out of Circuit City.

Edited May 14, 2008 by irregularjoe

[jcl]

Speculation: If the stores are otherwise identical, the stores closer the customers will have a competitive advantage. Clustering is a safe way to reduce the variation in travel time/distance between the stores.

Edited May 15, 2008 by jcl

[JDoors]

Well, I get that if you're up against a competitor that opens a bajillion stores just to grab as much market share as they can, you HAVE to get into those markets somehow. You're not just going to give up all those customers. But you better DO it better than your competitor, or you're toast. Cheaper won't cut it, IF you can manage to undercut your competitor in the first place, which isn't likely since everyone's content comes from the same eight factories in China. You can't get better products for the same reason. Better service? Is that good enough? I'd think so, or at least I hope so, and in the CC vs BB scenario I'd have to say BB did a teensy bit better, but they're still terrible (I guess you only have to BE a teensy bit better to make a difference). From what I saw, the difference was in presentation. I hated how almost everything in CC was presented, including the facilities themselves. Best Buy looked bright and neat and busy by comparison.

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Edited May 15, 2008 by JDoors

[Honda_Boy]

not a surprise. Went there once and got a CD Player for my old 85 Sunbird. Selection wasn't grand and the install crew messed up my dash lights. Best Buy always had a better selection, better prices, and a better atmosphere. I always get my car audio from a local store now (Electronic Express, Middle TN only chain) cause it's in town. It may be the only store like this in town, but it still has decent prices and a pretty dern good car audio section. Unfortunately they don't have squat in DVD's and no computer stuff. Plenty of TV's, Home Theater, Appliances, Car Audio, and other electronics though. I drive 45 minutes north to Cool Springs though and go to Best Buy to buy DVD's.

Rarely been to Circuit City and probably won't go there again either. I like Best Buy for DVD's, Electronic Express for Car Audio, Newegg.com for Computer Stuff.

[Besttechie]

Not a surprise at all. Circuit City was just horrendous - the selection was minimal and the staff were clueless. I remember I went there after going to Best Buy to look for my new router - Linksys WRT600N. Neither store had it, but Circuit City had probably half the products in stock in comparison to Best Buy. In terms of their staffing Firedog is equally as bad (if not worse) than Geeksqaud.

The Best Buy and Circuit City are pretty close to each other around here as well.

B

[Besttechie]

I never liked their stores either. Too industrial. I mean, bare bones supposedly says, "low prices," but their stores were like shopping in a dark back alley. Unnerving. (At least that's what they looked like when I stopped going there, I dunno if they spruced them up later 'cause I never went back.)

Nope, last I went there 1 or 2 months ago, they were still dark as ever.

B

[mewi]

Not a surprise at all. Circuit City was just horrendous - the selection was minimal and the staff were clueless. I remember I went there after going to Best Buy to look for my new router - Linksys WRT600N. Neither store had it, but Circuit City had probably half the products in stock in comparison to Best Buy. In terms of their staffing Firedog is equally as bad (if not worse) than Geeksqaud.

The Best Buy and Circuit City are pretty close to each other around here as well.

B

Best buy? Don't you mean Worst Buy? ;p Ironically I believe my AL1916W ASD is FROM circuit city lol and so is my G15 logitech gaming keyboard v1.1!? ( the one with the lightable keys ;p not that ugly red one! ) ... and so is my mom's laptop... lol She apparently likes to get ripped off @__@ But I cant complain my monitor/keyboard are xmas presents

Edited May 20, 2008 by mewi

[Honda_Boy]

My parents know better than to buy computer parts in a store. Usually they talk to me about anything computer related and I look it up on Newegg first. If I can get it on there cheaper, I do (which is usually the case) or else I go somewhere in town and get it (like my speakers, Logitech Z-4, $50 at Office Max, $70 on Newegg about 2 years ago). For present days (birthday or Christmas) I just give them a list of stuff with links to places to order them to save them trouble.

Best Buy is not bad at all. I just don't like to go there for anything other than DVD's. When I don't necessarily have anything in particular in mind, I like to go to Best Buy and browse their Anime section for series I haven't seen. They have a really good anime section with decent prices (kicks the crap out of Suncoast, the so called Anime Central or whatever that banner said in their store). I don't like browsing online for DVD's due to the enormous list of stuff there is, both boxsets and single volumes. I only look online if I have something particular in mind...... or if I get an email from ADV Films about another huge sale, then I will browse ADV's site for anything good for cheap Hey that's how I got Chrono Crusade, Happy Lesson, Puni Puni Poemy, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, Noir, and Azumanga Daioh

Edited May 20, 2008 by Honda_Boy

[Pete_C]

Well, when I first heard that they might be merging with or bought by Blockbuster I saw the logic in it.

What really confused me about Circuit City here in Dallas is that they would seemingly constantly close a store just to open a new location a mile or two (rarely more than two miles away from the original location). It was not as if the new location offered tremendously better location or access ; it often seemed like some moron in another state had just looked at a big map of other shopping centers and decided to open not in but near something which had a name; without checking what the sales and rentals for that shopping center were doing. The new stores tended to be virtually identical in footprint to the one they closed.

Secondly their whole business plan kind of confused me. They sold a little of everything. Do they have a great selection of refrigerators or do they have the best of everything? No, they have a few models of a few lines. The same with their computer section, TV / multimedia etc sections. They do not have a massive selection to choose from, they do not necessarily have the best prices or selections.

Blockbuster has the problem of having stores designed when VHS was the standard. DVDs take up a lot less space. Then they have the attitude that since DVDs do not degrade as much as VHS did that they should sell the used (previously viewed) ones at nearly full price. In fact by the time they are selling them at $10, you can buy a new copy on sale at Walmart for $5 or even less.

I see possibilities if they handle this correctly, removing some of the non profitable merchandise from Circuit City stores, and getting back to the true electronics and entertainment ; and replace that with instore blockbuster rentals and sales. Or allow online ordering at CircuitCity and free pickup at your neighborhood blockbuster (hey put an order kiosk in the blockbuster) . Combine targeted offers; like buy a dvd player at Circuit city and get a Blockbuster coupon for some free rentals. Also blockbuster needs to catchup with Netflix in the online on demand (downloadable) media market. Did you hear that Netflix is offering a broadband settop box which connects using your internet connection and to your TV and you can schedule to download movies to its drive so you can watch them .

[JDoors]

I've figured out the "open at another location" thing: Ripping off the taxpayers.

Many big stores get tax breaks when they open a new location. Once that expires, just move to another location that'll give you more tax breaks.

GREAT business plan. <sarcasm>

How's that working out for you Circuit City?

Though it's apparently working just fine for Wal-Mart. A local one's doing exactly that, moving to the next town over, and Wal-Mart doesn't seem to be hurting any.

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Edited May 27, 2008 by JDoors