Circuit City is DEAD

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  • 01-16-2009, 09:04 AM
    Groundbeef
    Circuit City is DEAD
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8270330

    Guess the holidays were not so good for them.
  • 01-16-2009, 11:32 AM
    Rich-n-Texas
    Dead?
    We're ALL dead!!!

    DEAD!

    Dead Dead Dead!

    :eek6:
  • 01-16-2009, 11:32 AM
    Ajani
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rich-n-Texas
    We're ALL dead!!!

    DEAD!

    Dead Dead Dead!

    :eek6:

    Pix, is that you?
  • 01-16-2009, 11:34 AM
    Rich-n-Texas
    How the heck did you quote that so fast?

    Mr. You must be psychic!

    :yikes:
  • 01-16-2009, 11:39 AM
    GMichael
    It's not looking so good these days. Hope it starts to turn around.
  • 01-16-2009, 12:04 PM
    pixelthis
    1 Attachment(s)
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GMichael
    It's not looking so good these days. Hope it starts to turn around.


    Here is a link with a bit more info.
    As for "turning around" well, we are going off of the cliff being chased by a tiger,
    dont think it looks too good regardless.
    Its really like a death in the family, I bought a 47" tv, and god knows how much other
    electronic stuff in the last decade from this place.
    It was always a great place to go and check out the latest.
    A huge shopping complex opened in town recently with a CC at the center, wonder what
    (if anything) they are going to replace it with.
    With all of the dark storefronts(goodys, katbee, etc) the seriousness of the current mess
    is starting to hit home.:1:
    http://www.crn.com/retail/212900983
  • 01-16-2009, 12:07 PM
    pixelthis
    1 Attachment(s)
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rich-n-Texas
    We're ALL dead!!!

    DEAD!

    Dead Dead Dead!

    :eek6:


    NICE TRY ACE...
    But nobody can say stuff is

    DEAD


    like I can.
    Nice try tho:1:
  • 01-16-2009, 12:20 PM
    GMichael
    Kobayashi Maru
  • 01-16-2009, 12:21 PM
    Rich-n-Texas
    And I thought vampires slept during daylight hours. :sosp:
  • 01-16-2009, 12:31 PM
    GMichael
    Day walker!!
  • 01-16-2009, 12:47 PM
    Groundbeef
    Of note, the CEO of CC commented "We shouldn't have anchored ourselves to LCD. Had we sold more Plasma's we would still be in buisness."
  • 01-16-2009, 03:19 PM
    pixelthis
    1 Attachment(s)
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Groundbeef
    Of note, the CEO of CC commented "We shouldn't have anchored ourselves to LCD. Had we sold more Plasma's we would still be in buisness."

    GEE, the way you plasma fanboys lie it must be second nature to you(oh wait, it is)

    BTW ever get that 2700 dollar catastropic failure fixed on your POS fanboy?

    The people betting on Plasma are gonna be the ones needing plasma,
    except not the kind that is in those POS tv sets they are peddling.:1:
  • 01-16-2009, 03:22 PM
    pixelthis
    1 Attachment(s)
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rich-n-Texas
    And I thought vampires slept during daylight hours. :sosp:


    This new suntan lotion is great.
    YOU are just jelous that we vampires get more tail than you do.
    (Oh wait, doesnt everybody):1:
  • 01-16-2009, 03:40 PM
    Woochifer
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Groundbeef
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8270330

    Guess the holidays were not so good for them.

    Problem for Circuit City is that many of their suppliers cut them off back in November, when hundreds of their stores were already holding liquidation sales. When a retail store goes into liquidation, the inventory is no longer "owned" by the retailer, but rather the company holding the liquidation sale. In this scenario, the suppliers get screwed because they have to get in line with all the other creditors. They can't just take back what they shipped to the stores, so obviously if they saw this coming, they prepared for it by limiting their exposure and cutting off CC's supply line.

    I recall that their sale prices over the holidays were readily undercut by BB and others (they were advertising a 40" Sony LCD TV while BB was selling the 46" version of that same model for about the same price).

    This bankruptcy will leave a lot of pockmarked cities, since CC not only has its current and recently closed stores getting emptied out. But, they were also sitting on hundreds of other leases when they decided to try competing with BB by moving those stores into larger spaces.
  • 01-16-2009, 04:02 PM
    Woochifer
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pixelthis
    GEE, the way you plasma fanboys lie it must be second nature to you(oh wait, it is)

    BTW ever get that 2700 dollar catastropic failure fixed on your POS fanboy?

    The people betting on Plasma are gonna be the ones needing plasma,
    except not the kind that is in those POS tv sets they are peddling.:1:

    Spoken like the closeted plasma fanboy that you are! Your post probably just convinced several more people to buy plasma TVs. :cool:
  • 01-17-2009, 06:00 AM
    thekid
    We all knew this was coming, I just hate to see 30,000 people join the ranks of the unemployed. I hope we can get this economy turned around soon or at least stop the bleeding......
  • 01-17-2009, 08:24 AM
    bobsticks
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by thekid
    We all knew this was coming, I just hate to see 30,000 people join the ranks of the unemployed. I hope we can get this economy turned around soon or at least stop the bleeding......

    True, so true. That many more to join the ranks of the walking zombies...
  • 01-17-2009, 08:40 AM
    mbbuchanan
    What a shame about C.C. Before they cut off their Commissioned employees and tried to restructure their way out of trouble a thousand times, they were a classy company.
  • 01-17-2009, 08:49 PM
    pixelthis
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by thekid
    We all knew this was coming, I just hate to see 30,000 people join the ranks of the unemployed. I hope we can get this economy turned around soon or at least stop the bleeding......


    Dream on.
    Obamanation let it slip when he said some were talking about a FOUR YEAR
    recession.
    Actually decade long DEPRESSION would be more APT.
    The one great thing that always pulled our butt outta the fire, our manufacturing capacity...
    IS GONE.:1:
  • 01-17-2009, 11:16 PM
    sallysue
    Quote:

    Of note, the CEO of CC commented "We shouldn't have anchored ourselves to LCD. Had we sold more Plasma's we would still be in buisness."
    If that's quote is accurate, I wonder what he was smokin'?

    It's just a sign of the times and this I can tell you first hand and as I'm sure you've all read, the CE industry is in a lull to put it mildly. Some folks read about but I experienced it. At some unclear point in time, customers stopped coming in for audio video gear. The just stopped - this trend began some 8 months ago and we can see the results in another brick and mortar CE company. Everybody has a theory but at the end of the day it appears that surplus/disposable income vanished.

    On another point, I have to admit getting a little chuckle at Sony's financial down turn. They ran a wild west approach to product distribution and so no exclusivity rights were given to retailers. Brick and mortars can't compete with those that have vitually no overhead such as e-tailers. The customer is the winner by getting a better price but how is the brick and mortar to survive when customers can buy the sets online for damn near cost. It's a miracle some companies like CC have lasted this long. Soon your only choice for CE (medium grade )may be BB . I'm picking on Sony but Panasonic and Samsung did the same thing. Pioneer Elite held the line though, but that's not enough to a make a business.

    Who's to say the e-tailers have to sell cheap any longer?
  • 01-18-2009, 04:19 AM
    Feanor
    re. The Source
    Canadian residents will know that The Source is a subsidiary of Circuit City. However news is that The Source will be carrying on "business as usual" per this press release. That is, it isn't be included in the CC liquidation.

    As you'll see however, The Source, (actually InterTAN), has obtained Ontario Supreme Court creditor protection and is seeking buyer.
  • 01-18-2009, 05:57 PM
    Woochifer
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sallysue
    If that's quote is accurate, I wonder what he was smokin'?

    It was tongue in cheek. Thumb through some of the plasma threads if you want to see where it came from.

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sallysue
    On another point, I have to admit getting a little chuckle at Sony's financial down turn. They ran a wild west approach to product distribution and so no exclusivity rights were given to retailers. Brick and mortars can't compete with those that have vitually no overhead such as e-tailers. The customer is the winner by getting a better price but how is the brick and mortar to survive when customers can buy the sets online for damn near cost. It's a miracle some companies like CC have lasted this long. Soon your only choice for CE (medium grade )may be BB . I'm picking on Sony but Panasonic and Samsung did the same thing. Pioneer Elite held the line though, but that's not enough to a make a business.

    CE retailing used to be dominated by regional chains that sold a wide range of product lines, from mass market entry level lines up to higher end specialty lines. Once Circuit City began their national expansion, that changed the entire landscape. Best Buy wound up beating CC at their own game. In the meantime, most regional CE chains disappeared altogether, forcing the mass market CE manufacturers to distribute to anyone and everyone. The independent stores are largely propped up by territorial exclusivity and the higher end manufacturers imposing much stricter controls over online and unauthorized vendors.

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mbbuchanan
    What a shame about C.C. Before they cut off their Commissioned employees and tried to restructure their way out of trouble a thousand times, they were a classy company.

    I don't know if I would call them a classy company, given that their employee benefits and training programs were a joke compared to what regional specialty chains gave their employees. Unfortunately, most of those companies have also gone by the wayside. Circuit City's commissioned sales setup was similar to other CE stores, and they were one of the last ones standing.
  • 01-18-2009, 08:07 PM
    mbbuchanan
    Whoochifer probably isn't old enough to remember but less than ten years ago all sales staff at C.C. were required to wear a full suit on the sales floor, know their stuff,and were compensated well. As far as training goes C.C.'s was head and shoulders above any other major retailer. The benefits there were (at one time) very competitive, they had health insurance and paid sick leave, 401k, vacation, and it was not uncommon for a good sales man to make close to 100k a year( ans this was in the nineties). All of this though went by the way side about 8 years ago when they and the Good Guys went in together to push DIVX and they lost some hundreds of millions of dollars. This eventually tanked Good Guys. C.C.'s stock plummeted over night from $45.00 to $9.00 a share and they have never recovered. So to make a short story long, yes Whoochifer , at one time they were a classy company.
  • 01-18-2009, 09:48 PM
    pixelthis
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sallysue
    If that's quote is accurate, I wonder what he was smokin'?

    It's just a sign of the times and this I can tell you first hand and as I'm sure you've all read, the CE industry is in a lull to put it mildly. Some folks read about but I experienced it. At some unclear point in time, customers stopped coming in for audio video gear. The just stopped - this trend began some 8 months ago and we can see the results in another brick and mortar CE company. Everybody has a theory but at the end of the day it appears that surplus/disposable income vanished.

    On another point, I have to admit getting a little chuckle at Sony's financial down turn. They ran a wild west approach to product distribution and so no exclusivity rights were given to retailers. Brick and mortars can't compete with those that have vitually no overhead such as e-tailers. The customer is the winner by getting a better price but how is the brick and mortar to survive when customers can buy the sets online for damn near cost. It's a miracle some companies like CC have lasted this long. Soon your only choice for CE (medium grade )may be BB . I'm picking on Sony but Panasonic and Samsung did the same thing. Pioneer Elite held the line though, but that's not enough to a make a business.

    Who's to say the e-tailers have to sell cheap any longer?


    a "LULL" would be putting it mildly.
    And that "quote" was a dig aimed at me, had as much to do with reality as anything
    else the poster puts up...
    MAINLY, NOTHING

    CE is a nonessential market, and the reliability of todays products is also a problem.
    My receiver could stand to be replaced (and might) but the amps sound good,
    and there are no new features I cant work around, and its got a phono preamp,
    something rapidly disapearing.
    So its bills and groceries instead of CE gear.
    Also if things start to get rough I might have to start packing heat, that is 600 to a 1000
    right there.
    SMALL (pun intended) WONDER that the current CES is focusing on handheld portable devices, inexpensive stuff that wont hit you hard .:1:
  • 01-19-2009, 02:55 AM
    thekid
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pixelthis
    Dream on.
    Obamanation let it slip when he said some were talking about a FOUR YEAR
    recession.
    Actually decade long DEPRESSION would be more APT.
    The one great thing that always pulled our butt outta the fire, our manufacturing capacity...
    IS GONE.:1:

    Pix

    Doncha remember a few years back someone (who shall remain nameless) was walking around talking about the "new" economy. Manufacturing was part of the "old" economy and we did not need those types of jobs.......... :wink5:

    If anything comes out of this mess hopefully the pols on both sides of the aisle will start getting back to basics in regards to sound economic policies and practicies but that is probably too much to ask.
  • 01-19-2009, 05:22 AM
    sallysue
    Quote:

    a "LULL" would be putting it mildly.
    And that "quote" was a dig aimed at me, had as much to do with reality as anything
    else the poster puts up...
    MAINLY, NOTHING
    Roger dodger...

    Quote:

    Also if things start to get rough I might have to start packing heat, that is 600 to a 1000
    right there
    .

    Are you gonna shoot yer speakers? :wink5:
  • 01-19-2009, 07:42 AM
    Rich-n-Texas
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pixelthis
    ...My receiver could stand to be replaced (and might) but the amps sound good,
    and there are no new features I cant work around, and its got a phono preamp,
    something rapidly disapearing.

    Hmmm... my old receiver didn't have phono inputs, but my 3800 does.
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by numbnuts
    SMALL (pun intended) WONDER that the current CES is focusing on handheld portable devices, inexpensive stuff that wont hit you hard .:1:

    So why was 3D HDTV at the top of your list in your sad "CES tidbits" thread?
  • 01-19-2009, 10:34 AM
    Woochifer
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mbbuchanan
    Whoochifer probably isn't old enough to remember but less than ten years ago all sales staff at C.C. were required to wear a full suit on the sales floor, know their stuff,and were compensated well. As far as training goes C.C.'s was head and shoulders above any other major retailer. The benefits there were (at one time) very competitive, they had health insurance and paid sick leave, 401k, vacation, and it was not uncommon for a good sales man to make close to 100k a year( ans this was in the nineties). All of this though went by the way side about 8 years ago when they and the Good Guys went in together to push DIVX and they lost some hundreds of millions of dollars. This eventually tanked Good Guys. C.C.'s stock plummeted over night from $45.00 to $9.00 a share and they have never recovered. So to make a short story long, yes Whoochifer , at one time they were a classy company.

    Well, maybe my assessment was a tad harsh, but I am old enough to go back more than 20 years when several friends of mine worked at different electronics stores. Compared to the places where they were working, Circuit City was considered the place of last resort. All of those stores also required their sales reps to wear dress shirts and ties, and even now Fry's and Magnolia (including the locations inside BB) still have similar dress codes.

    At places like the defunct Rogersound Labs and Good Guys chains, new hires were required to go through days of training at the company headquarters. At Good Guys, the new hires were limited to selling personal devices and video games. They could not sell any mobile, video, and audio components until they had worked there for close to a year, and gotten certified to sell the products in those sections. As their financial position got more precarious, they pared that back considerably and the company's customer service nose dived. Like Circuit City, they also fired most of their sales staff and hired a bunch of newly scrubbed hourly employees shortly before they went belly up, but unlike CC they kept their top sales reps (who were also pulling six figures) on commission.

    When a friend of mine was between jobs, he got a position at CC and said that they pretty much threw the new hires on the floor the same day with minimal product training. Just a briefing on procedures and how to work the point-of-sale system. Maybe things tightened up during the 90s, but I remember Circuit City being a step down from the other electronics stores as a place to work.
  • 01-19-2009, 12:06 PM
    JSE
    No wonder they are going out of business. They just built a gigantic store a few miles from my house in a new shopping center. They started back in October. The thing is huge! I'm guessing a minimum of several million in construction costs alone. The problem is, it still has never opened! Probably never will now. There have been people working there filling it with inventory for the last month so I peaked through a rip in the brown paper on the windows and it looked like it's ready to open. Fully stocked and just sitting there. The shelves are full, lights are on, but no workers. Kindof eary?
  • 01-19-2009, 12:28 PM
    Woochifer
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by JSE
    No wonder they are going out of business. They just built a gigantic store a few miles from my house in a new shopping center. They started back in October. The thing is huge! I'm guessing a minimum of several million in construction costs alone. The problem is, it still has never opened! Probably never will now. There have been people working there filling it with inventory for the last month so I peaked through a rip in the brown paper on the windows and it looked like it's ready to open. Fully stocked and just sitting there. The shelves are full, lights are on, but no workers. Kindof eary?


    They started doing a lot of this when they doubled the size of their new store prototype to about 60,000 square feet in order to compete with Best Buy whose typical stores are even larger. Close to my house, Circuit City vacated their existing store location, and built two brand new store buildings within a few miles. In so many cases, they built a brand new store less than two miles from their a vacated store, and wind up paying leases on two buildings in the meantime.

    Strange that they would continue to construct new stores while they closed more than 200 locations back in November. Nice of them to provide a brand spanking new location for a liquidation sale, given that all of those brand new store fixtures and inventory now belong to the liquidators.
  • 01-19-2009, 12:49 PM
    JSE
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Woochifer
    Strange that they would continue to construct new stores while they closed more than 200 locations back in November. Nice of them to provide a brand spanking new location for a liquidation sale, given that all of those brand new store fixtures and inventory now belong to the liquidators.


    Makes no sense at all. As far as I know, it's been sitting there as is for a couple of weeks now. No telling how long it has been sitting there fully stocked.
  • 01-19-2009, 01:05 PM
    GMichael
    We know that you are stalking it for a midnight run.
  • 01-19-2009, 01:11 PM
    Rich-n-Texas
    Hook me up Cartman!!!
  • 01-19-2009, 01:54 PM
    pixelthis
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sallysue
    Roger dodger...

    .

    Are you gonna shoot yer speakers? :wink5:


    NO, just the guy taking them out the window.
    Cracks re atarting to appear in the infrastructure, what with la la land going tits up and all.
    In normal circumstances I can get by without a weapon just fine.
    But in a general breakdown of public order (which is just a matter of WHEN, not IF)...:1:
  • 01-19-2009, 02:01 PM
    pixelthis
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rich-n-Texas
    Hmmm... my old receiver didn't have phono inputs, but my 3800 does.

    they are rapidly disapearing, even on higher end gear.
    I can see that a decent phono preamp can be expensive, but a lower line one at least would be nice for those of us that still spin vinyl


    Quote:

    So why was 3D HDTV at the top of your list in your sad "CES tidbits" thread?
    Just quoting what the talking head said, mainly that everybody was talking about 3D
    at CES.
    Dont care what anybody says, I have witnessed all of the 3D crashes and burns
    over the last four decades, and have seen NOTHING that will elevate it above
    "gimmick" status.
    The biggest advance was polarized glasses, and those give you a king hell headach after a few minutes.
    And at least I TRIED to post something of at least a little value.
    LETS SEE HOW GOOD you could do!:1:
  • 01-19-2009, 02:06 PM
    JSE
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GMichael
    We know that you are stalking it for a midnight run.

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rich
    Hook me up Cartman!!!


    .........................:cool:
  • 01-19-2009, 02:31 PM
    pixelthis
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by JSE
    Makes no sense at all. As far as I know, it's been sitting there as is for a couple of weeks now. No telling how long it has been sitting there fully stocked.

    They didnt build it, some real estate developer did.
    We just had a huge developement open, its been very successfull, but teh biggest store is a Circuit CITY, right in the middle of it(Best Buy backed out)
    Chains rarely build any store, they rent from a developer if they can.
    A real time bomb in this country is commercial real estate, its going to be the next to go.
    And if you think the private real estate market was a mess, YOU AINT SEEN NOTHING YET.:1:
  • 01-19-2009, 02:37 PM
    JSE
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pixelthis
    They didnt build it, some real estate developer did.
    We just had a huge developement open, its been very successfull, but teh biggest store is a Circuit CITY, right in the middle of it(Best Buy backed out)
    Chains rarely build any store, they rent from a developer if they can.
    A real time bomb in this country is commercial real estate, its going to be the next to go.
    And if you think the private real estate market was a mess, YOU AINT SEEN NOTHING YET.:1:

    It's possible Circuit City did not flip for the cost for the actual structure but they still had to pay for the buildout (interior),all the product, man power, insurance costs, etc.

    Again, makes no sense.
  • 01-19-2009, 02:58 PM
    pixelthis
    1 Attachment(s)
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by JSE
    It's possible Circuit City did not flip for the cost for the actual structure but they still had to pay for the buildout (interior),all the product, man power, insurance costs, etc.

    Again, makes no sense.

    COMPANIES have business plans that are religiously adherred to, sometimes extending for years.
    If they had not gone through with their plans word would have gotten out,
    and their stock would have acheived toilet paper status even faster than it actually did.
    In other words it WOULD have been over, but by pretending business as usual they bought time.
    Might seem like rearanging deck chairs on the titanic to you, but every week you keep things going is another week you get a paycheck.

    You also buy time to dump your stock in a manner apropriate to the SEC so that your butt doedsnt wind up in jail.:1:
  • 01-19-2009, 04:31 PM
    02audionoob
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pixelthis
    they are rapidly disapearing, even on higher end gear.
    I can see that a decent phono preamp can be expensive, but a lower line one at least would be nice for those of us that still spin vinyl

    I wouldn't mind providing the phono preamp if they'd just leave me that line level input to attach it to (instead of having to use the AUX input). I've got 7 sources on my Adcom GFP-565 preamp. If I upgrade, I might have to live with 4.