Circuit City is going... going... gone!

[Grant A.]

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/C/CIRCUIT_CITY_BANKRUPTCY?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-11-10-07-50-06

I did not see this coming.

[mamamia88]

damn where am i going to get crazy cheap electronics?

[Valok]

Such a bummer, I don't care for Best Buy as is because of the overpriced computers and what not, but this will just make things worse.

[HunterK]

What about my extended warranty on my TV?! NOOOO!!

[Mohamedzv2]

Now I can't find any place to buy my electronic stuff D:

[tubezninja]

newegg, of course. :)

It's actually the neweggs of the world that likely hastened Circuit City's demise, though a lot of the blame is on Circuit City itself.

I used to visit their stores quite a bit. But in the final years they were clearly charging more than they should for a lot of things. The skill level of the employees seemed to go downhill in some locations. And their buy-on-the-web, pick-up-in-store feature used to be really good, and was done right before any other retailer figured it out. Unfortunately, they started understaffing their pickup counter and before long, it often took longer to wait in line and pick up your online purchases than it would take to just go the shelf, pick up the item you wanted and take it to a register to get rung up.

Unfortunately, Best Buy isn't much better. They are clearly gearing their stores to selling tech goods to the non-tech savvy, and I find it more of a hassle to get stuff there if you actually know what you're doing. Too little selection on components, the prices are a bit high, and although I've kept my mouth shut usually, it's very frustrating to frequently overhear sales reps give someone else completely wrong information.

Oh well. I guess newegg is getting a LOT more of my business now.

[kavon89]

"short circuit city"

[bradthewanderer]

Thankfully I have Microcenter for all my computing needs, perhaps the best store ever.

[Technoviking]

Not surprised. They use to have great service that has gone to crap the last couple of years.

[cardinals_fan]

I wish I were still visiting family in Virginia, where they had one. I might have tried to get a really cheap price on that nice floor model Lenovo Ideapad S10...

[kevdog]

Seems like people in this forum are very blind. Circuit City's stock has taken a beating for over a year. To see that it wasn't going to zero -- you had to be blind. Rumors were that it was going to close in Dec, however they stayed open just long enough to take advantage of the annual Christmas buyup. You guys got to go out and read more sections in the newspaper or internet than just tech-related information.

[doorknob60]

I'd be mad if I had one near me, since they're better than Best Buy and stuff. I was hoping they6 would build one hear eventually (they probably would've within 5 years), but obviously not gonna happen anymore. Oh well I still have Newegg, which is where I went most of the time anyways since the nearest Circuit City is ~100 miles away (and Newegg is still cheaper most of the time anyways).

[init1]

Eh, I won't miss it.

[Dr Small]

I never liked Circut City. Cheap junk, loud music, lots of people, dumb salesmen. I don't like BestBuy either, for the same reasons.

[cardinals_fan]

I have to add a great story from when I was in that Circuit City in Virginia. A rack of Sansa MP3 players sported a huge sign which advertised the players for $39.95 compared to $69.95, or, as the sign said, a Savings of $20!

[MikeTheC]

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/C/CIRCUIT_CITY_BANKRUPTCY?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-11-10-07-50-06

I did not see this coming.

Not to be insulting, but really? I have for quite a while now. Circuit City is not the company they once were, and frankly the electronics and tech industries have both changed considerably in, say, the last 15 years.

Much like with Sound Advice, I was wondering merely "when", not "if".

[Skripka]

I have to add a great story from when I was in that Circuit City in Virginia. A rack of Sansa MP3 players sported a huge sign which advertised the players for $39.95 compared to $69.95, or, as the sign said, a Savings of $20!

There is a reason they is going bust....

[Mr. Picklesworth]

567 stores. That's a lot of empty buildings.
I hate to say, though; I feel a perverse sense of happiness that a ginormous brick and mortar retailer has given up the ghost. Would have been better if this was BestBuy going away, but this is a start. Small businesses are the way to go, and always have been. If those 567 stores got replaced by 567 independent, local, more human computer retailers, it would be a win for everyone.

This also says that mass consumerism hit its ceiling. Maybe technology users will start to understand how long their equipment really could last if they educated themselves, now that Circuit City isn't there intent on selling them new stuff or overpriced services.


Edit: Oooh, and 5 6 7 is a run of 3! I win!

[jrusso2]

I knew they were done for a year ago when they laid off all the sales people making more then $10 an hour cause it was too much.

[AlphaMack]

Say what you want, but that's another 30K people to add to the statistics. :(

[.arean]

I knew they were done for a year ago when they laid off all the sales people making more then $10 an hour cause it was too much.

Do the sales people not make commission or something? When I worked at Fry's every person in sales made over $10 after commission. I knew people pulling in over $1000 a week.

I'm going to hit up Circuit City tomorrow to see if there's any really good deals to be had.

[Skripka]

Do the sales people not make commission or something? When I worked at Fry's every person in sales made over $10 after commission. I knew people pulling in over $1000 a week.

I'm going to hit up Circuit City tomorrow to see if there's any really good deals to be had.

I know one person (in the know) who says that CC is going to mark up to MSRP on everything-and after a bit of liquidating at that price-lower it. Meaning their prices will be as bad or worse as they always have been. This is of course rumour mongering as of yet.

[jonathonblake]

I did not see this coming.

And I thought they went out of business last year. (Several stores where I used to live closed in May or June of last year. The best deal was on the store fixtures!)

jonathon

[damis648]

Although I liked Circuit City, I still prefer Newegg and I've got a Microcenter nearby, so I'm good. :popcorn:

[.arean]

I know one person (in the know) who says that CC is going to mark up to MSRP on everything-and after a bit of liquidating at that price-lower it. Meaning their prices will be as bad or worse as they always have been. This is of course rumour mongering as of yet.

Yeah, there was a few "clearance" items and some 10% off shelves but nothing spectacular, though the place was still a mad house. I actually ended up buying some things I was looking to get a good deal on at Target for cheaper than Circuit City. I might hit them up again when my local store is closing it's doors for good, maybe I can score some crap to sell on ebay or something. But probably not, Circuit City sucks in every way possible.

It's a shame Fry's didn't buy them out. They need more locations badly and are by far the best chain electronic store around. They have a huge selection compared to other chains, decent prices and employees that actually know what they're talking about. But I guess they rely more on online sales more than in store purchases.

[jonathonblake]

It's a shame Fry's didn't buy them out. They need more locations badly

Fry's relies on its customers being _educated consumers_. It is not for joe sixpack who wouldn't know the difference between a UPS and UBS stick even if they were to be hit by one of each, of either side of their face.


employees that actually know what they're talking about.

Before Fry's opened a store near to where I used to live, my impression was that they were tied with TicketMaster, as being the poster child of bad customer service. Only once I found an employee that didn't know off the top of their head something --- and they went to look it up on the store computer.

jonathon

[mips]

It is not for joe sixpack who wouldn't know the difference between a UPS and UBS stick even if they were to be hit by one of each, of either side of their face.



I must be a joe sixpack. What's a UBS stick ;)

[Technoviking]

Got a great price on a D-Link DIR-655 wireless router there yesterday :).

[smartboyathome]

Best Buy's EeePC 1000H is still cheaper than Circuit City's Lenovo (both with very similar specs). I wish that the HP didn't have the awkward mouse, though, since Circuit City had a great deal on it. :|

[collinp]

Its a shame that Circut City has to go out of business, 30K more people out of work and tons of empty buildings.

[Skripka]

I must be a joe sixpack. What's a UBS stick ;)

W000t, I too am one of the uncultured, uneducated laypeople waiting to be enlightened ;)

[init1]

It's a shame Fry's didn't buy them out. They need more locations badly and are by far the best chain electronic store around.
Can't say I've ever even seen a Fry's before. Where are they located?

[kevdog]

Fry's is a really big store (about 2-3x the size of a normal best buy) and unfortunately only have locations in very big cities such as Chicago. The have a lot of products, but better prices can be found at newegg and such. Sometimes its nice however to see the product before you buy. You can see the locations if you just google Frys on google or any search engine.

[abn91c]

I went to my local store, seem they raised the prices on everything, only laptops under $500 were the 10in ASUS min-laptops, even the blank CDR's were expensive, $12 for a 25 disk package? Most desktop were too expensive also, hardly any under $500, most 20in LCD's $199 and up. :mad:

[swoll1980]

Micro Center ftw

[Sunflower1970]

I went to my local store, seem they raised the prices on everything, only laptops under $500 were the 10in ASUS min-laptops, even the blank CDR's were expensive, $12 for a 25 disk package? Most desktop were too expensive also, hardly any under $500, most 20in LCD's $199 and up. :mad:

Seems that when a store is sold to a liquidator, the prices don't get better, the liquidator wants to make $$$ so they'll mark up the prices of everything then take of a percentage which makes it look like they've made things cheaper.

[toupeiro]

I was bummed to see this happen. I prefer Circuit City ten times over Best Buy, which is really the only local option for me anymore...

[logos34]

yeah, I hate bestbuy, never any sales...CC going under can only mean higher $, already made worse buy depreciated US dollar...In fact, I don't think I've found any good hardware deals since compusa crashed two yrs ago...used to get deep rebates on lots of stuff...those days are over

[gletob]

You can tell the difference between what's marked up and what's not. The stuff that isn't has a price and those that are don't

[smartboyathome]

yeah, I hate bestbuy, never any sales...CC going under can only mean higher $, already made worse buy depreciated US dollar...In fact, I don't think I've found any good hardware deals since compusa crashed two yrs ago...used to get deep rebates on lots of stuff...those days are over

We still got Compucare, Office Depot, and ReLectronics here, as well as Express Computing, but still Circuit city was the best due to how much stock they had. It is going to be missed here, and Best Buy is probably going to jack the price because they will be the only ones for many things. :(

[MikeTheC]

Fry's is a really big store (about 2-3x the size of a normal best buy) and unfortunately only have locations in very big cities such as Chicago. The have a lot of products, but better prices can be found at newegg and such. Sometimes its nice however to see the product before you buy. You can see the locations if you just google Frys on google or any search engine.

I may be wrong, but when last I checked, Fry's doesn't have a presence east of the Mississippi River.

[Sef]

I may be wrong, but when last I checked, Fry's doesn't have a presence east of the Mississippi River.That is not correct. They are located (http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/frys-store-location.htm) in California, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Illinios, Georgia, and Indiana.

[jrusso2]

That is not correct. They are also located in California, Texas, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada.

Amazing looks like the Microcenter I used to go to in Downers Grove, IL. is now a Fry's. Maybe they are expanding.

[MikeTheC]

That is not correct. They are also located in California, Texas, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada.

I'm confused. How does your post support your contention?

[MikeTheC]

Amazing looks like the Microcenter I used to go to in Downers Grove, IL. is now a Fry's. Maybe they are expanding.

Microcenter's web site shows they still have a location on Elston Avenue in Chicago and one on East Ogden Avenue in Westmont. And frankly, from all the horror stories I've heard over the years, I really wouldn't want to even step foot into a Fry's.

Microcenter has been around a long time. I remember when I used to mailorder 3.5" 800K and 1.4MB floppy disks from then in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In fact, as I recall, I think I only bought floppy disks like maybe 3 or 4 times in a local store. The other ~1000 or so I bought from Microcenter, and at far better prices.

Of course, when I look back, it's pretty easy to laugh, considering Walmart sells Sandisk 8GB Cruzer Micro models for $20.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

Aha! I figured out what went wrong:

http://failblog.org/2008/11/28/employee-intelligence-fail/

[Icehuck]

Amazing looks like the Microcenter I used to go to in Downers Grove, IL. is now a Fry's. Maybe they are expanding.

Except that Fry's building was a new construction.


They are located in California, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Illinios, Georgia, and Indiana.

They have only two stores located East of the Mississippi. So that's really not a presence at all.

[jonathonblake]

What's a UBS stick ;)

The spell checker changed USB to UBS. :(

UBS is a financial institution.

jonathon

[Mr. Picklesworth]

The spell checker changed USB to UBS. :(

I think that just made it more funny. People saying "UBS" instead of USB is something I hate, but that happens to me constantly! It's a 3 letter abbreviation; how hard is this?!

(And then they proceed to ask for "a UBS", leaving me absolutely baffled. I have to try really hard not to exclaim "A USB WHAT you numbskull?!" and throw a barrage of USB host controllers at them).

[73ckn797]

Thankfully I have Microcenter for all my computing needs, perhaps the best store ever.


+1

Got them in the Atlanta area too.

[73ckn797]

That is not correct. They are located (http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/frys-store-location.htm) in California, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Illinios, Georgia, and Indiana.


Got 2 in the Atlanta area.

[RJARRRPCGP]

All I can say is that it's probably because they lost to Best Buy for hardly any selection.

Thus it's probably going the way of Ames!

Remember Ames anybody? That department store chain hardly had Jack!

Selling mostly el-cheapo stuff.

[damis648]

Seriously, Microcenter FTW. You can get a 8GB USB stick for $14.:popcorn: