[Moogs]

Another one bites the dust. Circuit City today announced it didn't have the influx of cash over the holiday to help it stay afloat. All stores are to be shut down and sold off (and presumably some big sales in the making), and 30k+ employees to be laid off. Sucks. I'm not a huge fan of Circuit City but this leaves Best Buy as the only major, nation-wide retail electronics game in town, which makes them more likely to abuse their position in the market. Loss of competition is always bad.

When CrapUSA went under I was fine with it because their selection, prices, and service were garbage. Circuit City was clearly a step above that chain at least, so it's not great to see them go. That said maybe I'll head in there and try to get a bargain on a compact camera or similar.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/15784...ng_stores.html

[jcoley2]

Circuit City got its butt kicked in by Best Buy. Their senior management made a decision like a year ago to fire its experienced sales help and go inexperienced to save money, but in the end, it probably alienated potential customers. I used to shop there a lot, but it became too painful. The local Best Buy in Norwalk CT is much more pleasant experience.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Walmart is still around to provide some competition, and there's always local shops like Bernie's in my area. Still, I'm glad I didn't pick up the replacement TV for my kitchen last night.

[Capella]

I'm hoping that when the store here closes there'll be good discounts- hopefully on iPods or on internal hard drives (clearly not Seagate though!)

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by Moogs I'm not a huge fan of Circuit City but this leaves Best Buy as the only major, nation-wide retail electronics game in town, which makes them more likely to abuse their position in the market. Loss of competition is always bad.

The big box stores put little shops out of business over the last decades. Now, with the demise of the big guys, I wonder if *small-business versions* of retail sales will start to crop up again.

Small stores always had high prices though; so the consumer would be caught between a rock and a hard place, either with fewer big boxes or with the reincarnation of the small-shop model.

Perhaps sales via the internet will be the one avenue where the consumer will still be able to get good value for his money as this 21st-century economy unfolds, shapes and develops itself over the next decade. If so, then delivery companies like UPS would probably be a good investment. What do you think?

[psmith2.0]

How odd. I just went to my local Circuit City a couple of nights ago. It was the first time in ages I'd been in. I noticed how it (compared to Best Buy) just seemed to have a vaguely "morgue-ish" vibe about it. Perhaps they knew?

I was never a fan, and haven't bought anything from there in forever. I use Best Buy or Target as my local retail disk/cable/electronics-gettin' place. I'd even prefer Out-On-Parole Reggie's House o' Stereos over Circuit City, given the choice.

I knew they were shutting down some locations, but I guess even that wasn't enough.

PS - I agree, Carol. I think as more and more people get comfortable with "buying online" in the coming years, you'd probably do okay owning a skootch of UPS and/or FedEx...somebody's gotta deliver all this stuff, and it's going to be one of those two! It's not like they're going anywhere anytime soon (they might merge though, and become FedUPS at some point).



I'm here all week...

[atomicbartbeans]

Word. I stopped by one a few miles away this afternoon - didn't notice anything different, just a small 'clearance' table in one corner.

It sucks that the retail electronics market will soon have yet fewer large players. Let's at least hope for lots of cheap gear as they die.

[kieran]

I may have bought a DVD at a Circuit City....once....

[PKIDelirium]

Rest in pieces, Circuit Shitty.

[psmith2.0]

Is Fry's still around? I knew them when I lived in SoCal...there was one up in Orange County off the 405, and then one down in San Diego, just north of Qualcomm Stadium, off the 15. I've been to both plenty of times, but never saw them anywhere else I've lived (Nashville or northern Virginia) or visit (Atlanta, Knoxville, New Orleans).

Are they a west coast outfit?

Also, what about Micro-Center? That's where I bought my very first Mac, in Orange County in early '94. There is one in Virginia (Fairfax, I think?) because I drove past it by accident one day on an aimless weekend drive and was surprised to see it. I had to stop and run in, of course, and get my Mac fix. And they always had a great book and magazine department too...books on Photoshop and Illustrator that I never saw anywhere else (not even Borders or Barnes & Noble!), and tons of cool design and Mac-oriented magazines too.



But I've never seen Fry's anywhere but California...

[turtle]

Well, a little known fact is that Office Depot, Office Max and Staples also provide real compitition to Best Buy for a lot of Tech items. I can't say I'm sad to see CC going under, but I will miss that option when in need of something not offered locally elsewhere.

[dmegatool]

They will annouce what they'll do in canada soon. Probably close too... I don't know.

I don't buy much at that store (La source/The source here in quebec/canada). But it is great when is comes to adapters/wire and stuff like that. Always got what I wanted. I can't say Futureshop is great in that domain so I don't know where I'll get my stuff... besides internet.

[tomoe]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 But I've never seen Fry's anywhere but California...

Oddly, I've never see Fry's anywhere but Texas.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Fry's is around, as is Meijer, Mal-Wart, and other localized chains. The HDTV I bought in '05 came from Bernie's as they had a price that was hundreds cheaper than the same model at BB.

Every time I went into CC it was always nearly dead. The BB across the street, on the other hand, is always loaded with customers. The only reason I've gone to CC in the last year is when a 360 game I wanted was sold out at BB.

[Luca]

Originally Posted by jcoley2 Circuit City got its butt kicked in by Best Buy. Their senior management made a decision like a year ago to fire its experienced sales help and go inexperienced to save money, but in the end, it probably alienated potential customers. I used to shop there a lot, but it became too painful. The local Best Buy in Norwalk CT is much more pleasant experience.

Interesting point. Just earlier this week I went into a Best Buy looking for a very specific audio adapter part (a female-to-female 3.5mm stereo plug - basically a coupler or gender-changer). They didn't have it, but the staff knew exactly what I was talking about and led me to the section that would have had it if they carried the item.

I suspect if I went into a Circuit City, the sales guy would tell me that what I was looking for either doesn't exist or is a splitter (it's NOT a splitter). I ended up going to Radio Shack for the part, but Best Buy still left a good impression.

[zsummers]

Originally Posted by Luca Interesting point. Just earlier this week I went into a Best Buy looking for a very specific audio adapter part (a female-to-female 3.5mm stereo plug - basically a coupler or gender-changer). They didn't have it, but the staff knew exactly what I was talking about and led me to the section that would have had it if they carried the item. I suspect if I went into a Circuit City, the sales guy would tell me that what I was looking for either doesn't exist or is a splitter (it's NOT a splitter). I ended up going to Radio Shack for the part, but Best Buy still left a good impression.

Gar! Talk about the chain that won't die. Why hasn't someone, anyone put them out of business? My local grocery store could add an aisle and carry all of their necessary (grossly overpriced) stock. And don't ever, ever try to return something there. Each time I've had to (unopened items, to boot), they've forced me to answer pretty damn private questions about my home set-up, etc.

[Luca]

Maybe it's because they occupy a niche that no one else really fills? A Best Buy store the size of a grocery store didn't have the item I wanted, but a Radio Shack smaller than my apartment did.

And overpriced? I guess it depends on what you're looking for. If you need a specific cable or adapter, it's only a few bucks. Maybe more than it's worth (I'm sure a 3.5mm stereo coupler could be found somewhere for less than the $3.99 plus tax I paid), but it's convenient and if you buy online you'll end up paying more for shipping than for the item itself unless you buy tons and tons of stuff in a single order.

[Moogs]

Originally Posted by Windswept The big box stores put little shops out of business over the last decades. Now, with the demise of the big guys, I wonder if *small-business versions* of retail sales will start to crop up again.

Could be, Carol... there will certainly be more opportunity in certain locations, for smaller shops (especially existing ones) to compete more. I think though that Best Buy will dominate and might even goble up some of those locations that were Circuit City. Here in Chicago it means places like Abt will probably get a bigger share which is great because their service is about 10x better than any big box store I've been to even though they're a veritable "Acme Electronics Mega-mart" type place. Go to abt.com and you'll see all the stuff they have. Huge. I'd take another Abt location or three around here in a heart-beat over more Best Cry's. "Would you like to subscribe to some magazines?" Uh... NO. I wouldn't. Give me my damn CD, peewee.

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 How odd. I just went to my local Circuit City a couple of nights ago. It was the first time in ages I'd been in. I noticed how it (compared to Best Buy) just seemed to have a vaguely "morgue-ish" vibe about it. Perhaps they knew?

Oh I'm sure the rumors were making the rounds a week ago or more. They knew they were finished most likely.

Originally Posted by turtle2472 Well, a little known fact is that Office Depot, Office Max and Staples also provide real compitition to Best Buy for a lot of Tech items. I can't say I'm sad to see CC going under, but I will miss that option when in need of something not offered locally elsewhere.

Dude I don't know about where you are but where I am the Office Depots and Office Max type places are almost always empty and appear to be on the verge of death themselves. One opened up here about a year ago... it's already closing. And it's right near a Home Depot so not like it's a bad location. Their selection and pricing for electronics and even stuff like furniture, are terrible in most cases. I went there to see if there were any awesome deals, I saw some Logitech speakers, a decent LCD screen and a couple other items that were twice marked down... to the tune of roughly 40%. They were still more expensive than Amazon.

Most people go there twice a year maybe to buy paper products, pens, binders and stuff like that. IMHE they do not even moderately compete with a Best Buy in terms of the type and breadth of electronics choices you can get. Most office stores have 5 types of cameras, 5 printers, 5 LCD screens, 5 hard drives... ad nauseum for every type of gadget. And none are of the must-get variety and all are priced higher than places like Amazon, where you can get them delivered to your door for free.

Wouldn't be surprised if one or more of those office mega-stores bites this dust this year.

[JohnnyTheA]

Originally Posted by Luca Maybe it's because they occupy a niche that no one else really fills? A Best Buy store the size of a grocery store didn't have the item I wanted, but a Radio Shack smaller than my apartment did. And overpriced? I guess it depends on what you're looking for. If you need a specific cable or adapter, it's only a few bucks. Maybe more than it's worth (I'm sure a 3.5mm stereo coupler could be found somewhere for less than the $3.99 plus tax I paid), but it's convenient and if you buy online you'll end up paying more for shipping than for the item itself unless you buy tons and tons of stuff in a single order.

They survive because there are really only 1-2 employees in the store at a time, they are usually in strip malls (low rent), and they sell niche items (although not as much anymore). Also alot of old folks like to go there because they hate the big box stores and think they guys in the Shack know something. Its kind of like the small hardware store equivalent to Lowes or Home Depot.

As far as CC... We have been growing and growing in retail square footage per capital and are WAY higher than other countries like the UK and Canada. Like everything else, that was fueled by Credit Cards, home equity, etc... Put that together with a far far more efficient Walmart, competition with the internet (Amazon rocks), and they didn't have much of a chance. Someone said they fired all the high paid employees and hired lower paid staff... Thats a desperation move if there ever was one. It only keeps the stock up a little higher (so that the execs can cash out their options) but doesn't help a bit....

I really liked CC in the 80s and 90s, I also like the Good Guys... Too bad... The days of going to a store and actually talking to someone that knows ANYTHING about the electronics they sell is gone except for high-end products....

JTA

JTA

[zsummers]

Originally Posted by Luca Maybe it's because they occupy a niche that no one else really fills? A Best Buy store the size of a grocery store didn't have the item I wanted, but a Radio Shack smaller than my apartment did. And overpriced? I guess it depends on what you're looking for. If you need a specific cable or adapter, it's only a few bucks. Maybe more than it's worth (I'm sure a 3.5mm stereo coupler could be found somewhere for less than the $3.99 plus tax I paid), but it's convenient and if you buy online you'll end up paying more for shipping than for the item itself unless you buy tons and tons of stuff in a single order.

I agree that they fill a niche. My point is that I can't believe someone hasn't filled that niche better and cheaper. Grocery stores or gas stations easily could make enough room for the products that are actually useful at Radio Shack (i.e., exotic cables, plugs, and connectors), so long as they didn't take on the totally useless rip-offs Radio Shack sells--the overpriced DVD players, phones, TVs, and even laptops. I'd wager there's not a product at Radio Shack over $50 that you can't get elsewhere for cheaper and with better service. Whenever I'm in Radio Shack, I get the distinct impression they are preying on the weak, less tech-savvy shoppers looking for more expensive items, who come in because it used to be the place to go and they don't know better (i.e., the elderly). Maybe that's mean--and yes, Radio Shack has bailed me out on an exotic plug or cord more than once--but half-an-aisle at the local grocery/Quickie Mart could do the same.

[Luca]

The great thing about Radio Shack, though, is that you know if you walk in needing any kind of cable or adapter, you will walk out with a solution in your hands.

I doubt they make much profit on those tiny items, though. They probably make most of their money by selling that overpriced stuff, which allows them to stay in business. But what if they do go out of business? Where do you get all those little adapters? Even if some grocery stores start carrying them, you have to figure out which ones. I mean, even Best Buy doesn't carry nearly as much of a selection of cables and adapters, and they have tons more room to work with.

[torifile]

The Consumerist has put out a "guide" to the CC liquidation.

Don't go in there thinking you'll get a good deal on *anything* because you won't be. These liquidators jack up the prices to MSRP and then take 10% off.

[Moogs]

No. Most of the time the liquidator raises all the prices back to their original number and starts marking down from there, with the markdowns getting steeper week by week. He's still allowed to make big signs that scream 50% OFF!!!! even though that price at the time might be the same or even higher than the price before the liquidation. By the time prices actually get below what they were pre-liquidation, most of the inventory has been picked pretty clean. Except for the most dedicated bargain sleuths, liquidation sales are a ripoff.

Words to live by... especially for electronics it seems. Based on what I saw at Office Depot the other day, this is a valid statement.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by Luca The great thing about Radio Shack, though, is that you know if you walk in needing any kind of cable or adapter, you will walk out with a solution in your hands. I doubt they make much profit on those tiny items, though. They probably make most of their money by selling that overpriced stuff, which allows them to stay in business. But what if they do go out of business? Where do you get all those little adapters? Even if some grocery stores start carrying them, you have to figure out which ones. I mean, even Best Buy doesn't carry nearly as much of a selection of cables and adapters, and they have tons more room to work with.

As a lot of you know, I worked for them for about a year, from 2005-2006. They make money because they train their sales people to be vultures. I can remember times when somebody came in for a fuse and I (or one of my co-workers) sold them cell phones. Because that was the only way to make money there (and it's worse now -- they were changing the pay scale to tilt more toward phones when I left), everybody there pushes phones like crazy. That's where their money comes from.

Plus, while the markups aren't extreme on small items from a dollar perspective, the percentages are outrageous. When I worked there, we charged $3.99 for a pack of batteries or $10 for four packages. The four packages obviously seemed like a good deal, comparatively, so we moved those like crazy. We only paid $0.23 for each pack, though. The $3.99 bundle gave us $3.76 in profit, and the "4-4-10" (as they called it then) made us $9.08. Most of the small items are like that. They cost the store less than a dollar, but they sell them for 3-10 times what they paid for them.

Oh, and the extended life batteries? We charged an extra dollar per pack, and we couldn't bundle them. They only cost the store two cents more per pack than the standard batteries.

They make nearly all their money on selling small items and services (cell phones, TV service, etc.). We had special weekends and days when we'd get paid a $50 bonus for every single Dish Network install we sold. I don't know how much Radio Shack was getting per install, but I guarantee it was a lot more than $50. Those things were pure profit. There was little or no overhead for selling that stuff (since we didn't do installs), but we made tons of money on it.

As far as the big items go, people rarely came in for those things. I think I sold four stereos and one or two TVs in the nine months I was there. There are some people who refuse to shop anywhere else, but they tend to be older people who are stuck on their habit. Of course, those same people are the types of people who don't buy that sort of item very often. We didn't care, though. There was no margin on those things, so we made very little commission on them.

iPods are a great example of that. The store made less than $5 on every iPod we sold. We got bitched at big time if we ever sold one without accessories or a service plan (also big profit machines -- most service plans go unused, so they're pure profit too).

So, that's pretty much how they make money -- major markups on small items and selling tons of service contracts. I actually don't think they're going anywhere. With little overhead and crazy markups on their best-selling items, I think they'll be just fine.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Originally Posted by zsummers Gar! Talk about the chain that won't die. Why hasn't someone, anyone put them out of business? My local grocery store could add an aisle and carry all of their necessary (grossly overpriced) stock. And don't ever, ever try to return something there. Each time I've had to (unopened items, to boot), they've forced me to answer pretty damn private questions about my home set-up, etc.

I'd really hate to see Radio Shack go out of business. They have all the connectors I've ever needed, breadboards & project boxen galore and more. Probably the only place I know of where I can buy solder & flux too. I had my 150-in-1 for years and thanks to that I learned that shooting the neighbor's house with electrolytic capacitors plugged into my extension cord / cap launcher could be fun!

Heck, I'm not sure if I can wait until Ben is 8 (he just turned 4 on Monday *beamingfatherlypride*) to pick up the latest 150-in-1 incarnation for Ben & I to explore. Thanks to these electronics kits being around when I was a kid, I'm seriously considering building a 45W tube amp from parts like the old Heathkit kits that used to be around.

[on topic]
Looks like no one approached CC's board of directors about buying the extended electronic store chain warranty.

[dmegatool]

Didn't notice that you guys still have Radioshacks. Here in Quebec, Radioshack has been bought by Circuit City. It really look the same, only the name changed. So if they close here too, it sucks...

[Swox]

Originally Posted by dmegatool Didn't notice that you guys still have Radioshacks. Here in Quebec, Radioshack has been bought by Circuit City. It really look the same, only the name changed. So if they close here too, it sucks...

Circuit City bought all of the Canadian Radio Shacks in Canada years ago, and they kept the Radio Shack name for several years before Radio Shack noticed and was able to force them to change the name.

I never like The Source, or Radio Shack, personally. I've always gone elsewhere for my electronics needs (Future Shop, Long and McQuade, Home Hardware, etc.).

[PB PM]

I only go to "The Source" when I'm looking for a cable I cannot find elsewhere, meaning I've been there twice in the last four years.

[Bryson]

PBPM: the Source is really terrible, even for that use. Try Commercial Electronics if you can go downtown - the "obscure cables" dept is underneath the tv showroom. Recommended.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 Is Fry's still around? I knew them when I lived in SoCal...there was one up in Orange County off the 405, and then one down in San Diego, just north of Qualcomm Stadium, off the 15. I've been to both plenty of times, but never saw them anywhere else I've lived (Nashville or northern Virginia) or visit (Atlanta, Knoxville, New Orleans).

Fry's reaches at least as far as the Chicacgo area, and are present in the Southwest as well. I think there's even one in Georgia?

Fry's often has fantastic deals on certain items to lure you into their store. I often end up buying nice Antec PC cases, power supplies, RAM, and other components for much less than outfits like NewEgg. On the average their prices are higher. I generally hate their stores and merchandise though. They're still way too generous about returns, so their shelves are packed with open-box items. In addition, Fry's shelves are polluted with junk from no-name brands.

Also, what about Micro-Center? That's where I bought my very first Mac, in Orange County in early '94. There is one in Virginia (Fairfax, I think?) because I drove past it by accident one day on an aimless weekend drive and was surprised to see it. I had to stop and run in, of course, and get my Mac fix. And they always had a great book and magazine department too...books on Photoshop and Illustrator that I never saw anywhere else (not even Borders or Barnes & Noble!), and tons of cool design and Mac-oriented magazines too.

MicroCenter is awesome. The one here has its own large showroom for Apple products, with its own register/counter and staff. The store interior is clear and well laid out, and unlike Fry's they sell a lot of enthusiast oriented components...I always go there to buy Scythe S-FLEX case fans for example. In addition, they actually offer competitive prices on big ticket items like CPUs...going directly to NewEgg and matching their prices before you even ask...