Circuit City Files For Bankruptcy

WillDraven is just one of many who writes to tell us that Circuit City, the United States' 2nd largest consumer electronics retailer, has filed for bankruptcy under chapter 11. This news comes as no surprise as the company has been in financial trouble, recently announcing that it will be closing over one fifth of its stores and laying off 17% of its US employees in the process. "Larger rival Best Buy, which is based in Minneapolis, has said it might take over stores that distressed rivals close. Yet a flood of discounted merchandise from liquidating Circuit City stores could hurt Best Buy during this holiday shopping season, said Jefferies & Co analyst Dan Binder."

Comments

La Source

[Win0ver]

Circuit City bought all the Radio Shacks here, and changed their name to "La Source: by Circuit City" Do they all get closed too?

Discounted merchandise? Not likely

[sunking2]

As anyone who tried to find a good deal when compusa went under, good deals will be few and far between. Oh, you'll see lots of 30-50% off stickers, but they'll be against the MSRP or some other jacked up price. They will never come out of this and the inventory is worth more to them as an asset for some liquidation company than if they sell at too much of a loss. And I question how much inventory they really have anyway. Last time I was in there the shelves were pretty bare and I imagine the stock room is by now too. This has been well over a year in coming.

Make sure they have a transfer agent

[Shandalar]

Seriously - I attempted this once with a different company and was not able to get the paper shares because they lacked a 'transfer agent' at that point. Make sure they can deliver.

Commissioned Sales People

[zubikov]

I worked at CC from 2000-2002 as a commissioned salesman. CC differentiated themselves by being the only national electronics chain with a loyal, knowledgeable, community-oriented staff. We're not talking 17 y/o high school juniors, but middle-aged sharks who at least knew what they were selling. This worked and stores were in the black, but the 2001-2003 economic conditions caused the clueless management to shift the blame on the sales force and divert to the hourly model. Since then, the store became a cheap knock-off of Best Buy with no value added to the customer. It was only a matter of time before this happened. They were too late to the online game, and were wiped out by the Neweggs and the Amazons. RIP another pointless store that takes pride in making people borrow money they can't afford to pay back. Who's next?

Re:I can't bring myself to have much pity for them

[Surt]

You won't succeed, as it's not legally required in any US state. Police officers can demand your name, and in some cases your address and destination. But they can't demand that in the form of state issued id. They may in some states detain you for up to 2 hours to confirm that what you've told them, and you might be able to go about your business faster if you hand over id, but you are NOT required to do so.

They can definitely demand a driver's license if they are stopping you while you are driving.