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Circuit City Is Coming Back (arstechnica.com)
Following a tease of a CES announcement, current Circuit City CEO Ronny Shmoel confirmed on Monday that something called Circuit City will arrive as "a new, more personalized online shopping experience" starting February 15. The announcement even included promises of AI-driven recommendations fueled by IBM's Watson platform, plus unexplained "augmented reality" and "search by photo" features. Ars Technica reports: Curiously, Shmoel also promised "real-time tech support via video chat," but it's unclear whether this feature will include two-way video feeds -- and, thus, whether Circuit City is prepared for a deluge of Chatroulette-caliber video surprises from trolls. This online Circuit City rebirth may very well actually come to exist, as Shmoel claims that the company has put together a fully fledged inventory and distribution system, with a mix of known electronics brand names and "tier-two and tier-three" names (Shamsung? Panafauxnoic?). The same cannot be said for its CES tease of eventual brick-and-mortar showrooms in the neighborhood of 8,000-10,000 square feet, however. Shmoel already backtracked on similar showroom promises in 2016, and his CES pronouncement of future shops included no hard confirmations of locations or dates. But for anybody who dares to dream, Circuit City's showroom design partner, Taylored Group, released a concept render of its store vision which looks like a Radio Shack as if rendered in a Taiwanese hot-take news video.
That's not really a come back, anymore than the Atari box is a come back. They're just using the name to get some press. Worked too.
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... they could just open good stores. That's something they've never tried before. I would much prefer buying my electronics at a physical store.
I don't respond to AC's.
So instead of some pimply-faced youth trying to upsell overpriced Monster cables, it'll be IBM Watson instead.
Thanks. Still not buying Monster cables.
Wouldn't that be at least as good as associating with a chain that had lots of issues and turtled?
I miss Circuit City. It was never great, but there were always a lot of them around. It was a hell of a lot better than Walmart or Target electronics sections at the time. I have fond memories of getting a Nintendo Wii on launch day at one of them.
If they just try the same old thing it will no doubt fail again.
I have thought it might work to have stores with a smaller storefront area, and mostly warehouse in the back. Do your comparison shopping in front, then press the button beside what you want to buy, and one is brought out for you. Alternately some sort of buy online, and pickup in store today model might work. But it is hard to beat Amazon 2 day shipping.
First law of people: People are generally stupid.
”Shmoel already backtracked on similar showroom promises in 2016, and his CES pronouncement of future shops included no hard confirmations of locations or dates.”
Well, the name “Future Shop” was already taken... so of course he had problems. /rimshot
#DeleteChrome
You just invented the Apple Store.
One obvious problem was that they had way too many damn stores, and each store was usually too small.
They should try the MicroCenter model with only one or maybe two stores in many metropolitan areas.
Don't forget "In the Cloud" and "Blockchain." Bitches love cloud and blockchain.
The announcement even included promises of AI-driven recommendations fueled by IBM's Watson platform
I'll just leave this here: https://gizmodo.com/why-everyone-is-hating-on-watson-including-the-people-w-1797510888 ''Why Everyone Is Hating on IBM Watson—Including the People Who Helped Make It''
Circuit $#!++y will come back just to the same extent Montgomery Ward has been back for the past few years.
Service Merchandise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_Merchandise
Bought my HP48SX from them.
I know a genuine Panaphonics when I see one!
"Can I help you?". NO. For the last time. Leave. Me. Alone.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Failed company getting help from a failing company.
This will be fun to watch. Only the lawyers will win.
What exactly are they offering that Amazon does not already do 1000x better?
Are you tired or paying property tax? Giving money to support our crumbling infrastructure got you depressed? Well look no further then the Internet! It's a great cheap way to avoid property taxes. Let the home owners pay the difference.
Last I heard, Circuit City as a brand/company is owned by the Systemax Group which includes Infotel and Tiger Direct. So either they sold it off or this is a Tiger Direct Walmart basically.
IMHO, the only way something like this could succeed against Amazon or Walmart is if they scored exclusivity with certain brands and product lines.
Personalized online shopping experience? Oh, you mean like every other online business? You ready to go under again?
I'll have another option for places to not shop.
Do you have ESP?
Circuit City was about one step above Crazy Eddies. The salesmen on the floor were the worst group of sales bros I've ever seen.
They'll be competing with Radio-Shank.
screw them. They often advertised "WinModems" (software) as real modems and included pictures of real modems with DIP switches in their ads even though the modems they sold didn't have them. They charged many of our customers restocking fees for those fake modems. They need to just die.
And cyptocurrency. Buzzword bingo.
If you are going to bring back old brands, bring back good ones. Circuit City was pretty much same as Best Buy, what's the point of duplication?
Display the thing in an amazing setting - demo it, and sell it to me.
I'll pick it up in a box from cash wrap, or you can deliver it.
Fry's has kept part of this element of Incredible Universe alive, to some extent. Buying a motherboard isn't quite the joy it once was, though.
I never would have bought Fabulous Fred if it weren't for a working demo unit at Best/Service Merchandise/Sterling.
Hands-on time with a machine before purchase?
I had to help my father buy a new laptop about a year ago, and at best we had Best Buy as an outlet where he could try out laptops before buying one. We ultimately ended up buying from Newegg (better pricing), but it was far easier to test out various models in-store before spending hundreds on a machine, and no online retailer offers an experience like that.
... I'm opening up a new video rental company called Blockchain Video. It'll be a blockbuster!!!