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.

Comments

It's just a website

[rsilvergun]

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.

Re:It's just a website

[Anonymous Coward]

Circuit Blockchain City would have been better.

They could just open good stores

[DogDude]

... 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.

Re:They could just open good stores

[DogDude]

I live in a major metropolitan area on the East coast, and all we have is Best Buy and an Apple store (which isn't really an electronics store). Best Buy here stocks next to nothing, and the last time I tried to buy something in there, I was told to come back the next day, because they didn't have anybody who could sell me what I needed (a freezer). We literally have no electronic stores within hundreds of miles.

Re:Maybe if they try something different.

[sconeu]

Back in the day (late 80s, early 90s), there used to be a place called "Best Merchandising" (or something like that). You have recreated their business model. You would go through the store, and write down SKU numbers. You handed the SKU list at the desk, and they would then bring them out of the warehouse in the back.

Radio Shack is the one I'm going to miss

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Maybe if they try something different.

[Fly Swatter]

I have thought it might work to have stores with a smaller storefront area, and mostly warehouse in the back.

Show room warehouses have been done before, Service Merchandise (68 years) and Best Products (40 years) still went out of business around the time of everyone else.

But there's always a chance a modern one will work.

Like Monkey Ward

[Anonymous Coward]

Circuit $#!++y will come back just to the same extent Montgomery Ward has been back for the past few years.