Circuit City Liquidates

I can’t believe that it was just two short years go that my boyfriend and I were in our local Circuit City store, pricing out TV’s for our living room that we were moving into (this was right before we moved into our first home we bought). Everything seemed fine. The store was fully stocked, I had not yet heard any rumblings from the media that the store was in trouble, and everything seemed to be going fine for the electronics retailer and seller of things like software, cameras, printers, computers, and the like.

However, one thing I did notice and remarked on to my boyfriend at the time was that they seemed short staffed. It was hard to find anyone to help us with our questions, and when we finally did it seemed like this particular store employee wasn’t really that knowledgeable about the products we were asking about. Now, Best Buy on the other hand, we actually got asked if we needed help in the first few minutes of looking, and the staff seemed very knowledgeable about their products.

Another thing was that they had overall better prices than Circuit City and also seemed to have a more customer friendly setup and organization about the store. I’m not saying I think Best Buy is the reason for Circuit City’s downfall, Circuit City certainly had their strong points over Best Buy, like some of their sales and private specials were better, but overall I think Best Buy had the better strategy for getting and maintaining customers.

By the way, we went to Best Buy to return a DVD on a Saturday this past weekend, and I was a little disturbed that this particular location wasn’t crawling with prospective customers as it usually is, but I’m hoping that’s just the typical January slump.

But I digress. I think Circuit City, in a different economic climate, could have survived, they just didn’t foster that same kind of customer base and loyalty that Best Buy has been so good at doing over these past twenty or so years they have become a household name. Circuit City did try a few things before they decided to close their remaining stores, which unfortunately means the loss of about 36,000 additional jobs though.

They were attempting to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganize their debt, but due to the credit markets being so tight right now, they were unable to do either, and had no choice but to close up shop, send their employees packing, and liquidate their assets.

You may be able to find some good deals at their going out of business sales, but be careful what you buy, because there are no returns for liquidation sales, so make sure you are getting a good product.