Oct 16
Circuit City Closing?
Filed under : “No, REALLY?” it would seem that the big US Electronics store Circuit City might be facing bankruptcy early next year.
I say “No, REALLY” because if you’ve ever been to Circuit City, you know it has paled in comparison to Best Buy ever since Best Buy came into inception basically. The store is dark inside, even more woefully staffed than Best Buy, and just sucks in comparison. (At least on the brick and mortal side of things).
As far as the programs they offer, I tend to like Circuit City more than Best Buy. Their 10% gamer club is pretty good, and them giving you a gift card if they don’t have new release games on the wall is pretty awesome too. Unfortunately, I think these programs have been overlooked by consumers for Best Buy’s Reward Zone where you earn $5 in GC for ever $250 you spend… Even though CC’s gamer club is far better, consumers just think they do better at Best Buy. (an example of genius marketing I guess)
But, maybe all this is neither here or nor there. I think if anyone heard this news (if it actually becomes a reality) that it won’t come as a surprise, though I’m a bit fearful to think of where WORST Buy will go when it faces no decent competition. Maybe us East Coasters will get lucky and we’ll start to get some Fry’s out here. For more…
October 17th, 2008 at 2:47 am
I have nothing to add to this being in the UK, but I’ll say “hello everyone”
October 17th, 2008 at 2:59 am
Yeah, it really stinks when one chain loses it’s competition. But with this economy, I would think places like Best Buy would suffer too.
October 17th, 2008 at 8:03 am
I’m a Circuit City fan. I hate Best Buy. Their employees are rude. My dad and I discovered that when we went to buy our first HDTV. We left “Worst” Buy and went to Circuit City and since then, I’ve bought EVERYTHING from them. My old camera, my old laptop, my new camera, my mp3 player, etc.
October 17th, 2008 at 10:38 am
@Pete – Not gonna lie, when I read your comment this morning… I laughed.
@Teeni – You’d think. I mean, I thought I heard that spending last quarter was down.. and I’ve heard that people are expecting great deals for this year’s Black Friday because of how bad ppl are feeling with the economy so I guess we’ll see.
@Angela – I used to work there and got in trouble when I would leave my section (at customer’s request) to help them in other areas. They would grab me from videogames because I had been so helpful and ask me if I knew about HDTVs or computers because either A) There was no staff in that section or B) The staff IN that section acted like they had better things to do than help customers with thousand dollar purchases.
I really never understood it. If someone just made a Best Buy like store with decent customer service, They could blow Best Buy out of the water. No doubt.
October 17th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Oh, that’s interesting. I am not fond of the Circuit City stores (to go in them) but there have been many times they beat the prices of other places on an item I wanted. So, I have purchased many things from them online and in store.
October 19th, 2008 at 8:56 am
@Beth – Yeah, CC is interesting in that way. Even when they have better prices and deals, no one goes in because it’s just not as welcoming as Best Buy stores. I think I might have read or heard something more about that in that ppl tend to love the “warehouse” feel that stores like Fry’s and MicroCenter and Best Buy give you.