Circuit City in trouble...

[Crinco]

Heard today on the radio that Circuit City is/has filed for bankrupcy.... I am and I am not surprised. Lots of good stuff there, but the stores have been empty lately

 

[Bucking Bronco]

They actually filed for bankruptcy protection
This allows them to put off paying all their vendors who are threatening to stop sending them product if they are not paid.

 

[RockMonkey]

They filed chapter 11. Yes, they are in trouble. They are closing 150-something stores, and unless they have a good holiday season (and it sure doesn't look promising) they will have to close many more. I spend a considerable amount of time in Circuit City stores since two of my Verizon stores are inside them. I find it amazing how scarce sales people are. Our Verizon sales people are always trying to find someone to sell people TVs, Ipods, etc. They need to put the sales staff back on commission to force them to go sell something.

 

[muddyjeep]

Im not surprised, I spent half an hour in one of those stores,
Trying to buy a HDtv and nobody would even help me.
So I walked out! Very poor customer service.

 

[cannoncrawler]

Doesn't look like any are closing around Idaho or Ut.

The list had 4 closing in atlanta, and 4 closing in phoenix. those guys must have takn the Walgreens aproach and put one on every corner, so to speak.

 

[Cody]

They have about 1/4 of the stores as BB.

They are in trouble, and it's mostly because of piss-poor leadership. I worked there for 5 years and 2hen I started there in 2001 there would be 3 full time sales guys working in 12 volt on a Saturday alone. Now, they have 2 people that float between 12 volt, computer accessories, and ace (other random acc). they converted away from commission in 2003 (which wasn't necessarily bad at first) but were able to keep many of their best sales people since their commission income was converted to a relatively attractive hourly. A year after I left, they fired all of the Sr. Product people that made over 12 per hour, which was basically anyone in the store that knew anything. That was the nail in the coffin.

They aren't heavily debt financed so they have a chance of pulling out of it, but consumer confidence has to be awful for them right now which compounds their problem.

 

[RockMonkey]

Doesn't look like any are closing around Idaho or Ut.

The list had 4 closing in atlanta, and 4 closing in phoenix. those guys must have takn the Walgreens aproach and put one on every corner, so to speak.

Correct. So far none of the stores in Utah are closing. The closest stores to us that are closing are three locations in Colorado. All three of those locations have Verizon Wireless kiosks in them. All of the Verizon employees will be absorbed by other stores. If the holiday season doesn't go well, we could lose some Circuit City stores in Utah.

 

[Cody]

they've been talking about closing the Ft. Union location for years. They also own land out by south town mall, and up in bountiful that they were going to build stores on, but that's obviously on hold now.

 

[RockMonkey]

they've been talking about closing the Ft. Union location for years. They also own land out by south town mall, and up in bountiful that they were going to build stores on, but that's obviously on hold now.

There was speculation that they would close Ft. Union once the new store at South Towne is open. That was supposed to happen Summer 2008, but kept getting delayed, and is now on permanent hold.

 

[Robert T]

I've heard the store in Orem is closing after the first of the year, that was from a employee of that store so I'd expect it to be so

 

[ryslc]

it is really too bad.
another big one named "tweeter" is in liquidation as well.

 

[Cody]

Orem would probably be the last to close since they are about the only one that is doing well.

Well, ok, Jordan Landing would be last but Orem is a huge draw and it'll be one of the last stores to go down unless they are aiming to close profitable stores.