Circuit City the 2nd biggest retailer of Consumer Electronics in the US is closing 567 stores including 15 in Colorado where I live. Doesn't leave much of a shopper experience left. http://cbs4denver.com/national/circuit.city.bankruptcy.2.910210.html I know they weren't the greatest place to shop but they were at least a place to shop. Gone john
It's a little bit sad to see Circuit City close it's doors. Honestly I really don't know how physical electronic stores can compete any more. On-line retailers like newegg, mwave, zipzoomfly, etc offer better prices and tax free if you don't live in the state they're based out of.
Or, as often happens these days, a place to see an item in the flesh before going home and finding the best online price for it.
To be honest, I never really liked to shop at Circuit City. It still is sad to see them close. We already lost CompUSA a while back... so yeah, that just leaves Best Buy for a physical store.
Glad I didnt buy anything really expensive there... or an extended service plan.. I wonder how thats working out.... I did buy a high performance CF card there just recently. To bad to see them go, I wonder if any excellent deals will arise from this? Like a 50" LCD HDTV for like $100 or something.. haha!
I'm waiting for the clearance sales. I just might pick up a laptop, if they have anything decent in stock. I think one of the biggest challenges the 'brick and mortar' stores faces these days is basic selection. There's a finite amount of square footage for merchandise. I was looking for a laptop at Christmas, but I couldn't find anything I liked, as stores only carried a handful in stock. Conversely, When I checked Amazon, I was befuddled at the sheer amount of options from which to choose. I waffled between a few models, but in the end I closed the browser without making a purchase. I want to see it in person, hold it, weigh it, rest my hands on it, get a feel for the build quality - only then will I part with my money. Cpemma said it well. I know I've done that exact thing a number of times in the past. -monkey
I don't even go home - I just look stuff up directly from my iPhone. Which, for the record, doesn't always result in an online purchase - if it's a small premium locally (it's NEVER cheaper), I'll just pick it up there since I'm already out. More often than not though, I just go with Amazon's or Newegg's reviews and be done with it - it's never led me too far wrong. Good riddance to CC. Awful prices, worse customer service. I'll probably check in to see if I can find a deal on anything in the final days, but I don't expect much.
There's still H.H. Gregg. Although it's Indiana based so I'm not sure how national it is. A CC just went out of business locally and everything was at least 50% off. I was pissed that I got there too late to snag a 360/PS3/Wii.
I want to my local branch and was none to impressed. Now, I only rarely shopped there before, but decided to go to look for epic sales. It was crowded as hell, and understaffed (but that was predictable, it's a liquidation after all). The selection was pretty terrible, and most stuff was only 10% off. They had precisely one graphics card for sale: a 4850 priced at $170 after discounts. I'll go back in a maybe a week pick to perhaps pick up some cheap as hell junk, but for now it's still no better than online, even during a liquidation.
Empire Direct shut up shop yesterday. One of our bigger "small" places for electrical goods, 14 stores and online sales. It's worrying as I'm looking to order a new cooker and it seems nowhere is safe.
One of my retail contacts said that they were advised in December that 73 stores of different kinds would fold in January. They wouldn't mention the names because people would not shop there during "The Season" As an economy, I fear we are going down rapidly. New President - 300+ point DOW drop today? Where do we go? john
