

Circuit City files for bankruptcy - ashishk
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10092366-92.html

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Dilpil
What exactly happened to circuit city anyway? Were they over leveraged?
Holding auction rate securities as cash equivalents? Or have they just not
been selling much for a long time?

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tortilla
Best Buy was eating their lunch, breakfast, and dinner. So in response, they
laid off their highest paid sales staff and replaced them with cheaper
alternatives. Even the reduction in payroll expenses couldn't save them (might
have been too little too late). Not only were the competing with BestBuy, but
also with more efficient competitors such as Amazon and NewEgg.

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Dilpil
Ahhh yes now I remember. Stupid accounting tricks: look how much money we
saved!

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sfk
Good. I've been frustrated by large consumer electronics stores for years.
Customer choice has been steadily decreasing to the point that I simply refuse
to buy new things.

Examples:

\- A couple of years ago it was virtually impossible to get a black colored TV
(in Europe), they were all silver.

\- Now you cannot get CRT TVs or monitors any longer.

\- Practically all notebook screens are wide screen, glossy and with an
incredibly poor dpi.

I rather spend my money elsewhere.

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josefresco
Submitter: "finally" as in you were hoping they were going to file? Or finally
as in they were teetering on the brink for a long time and just fell over the
edge?

Best Buy is the evil around my locale, so I don't have any negative
associations with CC, which is why I ask.

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ashishk
Probably a 20/80 mix, 80 being the latter =)

CompUSA is my evil after several really bad experiences with their customer
service.

I just feel like it was inevitable.

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sgrove
They've been teetering on the brink for several reasons - primarily their
inability to compete with Best Buy. Their locations, architecture, and
advertising couldn't match the sophistication and forethought given to Best
Buy's. The last two are especially obvious in the case of older Circuit City
stores.

I don't much care for either of them, I've had bad experience all around. I
generally only buy things here and there online. But it's still quite apparent
that Circuit City has been playing catch up for quite some time.

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helveticaman
Why no bailout? >:)

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callmeed
What, no bailout plan for the retail electronics industry?

Seriously, didn't they just announce closing 150+ stores a week ago? Why not
file then? They had to know it was coming.

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ssharp
There were questions on whether or not they could get the credit to actually
file for bankruptcy. This is chapter 11, not 7, so they are attempting to
restructure their finances and stay in business, not liquidate.

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redorb
yeah, all the CC's in my city were looking depressing anyway, guess they got
put out of there misery.

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cdr
No. It's Chapter 11.

Closings for 150 stores were announced last week; if your local stores weren't
on that list, they're not going to go (yet).

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redorb
yeah sorry, my comment worked in my mind, cause I drive past a man holding a
"everything must go" sign in front of our local CC

