Circut City Liquidating Remaining US Stores

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Electronics retailer Circuit City Stores reached an agreement with liquidators on Friday to sell the merchandise in its 567 U.S. stores after failing to find a buyer or a refinancing deal.

The company - which had been the nation's second-biggest consumer electronics retailer, employing about 35,000 employees - appointed Great American Group, Hudson Capital Partners, SB Capital Group and Tiger Capital Group as liquidators.

Calls to the Richmond, Va.-based company and the liquidators were not immediately returned.

Circuit City [CCTYQ 0.035 -0.115 (-76.67%) ] filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November as vendors started to restrict the flow of merchandise ahead of the busy holiday shopping season.

It had been exploring strategic alternatives since May, when it opened its books to Blockbuster. The Dallas-based movie-rental chain made a takeover bid of more than $1 billion with plans to create a 9,300-store chain to sell electronic gadgets and rent movies and games, but then withdrew the bid in July because of market conditions.

In recent days, it was suspected that Golden Gate Capital, a San Francisco private equity firm, may have purchased the retailer, but it was unable to raise funds for the purchase, sources told CNBC.

Circuit City, which said it had $3.4 billion in assets and $2.32 billion in liabilities as of Aug. 31, said in its initial filings that it planned to emerge from court protection in the first half of this year.

Under court protection, Circuit City has broken 150 leases at locations where it no longer operates stores. The company already closed 155 stores in the U.S. in November and December.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Huennekens had given the company permission to liquidate if a buyout was not achieved.
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Sweet! I'm going there tomorrow.
 
Eh...when the liquidations first start, it's always 10-20% off, then 20-30, then everything 30. Once you hit that point the pickin's start getting pretty slim and you're only going to find a good deal if it's a very limited-appeal item.

The markdowns are also usually from the highest price they've had it for in the last year. May sound good, but you might be able to buy it cheaper elsewhere, and still have the option to return it.

Also, everything is final sale. no refunds, no exchanges. Kinda makes you think about buying anything expensive?
 
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
 
They used to be pretty good when they had people on staff who worked there as their primary job. Sure, their prices were maybe a little higher than Best Buy, but they always had nice stuff, and the people seemed to know what they were talking about. You'd see 40-year-old guys with glasses, wearing blazers, who actually knew stereo equipment and sound quality.

Then...

They replaced their entire staff with part-timers brain-washed into selling warranties instead of product.

I will say, though, that I usually had good service with their customer service counter people. The people on the selling floor now, however, are useless.

About 12 years ago I dropped $1,000 on a home stereo component system. I thought it was the SHIT! Kenwood 5-CD changed, Pro-Logic "surround" (he he) with a separate amplifier. The two front speakers had 15's in them (no need for a sub) and it came in a black (real)wood cabinet. Loved it. For me, the coolest things were the recording-level ajustment for tape and cd dubbing and the fact that the tape deck had electronic buttons. I could control the tape deck with the remote! I bought the extended 5-year warranty since it was the biggest purchase I had ever made at the time.

Fast forward 4 years and 10 months later, near the end of the warranty. The CD changer stops working properly. They "fix" it. It doesn't work. they "fix" it again; no dice. They try one more time, it still doesn't work, and now it would get replaced via their "no lemon" 3-repair policy.

However...since the cd-changer was sold as a complete package deal with the rest of the stereo, they can't just swap out the cd deck. Instead, they exchange the whole stereo.

This is where it gets weird. Back in the day, the warranty didn't say "exchange for similar equipment" like they all do now. The warranty was set-up so that I would get the equivalent $ amount of what I paid for it.

So, nearly 5 years after buying my stereo, technology has changed. That same $1,000 5 years later then bought a DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround receiver, almost the same cd player, but with round buttons instead of square ones and a optical out, better tape deck, 10-band stereo EQ, powered 12" sub, a turntable and another full 5-year warranty (this time with the new terms for exchange, though) and I have been enjoying this one for 7 years, trouble-free.

I used to classify them as a step above Best Buy because of the people they had on staff. Once they switched their commission policy, they fell below Best Buy...which is hard to do.
 
They had this deal about 3 weeks ago, very low price on a Sony LCD w/Free Blu Ray player. They were out of stock, so ordered it for me (After paying the entire price). It was supposed to arrive after 2 weeks, which it didn't and I was told that it would be in around the end of January. I went in today to cancel the order and got my money back (before it was too late, thankfully).

Regarding liquidation. I don't really need anything, but will still check things out. I agree that they will probably mark things up and then discount from the higher price. Hopefully some Blu-Ray movies and TV box sets (DVD) will be a little cheaper.
 
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I went on saturday to see what they had here in Texas, found most of the prices to be marked up then discounted :-( . I'm not really gonna bother buying anything till its closer to the closing date when they get desperate. ^_^
 
Yeah, it's just 10% off right now, and you can get that just by buying from Newegg right now. Like everyone else, I'll go back later.
 
I went in for TV show Box sets, but they were only marked down 20%...I'm gonna wait and hope they aren't all sold. I'm thinking about stuffing some under the shelving and waiting it out.
 
Sources tell me that they really starting marking stuff down more tomorrow or Wednesday (I have a buddy who has a buddy who is a Assistant Manager at one here in Colorado).

JH
 
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/34216

Long lines, few bargains as Circuit City fire sale begins

Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:15AM EST

Bargain hunters descended like vultures upon shuttering Circuit City stores over the weekend, but from what I'm hearing, true bargains are hard to come by. Also: Don't worry, your extended warranty is still good.
The Circuit City liquidation sales began in earnest Sunday, just a couple days after the bankrupt retail chain announced it's throwing in the towel after 60 years of business. (Based on the 600-plus comments on my Circuit City post Friday, many disgruntled shoppers are more than happy to see the chain go under.)

Reports from the various shopping fronts detail long lines at the more than 500 remaining Circuit City stores over the weekend, with CNET News.com witnessing "pandemonium" at a southern California stores ("consumers swarming everywhere ? seemingly snapping up anything that wasn't nailed down"), while Harry McCracken of Technologizer found long lines but a "sedate" scene in a south San Francisco outlet.

While the lines were lengthy, real bargains were apparently in short supply. ZDNet reports that the most popular items?flat-panel TVs, gaming consoles, and iPods?were either just 10 percent off of had no discount at all, with furniture and cables (ho, hum) getting a 30-percent sticker-price shave. (And remember, liquidation items are often marked up before discounts are applied.)

Circuit City?which has handed over operation of its remaining stores to four liquidation companies?expects the sales to continue until about March or so, and as ZDNet's Larry Dignan suggests, the real bargains might not emerge until the very end.

Meanwhile ? what about extended warranties and gift cards? Well, Circuit City's shopping home page was replaced with a lengthy liquidation F.A.Q. over the weekend, complete with all the details.

In a nutshell: Extended warranties are, indeed, managed by an outside vendor, and will be honored even after Circuit City has given up the ghost.

Also: Circuit City gift cards will be honored during the big liquidation sale. Once the sales are over, though, unused gift cards will be useless, so make sure to cash them in now.

Finally: All sales are final?no returns or refunds. If you bought something at Circuit City before January 16, the 14-day refund/exchange policy is still in effect.
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the circuit city by my house used to suck, poor service, high prices, and no one shopped there. So they decided to adress it and they started afresh in a new building down the street from the old one, where they amazingly had poor service, high prices, and amazingly no one shops there either!

Their add in the sunday paper yesterday still didnt seem like they had any good prices worth going there for.

if all CC's are like this one I certainly can see why they're broke. The Best Buy down the street from my CC is thriving, so its not the area, its the store.
 
I really really wish this were Wal Mart instead. DAMMIT.
 
jetsetter said:
No, you don't. Wal-Mart employs 2,100,000.
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Oh yes I do, because not only has Wal-Mart destroyed more jobs than the 2.1 million it's created, I used to be one of those 2.1 million, and I wouldn't wish that dehumanizing shit on my worst enemies.
 
AarheadC said:
It's kinda sad that even in Circuit City's last days they are still trying to rip off the customer...
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Their liquidators have the legal right to claim any "Was" price the item was in the last year...wouldn't you pick the highest one if you were in the same position? Why are they obligated to say the "original" price was the lower one they just had it for last week, rather than the one they had a month ago?
 
swraman said:
the circuit city by my house used to suck, poor service, high prices, and no one shopped there. So they decided to adress it and they started afresh in a new building down the street from the old one, where they amazingly had poor service, high prices, and amazingly no one shops there either!

Their add in the sunday paper yesterday still didnt seem like they had any good prices worth going there for.

if all CC's are like this one I certainly can see why they're broke. The Best Buy down the street from my CC is thriving, so its not the area, its the store.
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Yea all my local Best buys are constantly busy, but the circuit city's have been going into meltdown mode.
 
Rokovak said:
Oh yes I do, because not only has Wal-Mart destroyed more jobs than the 2.1 million it's created, I used to be one of those 2.1 million, and I wouldn't wish that dehumanizing shit on my worst enemies.
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No, you don't.

If Walmart goes down (at this point), the economy tanks even harder and it *doesn't* come back.

Walmart may only employ 2.1 million directly... but indirectly, something like 26% of the United States' population (IIRC) works for a Walmart supplier or has another job that depends on Walmart's business.

More importantly, Walmart's relentless drive to drop costs and prices plus the general tanking of the economy and the collapse of numerous pension systems means that a great number of poor and elderly on fixed incomes only eat food because Walmart sells it cheap enough for them to buy.

Speaking as someone who's watched Walmarts pop up all over the place, most of the businesses that died when a Walmart arrived *deserved* to die. High prices, poor service, small selection, no desire to change = death when Walmart comes to town.

It's business. Adapt or die.


As for Circuit Shitty, good riddance. They had terrible service and didn't even compensate for it by having low prices. Plus their stores were always terribly laid out and their selection was terrible. And would you like to buy an extended warranty to go with those batteries? Only 300% of the purchase price, what a bargain!
 
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