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Circuit City (CC) has reached a deal to be fully liquidated after failing to find a buyer or a refinancing deal.

The electronics retailer reached an agreement with liquidators to sell the merchandise in its 567 domestic stores.

"We are extremely disappointed by this outcome. The company had been in continuous negotiations regarding a going concern transaction,” said James Marcum, vice chairman and acting president and chief executive officer, in a statement.

“Regrettably for the more than 30,000 employees of Circuit City and our loyal customers, we were unable to reach an agreement with our creditors and lenders to structure a going-concern transaction in the limited timeframe available, and so this is the only possible path for our company."

News of the liquidation sent shares falling 8% to 3.2 cents in mid-day trading.

Court papers showed the retailer appointed Great American Group LLC, Hudson Capital Partners LLC, SB Capital Group LLC and Tiger Capital Group LLC as liquidators.

In November, the Richmond, Va,-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, falling victim to tight credit markets and slowdown in consumer spending. The judge set today as a deadline to reach a deal with a buyer.

The company received approval to proceed with an auction to sell itself last week. Circuit City told the court it was in talks with two undisclosed parties that could either buy the company or provide financing.

According to reports, Golden Gate Capital was a leading bidder for the 59-year-old retailer. It made an offer, but requested 30 days to analyze the business, according to reports.

The retailer has been struggling for some time. A week before filing Chapter 11 it announced it was closing 155 U.S. stores, resulting in 17% of its workforce to be laid off.

Dang. Not unexpected, but still. Probably not the last of the goodly sized retailers to throw in the towel this year. I'm not fond of Best Buy, but who else is left where you can actually see/listen to/test the electronics in person?

It's an economic Catch-22. You can't try out the electronics from an eCommerce website, but because they don't have the bricks-and-mortar stores where you can, they can underprice the physical stores. So you test at the store and buy off the web, leading to falling sales at the physical stores and eventually fewer places to try out stuff (or none!). Which then leads to falling sales at the websites, or else a diminished selection as people buy only those items which are carried by the physical stores.

Pealette has got to fight to not feel like Typhoid Mary or something.

She worked as a buyer for Hit or Miss, KB Toys and Circuit City.

How is Toys R Us doing - she could beat a hat trick if they go down.

She is in sales now, so maybe things will be okay.

peacock2121 wrote:How is Toys R Us doing

Don't know, but I've been predicting their demise for four years now. If they can make it through this economy while competing against Wal-Mart, K-Mart and the other discounters, IMO they're unkillable.

My cousin will undoubtedly be losing his job.

Damn.

That's all I have to say.

christie1111 wrote:My cousin will undoubtedly be losing his job.

Damn.

Is your cousin in Richmond or in one of their stores?

peacock2121 wrote:

christie1111 wrote:My cousin will undoubtedly be losing his job.

Damn.

Is your cousin in Richmond or in one of their stores?

Store manager.

One of the ones which had not been slated to close already.

christie1111 wrote:

peacock2121 wrote:

christie1111 wrote:My cousin will undoubtedly be losing his job.

Damn.

Is your cousin in Richmond or in one of their stores?

Store manager.

One of the ones which had not been slated to close already.

Retail manager - yikers. Hoping your cousin lands on his feet.

News of the liquidation sent shares falling 8% to 3.2 cents in mid-day trading.

from .0347 to .032?

gsabc wrote: It's an economic Catch-22. You can't try out the electronics from an eCommerce website, but because they don't have the bricks-and-mortar stores where you can, they can underprice the physical stores. So you test at the store and buy off the web, leading to falling sales at the physical stores and eventually fewer places to try out stuff (or none!). Which then leads to falling sales at the websites, or else a diminished selection as people buy only those items which are carried by the physical stores.

Not everyone has access to online stores. Not everyone who has access to online stores will buy major electronics from online stores. Some people (myself included) do not want a bulky item like a big screen dumped off at my front door by UPS. A lot of people don't know how to hook these devices up properly (and the more complicated your setup is, the tougher it is to do correctly). Others don't like the idea that there's no service or technical help available from an online store.

Circuit City's CEO was named this week by Business Week as one of the ten worst of the year (along with the people who ran Lehman Brothers, AIG and others into the ground). The big reason was running off all the better paid employees. That's why they're DOA and Best Buy is doing reasonably well (and will do even better when they can cherry pick old Circuit City sites for leases at rock bottom prices). When they did that, they destroyed employee morale and with it customer service. I made a promise never to shop there again, and I didn't (up until they announced they were closing the Atlanta stores, since Circuit City had sold off the merchandise by then). At one time, they had a lot of professional sales people, not kids looking to play video games for free, but men and women with families who took pride in their jobs and knew the merchandise and the customers. They ran them off and wound up with people that Best Buy wouldn't hire. Labor is like anything else; you get what you pay for.

I'm sorry for those who worked hard and tried to make the company successful despite this. There were still a number of good employees there. But I'm not sorry for the company and it's management. They richly deserved what they got.

Best Buy has the best mix of decent prices and decent service of anyone out there. The high end electronics stores will still do business but they have a limited clientele. With Wal Mart you take your chances regarding quality and can forget about technical support. The online retailers aren't for everybody. Best Buy is the safe choice in the middle.

silverscreenselect wrote:At one time, they had a lot of professional sales people, not kids looking to play video games for free, but men and women with families who took pride in their jobs and knew the merchandise and the customers. They ran them off and wound up with people that Best Buy wouldn't hire. Labor is like anything else; you get what you pay for.

Now this is why I dislike Best Buy. No one ever seems to know anything about the merchandise (possibly excepting their high margin items or whatever's on sale that week), and everyone is like the staff that "Chuck" doesn't dare show at the BuyMore. They're always flogging their high margin stuff and shoving you away from anything else, no matter how much you want that "else" or how much better it might be. To me, they're just Radio Shack with bigger merchandise and without the individual electronic bits and pieces on the shelves. I might shop there, but I'll buy elsewhere. I would buy at Circuit City.

peacock2121 wrote:Pealette has got to fight to not feel like Typhoid Mary or something.

She worked as a buyer for Hit or Miss, KB Toys and Circuit City.

How is Toys R Us doing - she could beat a hat trick if they go down.

She is in sales now, so maybe things will be okay.

My mom worked for Two Guys, Zody's, and Gemco. They all went out of business. After Gemco she became a liquidator because she had so much experience closing down stores.

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:

peacock2121 wrote:Pealette has got to fight to not feel like Typhoid Mary or something.

She worked as a buyer for Hit or Miss, KB Toys and Circuit City.

How is Toys R Us doing - she could beat a hat trick if they go down.

She is in sales now, so maybe things will be okay.

My mom worked for Two Guys, Zody's, and Gemco. They all went out of business. After Gemco she became a liquidator because she had so much experience closing down stores.

So, Pealette can expect to have an ungrateful child who can't be inconvenienced by having her visit.

Appa23 wrote:

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:

peacock2121 wrote:Pealette has got to fight to not feel like Typhoid Mary or something.

She worked as a buyer for Hit or Miss, KB Toys and Circuit City.

How is Toys R Us doing - she could beat a hat trick if they go down.

She is in sales now, so maybe things will be okay.

My mom worked for Two Guys, Zody's, and Gemco. They all went out of business. After Gemco she became a liquidator because she had so much experience closing down stores.

So, Pealette can expect to have an ungrateful child who can't be inconvenienced by having her visit.

I am so glad that you put the happy face in your note otherwise I might think that you are a prick.

Yeah, that smiley face really counters a lot of meanness.



Edit: I don't necessarily mean this particular post, as I don't have time to guess whether he meant it mean or was just trying to be funny. But in general, the addition of a smiley face does not lessen the impact of the words.

Appa23 wrote:

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:

peacock2121 wrote:Pealette has got to fight to not feel like Typhoid Mary or something.

She worked as a buyer for Hit or Miss, KB Toys and Circuit City.

How is Toys R Us doing - she could beat a hat trick if they go down.

She is in sales now, so maybe things will be okay.

My mom worked for Two Guys, Zody's, and Gemco. They all went out of business. After Gemco she became a liquidator because she had so much experience closing down stores.

So, Pealette can expect to have an ungrateful child who can't be inconvenienced by having her visit.

I can gosh darn guarantee you that that will not be happening.

gosh darn guaranteed

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:

Appa23 wrote:

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote: My mom worked for Two Guys, Zody's, and Gemco. They all went out of business. After Gemco she became a liquidator because she had so much experience closing down stores.

So, Pealette can expect to have an ungrateful child who can't be inconvenienced by having her visit.

I am so glad that you put the happy face in your note otherwise I might think that you are a prick.

made me laugh and laugh and laugh

Ritterskoop wrote:Yeah, that smiley face really counters a lot of meanness.



Edit: I don't necessarily mean this particular post, as I don't have time to guess whether he meant it mean or was just trying to be funny. But in general, the addition of a smiley face does not lessen the impact of the words.

Smiley faces are stoopid

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:

Appa23 wrote:

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote: My mom worked for Two Guys, Zody's, and Gemco. They all went out of business. After Gemco she became a liquidator because she had so much experience closing down stores.

So, Pealette can expect to have an ungrateful child who can't be inconvenienced by having her visit.

I am so glad that you put the happy face in your note otherwise I might think that you are a prick.

Now, I can't tell you if you are goofing on my goofing on your reports of your mom's visits or not.

Smily faces can be hard to decipher!

gsabc wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:At one time, they had a lot of professional sales people, not kids looking to play video games for free, but men and women with families who took pride in their jobs and knew the merchandise and the customers. They ran them off and wound up with people that Best Buy wouldn't hire. Labor is like anything else; you get what you pay for.

Now this is why I dislike Best Buy. No one ever seems to know anything about the merchandise (possibly excepting their high margin items or whatever's on sale that week), and everyone is like the staff that "Chuck" doesn't dare show at the BuyMore. They're always flogging their high margin stuff and shoving you away from anything else, no matter how much you want that "else" or how much better it might be. To me, they're just Radio Shack with bigger merchandise and without the individual electronic bits and pieces on the shelves. I might shop there, but I'll buy elsewhere. I would buy at Circuit City.

We stopped shopping at Circuit City for that very reason. The loss of expertise at our local Circuit City and the one near TLAF's old house was keely felt.

The salespeople at the Best Buy near us are fine and we've never had any trouble with them trying to funnel us to something else.

HOWEVER, when we buy the appliances for the kitchen rehab this year and our future HDTV/Blu-ray, we will be buying them from local stores.

We're getting the appliances at either Ray's or Gerhard's and the HDTV/Blu-ray from Boscov's.

I am very glad we have that option.

Ritterskoop wrote:Yeah, that smiley face really counters a lot of meanness.



Edit: I don't necessarily mean this particular post, as I don't have time to guess whether he meant it mean or was just trying to be funny. But in general, the addition of a smiley face does not lessen the impact of the words.

Clearly, it was a joke, poking fun at how PSM's mom has been described on this Bored. (Even having her own MM)

What reason would I have to ever post something mean about PSM?