Circuit City closes in Albemarle Square
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Circuit City stock has lost 95 percent of its value in the last year.CORPORATE LOGO
Richmond-based electronics retailer Circuit City announced today that in an effort to liquify its assets to halt a precipitous decline in the company’s earnings, it will be closing 155 of its domestic stores, including the one in Charlottesville’s Albemarle Square Shopping Center.
“That’s news to me,” says Beverley Webb, vice president of Dumbarton Properties, the Richmond firm that owns Albemarle Square, “but we’d hope that whomever Circuit City sells to, that it will be to someone that benefits the shopping center.”
Circuit City reported a $240 million loss in the second quarter of this fiscal year, and last week received a notice from the New York Stock Exchange that its stock value has dropped so low that it’s in danger of being dropped from the NYSE altogether.
The store closings seem to have appeased Wall Street somewhat. Circuit City stock opened at 29 cents per share this morning, and since this morning’s announcement, that value had gone up to 39 cents per share, almost a 50 percent increase. Still that’s probably of little consolation to someone who bought Circuit City stock this time last year at $7.56 per share.
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Sayonara, Circuit City! When will the rest of them close?
Poor product selection, zero customer service, and a staff that can’t answer the most basic questions - yet they still closed the store? This was coming the day Best Buy decided to go national. Circuit City never had a chance.
Staff isn’t much brighter at bustbuy. At least there was some competition. I got some pretty good deals there over the years, after looking at fatwallet, slickdeals, etc. CC offered reviews on their website a la amazon, which ALL retailers should offer.
Circuit City has better prices that BestBuy, we should buy there these 2 months to keep the business open… otherwise, it would close all its stores next year…
We can help!
Neither store has rocket scientists working for them. They pretty much end up with employees who are too proud to work in a McDonalds or Burger King, or those who are too lazy to seek out a job in local, state or federal government so as to feed at the public trough.
I do agree that most of the employees in both Circuit Ciy and Best Buy couldn’t answer questions over a difficulty of 2 or 3 in a scale with a 10 being the most diffcult to answer.
But I disagree that Circuit City had poor product selection and zero customer service. Circuit City always had the products I was shopping for. And the manager (Michelle???) I dealt with on several occasions always satisfied my inquiries, above and beyond the call of duty so to speak.
The sad part now is the “price match” guarantee. No longer can I walk into Circuit City and announce Best Buy has a hard drive $40 cheaper and expect them to match the price. Likewise, the same applies when asking Best Buy to match Circuit City’s price. Lack of competition is not a good thing.
i agree with Music Lover, Circuit City was cool back when it had that big ol’ plug going into the ground as there icon; once the combonation of Best Buy and the internet came into play their customers started dropping like Jacksonville Jaguars fans
Complete list of those stores being closed.
http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/CC/455377629×0x245809/2BFAC9D9-6CEF-4027-9E51-1C635F42F7A7/110308%20Store%20Closing%20List.pdf
Does anyone remember that Circuit City, just a few years ago, was the best performing company in Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great”? Obviously, Mr. Collins’ approach to management is worth some reconsideration given the fall of Circuit City. It would seem a new approach to management would be worth considering. Read more at http://www.ThePhoenixPrinciple.com
The ONLY good thing I can say about Circuit City is their tech people knew the difference between a case fan and a processor fan. Best Buy’s Geeks didn’t. Both companies do computer repairs according to a crib sheet. BB’s did not include replacing processor fans, and CC’s did.
just so you know… best buy has two web sites ,one online and one in store and the prices are different.
they will not tell you this unless you confront them.
so if you see it online and go into the store to buy it they will say the sale is over. Go back home and print it out and bring it with you and confront them .
Or just boycott them for being dishonest. (the internet store does not say “internet only”
that’s unfortunate