Circuit City could be sold

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Wattles: Circuit Could Be Sold In Two Months

In an interview with TWICE late this afternoon, the Ultimate Electronics owner said that multiple parties may be interested in the ailing CE chain, and that the buyer will likely be a private equity firm with deep-enough pockets to take the company private.


That scenario would be a win-win-win for shareholders, CE vendors and Circuit City employees, Wattles said, as it would keep the company well-capitalized and give it time to get back on track without the scrutiny and distractions of the public markets.

[xtop]

lets hope when blockbuster buys them, that they can redesign their terrible stores and start being some real competition to best buy

[Ice2Dragon]

Their store design is stupid, and the employees care less.

hell, everytime I use the discount card, they have to take a calculator out to do 10 percent off of 59.99

EVERYTIME

And its almost always the same person ringing me out each week @_@

[WickyWoo]

What discount card?

I'm more concerned about their lack of computerized inventory. The employees always have to take out this huge book

That's so 1985

[jw]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

What discount card?

I'm more concerned about their lack of computerized inventory. The employees always have to take out this huge book

That's so 1985

gamers card, 10% off games.

My store has a upc at the register they scan now

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by jwbbud

gamers card, 10% off games.

My store has a upc at the register they scan now

Thats on all games including new ones?

[Wingman1977]

Originally Posted by xtop

lets hope when blockbuster buys them, that they can redesign their terrible stores and start being some real competition to best buy

Block Buster isn't buying them. They pulled thier offer a while back.

[xtop]

Originally Posted by Wingman1977

Block Buster isn't buying them. They pulled thier offer a while back.

note date of thread

[Wingman1977]

Originally Posted by xtop

note date of thread

They've never said that they are interested again.

[xtop]

Originally Posted by Wingman1977

They've never said that they are interested again.

note date of my post. thread was started in may dude.

[BTBuck1]

Originally Posted by xtop

lets hope when blockbuster buys them, that they can redesign their terrible stores and start being some real competition to best buy

don't count on it, Circuit City has no innovation....all they do is copy Best Buy's strategies.

Unfortunately for them, they are always 3 years behind when they do it.

Instead of them being reactive to everything BB does, they should try and have an original thought.

[jw]

Things looking grim for the CC camp

Circuit City Halts New Stores, Could Close Current Ones

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 9/29/2008 7:50:00 AM

Richmond, Va. — Circuit City has taken itself off the auction block and will dramatically reduce new store openings following a $239 million net loss in its second fiscal quarter.
The company may also close existing stores following a comprehensive review of its business, intimated vice chairman James Marcum, who last week succeeded Phil Schoonover as acting CEO. Shorter term, the chain is preparing for the coming holiday season with “simple, easily implemented” fixes, he told investors during a Monday morning conference call.
Domestic sales fell 10.6 percent to $2.2 billion during the quarter, ended Aug. 31, while same-store sales fell 14.4 percent and the net loss mushroomed from the $62.8 million loss reported during the year-ago period.
During the conference call, chief financial officer Bruce Besanko blamed the sales decline on the weak economy, a double-digit drop-off in traffic, new store openings by competitors and the diminished relevance of the Circuit City brand.
“Clearly, the performance of the company is unacceptable to all of our stakeholders, and it is imperative that we take the right steps to accelerate our turnaround,” Marcum said in a statement.
Given current market conditions the company has abandoned plans to pursue a merger or sale, and instead is conducting “a comprehensive review of all aspects of our business,” he said, while working to beef up four core areas: customer experience, execution, service culture and stores.
“We recognize that this will require that we intensify our efforts to correct problems in our business,” Marcum noted, beginning with enhancing the in-store experience to help drive traffic. Plans, many of which were initiated under ousted CEO Schoonover, call for improving in-stocks on key items, creating compelling signage and appealing visual merchandising, and improving training, support and incentives for sales associates.
In addition, Jeff Stone, the former Tweeter CEO who runs the company’s new format The City stores, has been put in charge of all retail operations in order integrate successful elements from the prototypes across the entire chain. more..

Circuit has also dramatically reduced its plans to open new stores during the current fiscal year, and will open no new stores in fiscal 2010, Marcum said.
The company is also facing a liquidity crunch, with cash down 78 percent to $92.5 million, from $424.4 million a year ago. Nevertheless, Marcum said he recently held briefings with Circuit City’s top 25 vendors, who assured him that they are pleased with the company’s progress and continue to support the business.

big cash crunch here?

In entertainment, Circuit City generated a double-digit comp-sales decline, comprised of a low-single-digit comp decline in video gaming products and a double-digit comp decline in sales of video and music software.

DVD market has matured, not as many titles being released as most to all catalog titles have gotten a dvd release now. CDs , well they are a thing of the past if they are becoming dead weight and tieing up revenue, that area should be downsized and replaced with more downloads and or increased presence of MP3 players


Circuit City is stuck in the 90s and hasnt yet to realize the market has caught up with them and left them behind. The stores are beginning to look like big lots, They seldom have new releases on blu and if they do , Its usually only a couple copies

[Marquoz]

A lot of the problem with Circuit City is they cut back heavily on manpower. Whenever I go in there to buy something I have to wait in a ridiculous line at customer service because they closed down all the regular checkout lines due to not having anybody there.

If you need help finding something, well you are just out of luck, there's no sales associates to be found on the floor. It's like they are running a complete skeleton crew.

The layout is atrocious and a lot of things are stacked in very hard to find ways. Instead of side facing out on movies in alphabetical order, you have front facing with it just being a complete mix and match of movies. It takes twice as long to find something then it should.

All these things make it so you'd rather spend a little bit of extra time and possibly money to go anywhere else where it is easier to find something.

[Ferris]

Personally, I don't want to see CC's closing down. That means Best Buy's major competitor is going away, which means higher prices... Not a win for consumers, here.

[mikejet]

Originally Posted by FriedEggs

Personally, I don't want to see CC's closing down. That means Best Buy's major competitor is going away, which means higher prices... Not a win for consumers, here.

But if they do close....think of the clearance prices!!!!

[lokus]

Yea nothing like trying to go through their Blu-ray collection that is set on shelves in some random order. Gotta love it.

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by FriedEggs

Personally, I don't want to see CC's closing down. That means Best Buy's major competitor is going away, which means higher prices... Not a win for consumers, here.

Worst decision they made with this store here is opening right acros the street from Best Buy. At first they got tons of business. Now if you drive past both stores the BB is still packed and CC isn't. Have to admit I can't stand BB's new remodel. You can't test the speakers anymore.

Have to say that alot of places now about to close down. Some of them are merging with oher places so they won't. The big Wachovia Bank thing that just happened is one of them.

[cravnsn]

One word - DivX