Circuit City to close 19 stores

[Sauza12]

This is according to the Detroit Free Press:

RICHMOND, Va. -- Circuit City Stores Inc., the nation's No. 2 consumer electronics chain, said Wednesday it will close 19 superstores, five regional offices and a distribution center by the month's end as it attempts to improve its lagging finances.


Four stores in Michigan are included in the closings: Pontiac at 550 N. Telegraph Road; East Lansing, 2655 E. Grand River Ave.; Southfield, 28556 Telegraph Road, and Traverse City, 3123 S. Airport Road. A small regional office in Detroit also is slated to close.


Circuit City said it plans to close four stores in Ohio; three stores in Illinois; two stores each in Texas and Indiana; and one each in Wisconsin, Kansas, Tennessee and Virginia. A distribution center in Doswell, Va., will be closed, as will other regional offices in Miami, Dallas, Cincinnati and Charlotte, N.C. The retailer also said it has sold one of its buildings in its Richmond, Va., corporate campus.


W. Alan McCollough, Circuit City's CEO, said an analysis showed that the poorly performing stores are in locations that can no longer support the chain's superstores.


"The repositioning of our stores within these markets continues, and it no longer makes financial sense to keep some of the stores in those markets open," McCollough said in a statement.


Spokesman Bill Cimino said the retailer announced a similar round of store closings last February. The new closings, he said, are not related to the announcement Tuesday that Circuit City received a $3.25-billion buyout offer from Highfields Capital Management LP, a Boston investment firm that has a 6.8-percent stake in the retailer.


Circuit City's board of directors is evaluating the $17-a-share bid from Highfields, which says the retailer's operations would improve if it were taken private.


The regional offices employ only a handful of people, but the stores employ about 370 full-time and 540 part-time workers. Some of them might be able to get jobs at other Circuit City stores in the market, the company said.


Less likely to find positions within Circuit City are the Doswell, Va., distribution center's 63 employees. The retailer has no other distribution facility in the area.


Circuit City expects after-tax expenses of about $30 million for the closings of the stores and regional offices. Expenses associated with the distribution center are not expected to be material, the retailer said.


Circuit City also said it has sold a corporate building at its headquarters. The sale resulted in an after-tax gain of about $1.8 million, and the elimination of $12.6 million of long-term debt.


The 19 stores had combined sales of $170 million for the 12-month period ended Dec. 31, 2004.


Separately, Circuit City said one of its corporate jets crashed in Colorado early Wednesday, killing eight people. Four of the victims were company employees, none executives. Pueblo County Sheriff Dan Corsentino said the victims were a pilot, copilot and six passengers.

If I heard right, either this weekend or next weekend they are going to start closeout sales in the stores that are closing.  If I can scrounge up the extra cash, I will probably be there.

[Izret101]

Thank god there are none closing in Mass.

I don't go there often but it is good to know that the store is only down the road when i need something.

[Hydrobond]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Circuit City by me closed.  They havn't been doing any business since the Best Buy opened up across the street from it.  Plus, the Best Buy is prominantly located, and the Circuit City is kinda hard to find if you don't already know where it is.  

And damn, they are closing the regional office here too.  I guess the takeover of Best Buy has been complete.

[den68]

Circuit City is kinda hard to find if you don't already know where it is

Isla De Meurta is an island that cannot be found except by those that already know where it is

[Hydrobond]

Yes, you need one of them fancy compases to find the store.
Also, if you steal anything from the store, you become cursed and forced to wander the sea for eternity.

[Tynstar]

When are companies going to learn that opening tons and tons of stores to fast is not  a good thing?

[Lord Nepenthean]

Also, if you steal anything from the store, you become cursed and forced to wander the sea for eternity.

Ah, St. Xavier.  It's been a while.

[TraderJake]

Circuit City should never have gotten rid of their appliance department, they lost a whole lot of revenue when they did that, and now other corporations are reaping in the benefits.

It will be interesting to see which Circuit Cities close. I work at the Best Buy right next to the Circuit City hydrobond mentioned, and their parking lot is a ghost town compared to ours. It's dark, dreary, and foreboding, everything a retail center shouldn't be.

(An aside) Nep, Storm and I have no clue how that comment hydrobond made relates to X, especially that notion of the malevolent afterlife.

[Hydrobond]

Actually, they got rid of the appliance department because it was NOT profitable.  This was clearly evident when they had their clearance sale, the markdown was next to nothink , especially considering the cost of some of the appliances.  I remember seeing discounts of about $5 on a $200 item.  Of course, this was the extreme, but still, there wasn't much money in appliances.  Plus, when they dropped appliances, they added computer hardware and the like, a much more profitable area.

[TraderJake]

Actually, quite the opposite is true about appliance and pc hardware profits. Next to nil is made on pc hardware or computers themselves, but appliances do actually have a markup. Let's just say Circuit City lost a lot of revenue when they dropped appliances, and could have taken alternate routes if they were in fact losing money in the deparment.

[Lord Nepenthean]

(An aside) Nep, Storm and I have no clue how that comment hydrobond made relates to X, especially that notion of the malevolent afterlife.

I couldn't remember what the name of it was, but it was a poem we read at St. X.  Jay figured out what the title is: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The poem's text can be found here:

http://etext.lib.virginia...Rime_Ancient_Mariner.html

It rawks hard.

[den68]

or here

[Tynstar]

or here

Thanks Den know I dont have to find a picture of that CD.

[Jagdiesel]

They closed the store in Fort Smith, Arkansas about 6 months after opening it.  They basically had a grand opening and no one came.  So, they said "F" this place and had a store closing sale.  My dad wasn't surprised as Best Buy has been there for about 8 years and has a stranglehold on that small market.
Hell, I only shop there when they have their $5 and $10 video game clearances!