Circuit City to shutter 155 stores, locations to go public tomorrow
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted November 2nd 2008 3:40PM
posted November 2nd 2008 3:40PM
According to a slew of tips we've received, Circuit City will be closing down 155 of its retail locations, possibly even before Black Friday. Right now details are sketchy, but it seems that the company's traditional "holiday kickoff" meeting was actually a "holiday layoff" discussion instead. Apparently, a full list of store locations getting the axe will be revealed. In the words of a current employee:"I'm an employee @ Circuit City and today there was a mandatory store meeting for the holiday season and to welcome all the seasonal employees. There was also some tension as rumors were rampant the days before that we were all going to find out we were out of a job today. Luckily, but still somehow unfortunately, I'm still an employee of Circuit City. The same can't be said for the employees of the 155 stores that are closing, possibly even before black Friday. The list of stores that are shutting down will be made public tomorrow. The idea behind closing the stores before Black Friday is to transfer product from the failing stores to the stronger ones to save some money."
This makes sense given the rumors we heard in October and the fact that the company's stock has been been essentially put on death watch by the NYSE -- but that surely won't soften the blow to everyone whose job will be affected by this. If you have more detail on the situation, feel free to drop us a line.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
According to some corporate espionage info coming down the pipe at Best Buy, Samsung apparently would not extend any more credit for CC through the holidays. Which translates to no new Samsung inventory unless they paid down the debt. Thus the quick sale to a liquidation company this week.
That would make the most sense (I would have expected them to keep everything open until after the holidays if they could). A few analysts are saying this is most likely just to buy time and shore up the stronger stores while they prepare to enter bankruptcy.
Wow who'd have thought that the retailer who pushed DIVX would be closing more stores? With such upper management I was certain they'd be around forever.
Or the one who when some dvd's are released were still sitting in boxes to be put out late in the day of release? Or one who restocked defective merchandise that you'd return and see it sitting on their shelves a few weeks later?
Yeah great store, used to be good but boy did it go downhill after the last round of closings.
If they go off the NYSE that doesn't exactly spell the demise of CC. There is still a lot of money in hand and plenty of credit line to blow through before they go belly up. KMart if you remember dropped off the NYSE, aquired SEARS and was relisted later on the NASDAQ and shares opened at around $20. Anything can happen i guess.
I received word that Bay Shore, Masapequa, and Patchogue NY stores will close (Long Island).
List of closing CC stores here:
http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/CC/455353003x0x245809/2BFAC9D9-6CEF-4027-9E51-1C635F42F7A7/110308%20Store%20Closing%20List.pdf
Do not buy anything at Circuit City that offers a rebate, because you may never get the rebate. Almost two years ago, I bought SanDisk CompactFlash memory cards with a rebate of $25 each for a total of $150. I followed instructions and even called several times, but I never got the rebates. The people who answer the phones, if you can get someone to answer (only part of the time do they answer), were no help as they have a script they follow and may be in Buenos Aries, Argentina. I also had to go to three stores to get the memory cards. I bought them online, but had to pick them up, and one store did NOT have the items, so they had to refund my money and I had to go to another store farther out. Thanks for reading this.
If CC is to go out of business BB would be able to raise the price of everything in their stores, because that means that BB would have a monopoly on the electronic corporations.... so to all you people that say BB cant increase their prices, bull crap! But what difference does it make since Cc will not be going out of business anyways? 155 stores in about 1/7 of all of their locations
I doubt there will be many INSANE deals. In order for a store like Circuit City to have a sale on a big ticket item like a laptop, which has no markup, it needs back-end funding from the manufacturer. I doubt any manufacturer is going to back-end fun a liquidation sale....
RT
vette982.wordpress.com
Hey,
I'm trying to find out if seasonal employees get severance pay at CC. I've worked there for the month they found out they were closing, and my guy worked there before me as a parttime employee. I got hired as a seasonal part time employee and worked there til they closed the doors. Everyone was told they'd get a severance pay, and i thought i was among everyone. So, we get our checks 30 days later and i got only 2hours of pay and my guy got that PLUS his STAY BONUS. so...i'm not sure what the hells going on? and i tried finding out, but my managers dont even know and assume it's cuz i was a seasonal employee, and the number on the check told me to ask my managers, and the liquidator don't know much either!. So i'm not sure, can someone at least tell me if you know if the seasonal people get severance pay? Or if you were a seasonal, did you get severance pay?
thx.