Circuit City to Relaunch Feb. 15

Megalith

Megalith

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CEO Ronny Shmoel has announced that Circuit City will be back in February. The retailer, which was once the number-one tech chain, will return as an “experiential” website offering a personalized online shopping experience with social media, augmented reality, and real-time tech support via video chat. Kiosks, store-in-stores, and showrooms will follow if all goes well. Thanks manny1222.

Shmoel described a curated product assortment that will include A/V, computers, gaming, imaging, small appliances and smart-home products by top-tier vendors like Samsung, Panasonic and Canon, as well as tier-two and tier-three brands. The new Circuit City owns some of its own inventory, which it is amassing in distribution centers around the country, and will also work with drop-ship partners, he said.
 
Will they have any gpus though?

someone_say_GPUs_inStock.gif
 
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This seems like an odd decision, but maybe there's a trend back towards shopping in big box stores I don't know about...?
 
Years ago, I bought my first home theater setup at Circuit City. Also drove to the local Circuit City when my ATI 9700pro died unexpectedly, and they had the new ATI 9800pro in stock! I actually have fond memories of that company.
 
I have fond memories of Circuit City. Back in the 90's mine had a relatively decent PC section. They also had better prices on TV's, appliances, stereos, and A/V amps than Best Buy. There were fewer sales, but the prices were mostly lower across the board. Their staff were commissioned, but that actually forced them to know what the hell they were selling.

Yet toward the end they tried too hard to copy Best Buy. Loads of floor staff who only knew how to point out the movies/games were in alphabetical order. The scrapped the commission model so there was no motivation to help anyone who wanted a TV or appliance. Just 50 people unlocking the game case or pointing out that the Matrix was in with the other "M" movies.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
Be patient. Just wait for a big drop in various coins and pick up the panic seller's cards on e-bay. We'll have to get it done before any coins in question go back up though.
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I feel like cryptocurrency is just not going away. Bitcoin dropped GPU's because of ASIC, but then Ethereum made good use of the GPU and we're back to the same situation.
 
More competition is better but it just sounds like to me they're creating Circuit City website to prey on people who don't know that Circuit City went out of business and a random Google search popped them up.
 
I worked for Circuit CIty at one of their original 20 stores way back in my youth, very tiny little joint in Norfolk VA, I swear most 7-11 stores have more square footage in some respects but it was a fun place to work for the time I was there. They did really well in those early days after they started to expand but basically drove nails in their own coffins when the "super store" concept took hold, it cost them too much money in the long run and then competition set in - and don't even get me started on the trend in modern times of B&M stores closing up constantly because so many folks use online services.

Personally I prefer B&M locations to go get hands-on with the items, alas the world is simply moving away from such things as Amazon continues to swell and other companies follow suit.

Now if I could just order anything and have it delivered without paying extremely high delivery charges I'd do it more often. Sure I can get food delivered nowadays but with the minimum charges they have plus the delivery fees (often about as much as a full meal for a single person) it's somewhat crazy. If I was independently wealthy I think I'd stay home more often than not, have groceries delivered by Schwan's home delivery (best vanilla ice cream on the planet, bar none) and then order meals as required.

Dammit, now I'm hungry, great. :D
 
Twisted Kidney said:
Be patient. Just wait for a big drop in various coins and pick up the panic seller's cards on e-bay. We'll have to get it done before any coins in question go back up though.
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Just no.
I do not want to game on someone's used fucking scraps.
 
griff30 said:
Just no.
I do not want to game on someone's used fucking scraps.
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My last card was someone's retired mining card, never had issue.

I did take the extra precaution of redoing the heatsink with AS5 and giving it a thorough cleaning.

ChefJeff789 said:
This seems like an odd decision, but maybe there's a trend back towards shopping in big box stores I don't know about...?
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I kinda feel like there might be a shift to a hybrid B&M where it's a small showroom (display only), customer service, and kiosks. Walmart has been pushing their in-store pickup, their newer apps (for use while shopping), and rolled out a ton of Kiosks to Sam's Clubs. The SC's they just closed are rumored to be converted (at least some) to distribution hubs.

Then there's the Amazon rumor about buying Target, possibly to do the same thing?

It just seems like they're all racing towards a similar goal. Quicker online service (local pickup, closer shipping location) while also capturing revenue of those that want a showroom. I can imagine the store of the future may not have stock on the shelf, but scan codes. You walk a smaller footprint store (showroom) and scan the item to your app cart. You go to checkout and the inventory robots automatically have it ready for you at the front.
 
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Wish them luck but I really see issues with them rolling back out. The market is too saturated and low margins already. So many expenses launching again will eat them up.
 
A tie for me for the worst company besides best buy to ever work for in my life.........................................one employee at BB thought a firewall was an anti-virus software........LULZ OMG
 
On reason Circuit City was annoying was that they were crazy about rebates.
 
i guess the question is why?

amazon is clearly the store of choice,

all B and M stores are for is to showroom.
 
I bought my last TV there Panasonic 32 in Glass flat screen. 800$ onsale.
Then is closed . I miss walking those aisles looking at stuff. Best buy has never been good since there restyle.
 
what's a store-in-store?...a store inside of another store?...so a KFC with a Circuit City in the back?
 
Spidey329 said:
My last card was someone's retired mining card, never had issue.

I did take the extra precaution of redoing the heatsink with AS5 and giving it a thorough cleaning.



I kinda feel like there might be a shift to a hybrid B&M where it's a small showroom (display only), customer service, and kiosks. Walmart has been pushing their in-store pickup, their newer apps (for use while shopping), and rolled out a ton of Kiosks to Sam's Clubs. The SC's they just closed are rumored to be converted (at least some) to distribution hubs.

Then there's the Amazon rumor about buying Target, possibly to do the same thing?

It just seems like they're all racing towards a similar goal. Quicker online service (local pickup, closer shipping location) while also capturing revenue of those that want a showroom. I can imagine the store of the future may not have stock on the shelf, but scan codes. You walk a smaller footprint store (showroom) and scan the item to your app cart. You go to checkout and the inventory robots automatically have it ready for you at the front.
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Sounds like Brand Names and kind of how they did it.
 
polonyc2 said:
what's a store-in-store?...a store inside of another store?...so a KFC with a Circuit City in the back?
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Basically. Most prominent example is the Magnolia stores inside some of the Best Buy stores. Magnolia is a stand-alone retailer of high-end A/V electronics and penned a deal with Best Buy to put small sections inside their stores. Best Buy might own them now. You can think of the Apple and Samsung sections in Best Buy as an example as well.

I can see Circuit City setting up these mini-stores inside bigger stores of unrelated items, like super markets and clothing stores.
 
So Circuit City is coming back.

Almost reminds me of Columbia House at this point.
 
I used to like Circuit City back in the day. Too bad I was either in high school or college (which meant I had very little money to spend). Best Buy is the only retailer kind of like CC where I live.
I kind of hate BB. We had another retailer called HH Gregg I used to like in the midwest. They would haggle and beat BB on prices (plus had better customer service as their sales people were on commission). HH Gregg closed up this past year...sad day for my appliance shopping needs.
 
Having worked as the lead in-store FireDog tech...and having danced in their parking lot when they closed up shop, I couldn't care less. Fuck 'em. But...my town also recently lost our Best Buy. If they somehow made a good presence, basically were as un-mid 2007 Circuit City-like as they could be...I'd at least give them the benefit of the doubt and give them a shot.
 
steakman1971 said:
I used to like Circuit City back in the day. Too bad I was either in high school or college (which meant I had very little money to spend). Best Buy is the only retailer kind of like CC where I live.
I kind of hate BB. We had another retailer called HH Gregg I used to like in the midwest. They would haggle and beat BB on prices (plus had better customer service as their sales people were on commission). HH Gregg closed up this past year...sad day for my appliance shopping needs.
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HHGregg was my go-to for TV's and appliances. Sad to see them go. I refuse to shop at best buy.

I used to be a CC shopper as well.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
Be patient. Just wait for a big drop in various coins and pick up the panic seller's cards on e-bay. We'll have to get it done before any coins in question go back up though.
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Forget that noise. Let prices drop and then buy new. Part of their calculation and reason they over pay and screw it up for the regular consumer is they factor in selling the cards. I say give them sour lemons and make the miners eat the capital investment loss.
 
dark_reign said:
Best Buy did that shit too. It was hit or miss.
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I have a vague memory that they would have multiple rebates on some things, too, and a story at the time about the most ridiculous example being some Gateway or Compaq desktop system that had something like 6 rebates.
 
hoped CC learned their lesson from the last time they went bankrupt. HHgregg wasn't any better either.

the only time i go into BAD BUY is to test out a product before i buy it on amazon :D
 
Domingo said:
I have fond memories of Circuit City. Back in the 90's mine had a relatively decent PC section. They also had better prices on TV's, appliances, stereos, and A/V amps than Best Buy. There were fewer sales, but the prices were mostly lower across the board. Their staff were commissioned, but that actually forced them to know what the hell they were selling.

Yet toward the end they tried too hard to copy Best Buy. Loads of floor staff who only knew how to point out the movies/games were in alphabetical order. The scrapped the commission model so there was no motivation to help anyone who wanted a TV or appliance. Just 50 people unlocking the game case or pointing out that the Matrix was in with the other "M" movies.
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Circuit City began to copy Best Buy because they had hired a bunch of people from Best Buy to overhaul their marketing and some other things. I remember a company meeting about it in 2003/4. Maybe in some areas the lack of commission reduced the quality of service, but that was due more to the quality of workforce than the fact they received commission... One of my coworkers was there in both eras and his ethic was the same. Also, Circuit City usually had the worst real-estate choices for their stores, which hurt them as opposed to Best Buy, whose storefront choices tended to work better as far as convenience goes. My store was hidden in this corner right off the 101 Freeway in Thousand Oaks, CA. One entrance/exit, and if you didn't know it was there already, you probably never noticed it. We still did pretty well in spite of the location. Reagan's funeral procession was one of our busiest days ever... without sales.

I got my 9800 XT at my store, and we always had the latest sound and video cards.
 
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