Where Can I Find A Circuit City?

Circuit City went out of business years ago; it is no longer possible to find them anywhere, except as an online store (circuitcity.com) that is owned by the same company which owns CompUSA and TigerDirect.

Beginnings

Circuit City first opened its doors as Wards Company in 1932, a general retail outlet. In the mid-1980s, Wards Company officially changed its named to Circuit City Stores but were operating under that name, Sight-N-Sound and Dixie Hifi for years before then. They grew into a national chain by acquiring smaller, failing chains, a somewhat ironic method of business considering their eventual fate.

Decline

Stung by the rise in competitors, such as Best Buy for electronics, Lowes for large appliances, and, of course, Wal-Mart for a variety of merchandise, along with stores that were badly placed to compete locally with those newer chains, Circuit City made a number of decisions that, in hindsight, were fatally flawed. By exiting the large appliance business, they missed the housing boom of the mid 2000s. They continued to offer commissions to their salespeople for far longer than other chains, but when they did get rid of that system, they also fired any salespeople who had earned the most commission over the years, in effect removing their best employees. A series of exclusive agreements with Sony and Verizon also restricted their instore variety. On top of all that, a series of civil lawsuits related to unfair business practices drained their coffers.

When firing employees because your company is in trouble, try to keep your BEST ones, not your lowest-paid, inexperienced staff. Most of the fired employees went to Best Buy or Walmart, their competition!

The end

Hemorrhaging its top executives for years, Circuit City declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2008, but even that did not help the company. In January 2009, without a buyer on the horizon, Circuit City converted to Chapter 7 bankruptcy and started the process of closing its doors, which was done by March of 2009.

In the end, it was bad executive decisions more than anything else that ended Circuit City, and the company remains an abject lesson that just because a company is big does not mean it cannot fail.

Circuit City made a number of decisions that were fatally flawed