What's the opposite of R.I.P?

@Gene Gemperline:
I believe that would be R.I.H... rot in hell.

So what happens to the gift cards then? Are they still redeemable?

@Gene Gemperline:
*ahem*
Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!
Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.
Wake up - sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed.
Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead. She's gone where the goblins go,
Below - below - below. Yo-ho, let's open up and sing and ring the bells out.
Ding Dong' the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low.
Let them know
The Wicked Witch is dead!

...thank you. I'll be here all week.

The REAL question is why people still have gift card balances with Circuit City. I would have used it up in a heartbeat when they filed for bankruptcy.

This is really sad though. This was the only competition in the area to Best Buy. CC actually gave me the best deal on an ipod nano for my wife this christmas. Walmart had the worst deal. I am sad to see them go.

There goes my fiance's job

RIP CC, what a waste. I hope someone else comes along to compete with Best Buy.

My brother is now out of a job.

cc used to be so great, great place to work, feel bad for the people that will loose their jobs, hope for severance of some kind.

What happens with store credit cards? Do they just go away?

Best Buy is next. People that MUST buy in a store (ie elderly, non computer savy, conspiricy theorists who fear identy theft) will now be purchasing their electronics from walmart which bully's the OEM's into steep discout bulk purchases (not neccessarily a bad thing). Everyone else buys online, where there is no overhead passing along the savings to the consumer.

@Gene Gemperline: No, it's still fitting, albeit spelled out as "Rest in Pieces"

Many borderline businesses will fail because of the recession, and a few good businesses but companies like Circuit City will fail along with them--able to blame the recession when it really is poor management.

Now if Sears/KMart closes?

As a Virginian, I am sad to lose one of our large corporations, but CC was not a good company--made too many short-sighted and anti-consumer decisions. They actually make Best Buy look good by comparison.

As an aside, what about CarMax? That actually seems like a well-run sub-business.

Circuit City just built a brand new store in NJ and was advertising the fact that they were hiring.

This sucks. I was hoping that after filing for Ch 11, they'd be able to re-emerge a stronger, albeit smaller, company. Now who's going to compete with Best Buy?

Wonder if they will keep their web presence as CompUSA did. Bye bye CC. I think I'll miss the Divx players and overpriced extended warranties the most...no not really

(Former CC employee many years ago)

@Rippleeffect: Same. CC would often have really good video game deals every few weeks, knocking something down up to $20 even, just order online and deal with minimal RL hassle with employees. RIP CC :(

I never liked CC. I NEVER bought anything from them over $25....and on average probably $50-100 a year MAX. Their prices were always higher than BB (which is almost always more than online). Totally unacceptable. RIP CC, we hope your failure will inspire existing companies to suck less.

@captainfrizo: My dad took over the supervisor position for the camera section in September. He ran a good ship until the management decided that he was actually thinking while doing his job, and demoted him back to a clerk position. He too will lose his job. Circuit City did it to themselves, especially when they fired all the smart people in their stores and replaced them with low cost drones.

I actually LIKED my local CC. Their prices weren't that awful and the people that worked there were pretty cool. I've purchased a few things there and enjoyed going in to browse since the staff was so much better than BB and less hassling. I'm disappointed to see them go.

I didn't like to shop at CC, mainly because I could never find anything I was looking for. Even so, this is not a good thing. Not only are people losing jobs, but that's one less place to shop in my city. If this keeps up I'll be saving plenty on gas every week because there just won't be anyplace to go.

This is their comeuppance for laying off over 3000 of their long time employee higher paid employees to be replaced by lower paid workers.Then they had the nerve to offer some of those employees a chance to reapply for jobs at a drastically reduced rate of pay. Karma is indeed a bitch.

Unfortunately, those involved in making that decision will probably (If not already) find jobs high up in the industry. After that decision however, I have never set foot in Circuit City, and no matter how low their liquidation prices are (probably not any lower than you could find online), I would never buy anything from the store again. So, good riddance.

New TV MSRP = $1999
Gordon Bros. Price = $3999
Sale Price 50% Off = $2000

Yay, bargains!

So does this mean that people with extended warranties on things like 60" HDTVs are screwed? :(

@G_Money21: I'm not elderly, I beta-tested Compuserve, and I don't fear ID theft. I simply prefer to be able to actually see and touch a product when I buy it. I do make purchases online, but sometimes I don't want to deal with the B.S. of shippig and delivery issues. I want to walk in with cash and walk out with a product.

Dang, now that i've got the CC EECB down and got a great email and phone list for them, I'm gonna have to be treated badly by a DIFFERENT company? You've gotta be kidding me!

@Xerloq:Lol. I can't wait to see the signs.

I liked my circuit city more than my local best buy. Circuit City always has great video games on clearance. I never bought anything at regular price from them though. I'll miss getting their ad that I usually just price matched elsewhere.

I never bought from CC. There's one right next to a BB here and the CC was always very dirty, unorganized and you felt really skeezy just going into it. Plus, the people who worked there were incredibly unhelpful. At least BB was CLEAN.

Seriously, CC would have stuff like mud and leaves all over the store, dirty boxes, things covered in dust, broken display models...

i'm out of the job now, as well as my brother.

as much as i enjoy reading the consumerist, i can't think of a more insensitive headline. 35,000 people just lost a job.

So, let's see....
Crazy Eddy, Uncle Steve's, The Wiz....many others. These big electronic chains have a rather similar arc, don't they? Yet, somehow (how?) Radio Shack and PC Richards (in the NY area) seem to keep plugging along.

I have to admit, I don't remember if or when I bought in a CC. I was shocked by the high prices, but I guess that's the cost of if you need it NOW purchasing.

Any time competition is reduced, it's bad for consumers, even if you didn't like CC, they were a foil to BB and to a lesser extent, Wal-Mart.

Sad days for workers.

@auto_exec: No they are insured through a third party

@auto_exec: Most of the warranties are underwritten by other companies, like GE Zurich or the likes...

@auto_exec: Most extended warranties are provided through a third party, so check your paperwork. It's unlikely that the warranty is actually through Circuit City itself.

@hegemonyhog:
Sadly, no. If there is still a balance, that debt has a value and CC will want to sell it. Your card will be picked up by someone else. Same balance, you'll just get bills from another company

Hey, why don't we bail them out? I mean, every other poorly run company in the country (ahem...GMCHRYSLERFORDBOACITI) is getting paid for their terrible business practices. Why no love for CC?

Hmm, well, they weren't the most organized of stores but at the local one the employees were nice when I went there. It's sad people will lose their jobs and more empty store will sit there.

Yes, but only because those are a complete waste of money.

/I kid.

@G_Money21:

Perhaps. I don't see much difference between BB and the electronics/media sections of Walmart and Target for most things. At least at Target I can shop for other things while I'm there. The loss of CC may, on the other hand, give the remaining players a bit of a boost. I hope so. The domino effect of so many job losses will beget more liquidations if things don't stabilize.

And we all know to not even bother looking at their stores for specials as there won't be any to be had. Thanks, Consumerist!

@John Joslyn:

On the bright side, for you and your brother, that allows you to seek employment elsewhere, perhaps an even better position than you have currently. And there are jobs out there. If the blurb does not apply to you, why should it bother you?

@captainfrizo: @G_Money21:

Why? If CC is closed then BB wouldn't lose any customers to Wal-Mart, but rather gain some from CC. It's not like people who used to shop at BB will randomly decide to go to Wal-Mart since CC closed.

I think it will be a good transition for CC customers to go from there to Wal-Mart, each place has the same worker intelligence level and services (ie: not helping, not being too knowledgeable in anything) and they don't even say things like "I'll basically say whatever to sell the item" to other employees right out in the open.

Some people will say that BB is just as bad, but at least they don't talk about their sales tactics out on the sales floor (at least not that I know of).

@HiEllie: Or, B.I.H. ... Burn in Hell

@G_Money21:
I don't agree. There are plenty of people that still see Best Buy as the place to buy 'good' electronics. The 35-55 crowd that wants to feel like they are buying the cutting edge still go to best buy.

I won't argue that Wal-Mart (or I guess *walmart) is a major force in electronics retail, it still has the image of being a discounter, and while thats fine when you want a good deal on a ratchet set, a $2,000 HDTV is another thing entirely. Reality or perception, Best Buy has the cache of being a more premium brand.

Plus, fewer competitors in a market is always good for business, look for Best Buy to benefit from this news.

@John Joslyn: Not sure "Circuit City Will Completely Liquidate" is that insensitive of a headline. That's the fact. They didn't even tag it "Circuit City Death Watch."

An insensitive headline would be "Circuit City Finally Descnends Into Hell"

Very sad to see them go -- every time I've been looking for electronics in a big box store over the past year, all the CC's have been far more helpful than Best Buy. Just two weeks ago we were shopping for a new TV. They discounted a 46" Samsung LCD below Best Buy's sale price, even though the local Best Buy didn't have it in stock.

@hegemonyhog: Their "Circuit City Rewards" card is actually operated through Chase, I believe.

hmmm maybe Fry's will finally expand on their one store within 50 miles now. Yeah fry's ahs problems too but it's probably the geekiest(they have display models for their motehrboards!) and most competitive electronics store out there.