[www.chicagobusiness.com]

Sound familiar? That's right, this partnership has already done the same thing with Linen N Things and The Sharper Image.

It makes sense that Circuit City could not find a buyer and stay open as they were. Now that they filed for bankruptcy, potential buyers are going to be able to buy the company name and assets for a lot cheaper and build the company up THEIR way.

@rpm773: +1. Awesome post :D

They have a store near me in Raleigh and the employees just started wearing Circuit City shirts. When I asked I was told they would be opening more stores under the Circuit City name but it would still be Tiger Direct... Which is a little weird if you ask me because I always thought Circuit City sucked so I don't know why any store would want to take over the name.

Weird.

@PGibbons: Yes, only now, you will get a $25 promo code if your order isn't totaly scewed up. If you ever get through to customer service or you get your package in good condition before 4 weeks, you get $25!

Howie_in_AZ

Yep, CompUSA store in a northern Dallas suburb. I bought a big screen TV a few months back. They actually had the best price at that time.

see the new linens and things website [www.lnt.com] - it's not owned/run by the same people as the b&m LnT stores, but the new owner is still using the brand.

Hi, I'm new to this forum.
I was never a fan of Circuit City; I still remember that blatant consumer ripoff they tried to pull off in the late '90s called DIVX. However, I hate to see the loss of competition with other big chains like BestBuy.

@xAnarChisTx: Ha, I thought the same thing.... damn you, NY.

@vmspionage: I may be in the minority, but I'm hopeful that CC will come back as a web-based entity. Personally never had any issues with CC.

@vmspionage: yes, the message has been there for a while....

"In regards to CompUSA, does anyone really purchase anything on their site? Also, is it true that they still have stores open in TX and FL?"

The company who bought the CompUSA brand did indeed start re-opening some stores that closed as "CompUSA" in Florida, I heard about that.

I still think it can be a good idea if you do it correctly.

While the President ran the company into the ground with one stupid decision after another, the brand "Circuit City" has value and that and the web site will probably be sold.

Montgomery Ward, CompUSA and others are all examples of stores that died and brands that live on. Why not buy the CC name and use it on your store and web site after so many millions were paid building it up?

That's a sad fate for any brand name.

What is PC Richards? I think our CC is still empty and unmarked.

I've never really had any real issues with CompUSA to begin with, but then again, i barely ever even shopped there. Hell, I even had a pleasant experience dealing with Geek Squad a couple of days ago. I took my Macbook in for repair, (dead HDD, and the little plastic piece that always breaks was broken), and they fixed it up real nice. Even put in a brand new touchpad and keyboard. Granted, it took them like three weeks to do it, but that was the estimate I was given to begin with, so I knew what to expect. So yeah, whoda thunk it?

The one that closed in Norwalk CT is already hiring and they have a "PC Richards coming soon" sign outside.

Let's see if they do any better. At least it will give me some choice other than just Best Buy.

I bought Circuit City.com and I'm getting a kick out these replies. I plan to bring back your favorite features of CC:
1) High prices but many "sales"
2) Chat bots will pop up as you browse our pages and encourage you to buy using high pressure sales tactics. We will up sell you exclusive warranties.
3) Our new state of the art pricing engine will determine how much to charge you based on how you arrived there and what links you clicked on.
4) We will sell stuff we can't ship for weeks or months.
5) We'll have state of the art price match guarantees that will magically morph as you try to make a claim.
6) We'll sign you up for exclusive offers, you can't refuse at check-out.
7) We're going to contract out the same teenagers for FireDog service that you've come to rely on.
8) We'll send some lucky buyers boxes with something totally different in the package that you are expecting.
9) We're installing a state of art phone system that will keep you running around for days, never to speak to a representative.
10) Lastly, we'll make sure to stuff your mailbox full of incredible offers!

Can you wait?

No, Circuit City, you can't come back. My parents and I have already danced on your grave and we don't want to deal with some creepy zombie company.

@econobiker: Growing up my family spent lots of money at Service Merchandise. The one near us was always a nice store, although not always very clean, and the employees were helpful. It was the only place in town where you could get some electronics (esp. calculators) without having to order from a catalog.

@HarcourtArmstrong: Because then they can attatch "NEW" to it somehow and people will go just to see if it's different.. lol.

Hmm, a whois still shows it as registered to circuit city stores with the cc headquarters as their address. Still, I think the liquidators got it as part of the buyout, and I'm sure they are looking for a buyer.

or when a scandal-plagued politician resigns to "spend more time with his family"

Sure, spend more time with his family thinking about how close he got to being fired/impeached/arrested.

The cake is a lie.

@LegoMan322: If they can come back and compete, I dont' see how that could be a bad thing.

I have ALWAYS been happy with them, I even purchase only their Systemax PC's - Great PC's.

It was funny when Tiger Direct purchased CompUSA - they started to change everything over to the CompUSA name, and the people I dealed with at global even got CompUSA email addresses.... but then because of licensing issues of selling non-profit prices of stuff and other legal reasons, at least the "Global" part of it dropped the CompUSA all together and only goes by Global now.

It's probable they intended to relaunch the site as a support marketing tool for the liquidation but corporate wouldn't relinquish it to the liquidators. If they do come back as a web-only operation, it will only be long after the obligations of the bankruptcy have been cleared and ownership of the URL has been established. Could be a year or so.

@xkaluv: I think CC was on the brackets.

The headquarters for CC is by me and they are still liquidating it. Every other radio ad is for the liquidation of cubicles and copiers etc. I think they might be trying to sell the website but who really knows.

Is it too late to squeese them into the Worst Company In America contest?

Heck if the Service Merchandise name can come back why not the Circuit City name.

Of course, the new Service Merchandise is now just two strip mall jewerly stores versus a Southeaster US regional retailer employing hundreds with headquarters based in Brentwood, TN.

For those who don't know Service Merchandise it was a store chain that employed the exact opposite of Walmarts stocking methods. Service Merchandise stores were all warehouse and a small show room. You took a ticket or number from the display product and somebody pulled the carton and sent it down a conveyor for you to pay. Walmart stocks nothing in stores-except what is on the shelves- and relies on a close to just-in-time restocking almost directly from product vendors via central and massive-sized logistics shipping warehouses.

Also , for the record, I once lived around the corner from the Service Merchandise HQ and the only vestiges of the company now is the Service Merchandise Drive that leads to a new office park encompassing the onetime HQ building. My ex-wife and I lived there when it cratered and shopped the closing sale at the Cool Springs store nearby to the HQ that had probably been the crown jewel store at one time.

My .02 is that CircuitCity.com will come back as a website online etailer similar to other Amazon or Buy.com. They get a ton of traffic, could sell ads on it's pages like Walmart.com or even partner up with a brick and mortar store (ex. HHGregg, PCRichards) for In-store pickup.

The site is still registered to the company, so who knows.

But for maximum effect, this should have happened in a couple of days. Y'know, for better symbolism.

As it is, "the Wednesday before Maundy Thursday" isn't very cool.

SirWired

Then again, I live in Upstate NY, where we only have 25% of what the rest of the country has, in terms of retail and food. =P

As part of the liquidation, the Circuit City name was sold at auction. So circuitcity.com is now owned by a totally different entity.

My guess is that they're going to sell the domain name and branding rights (god knows why), so they need to maintain them.

Circuit City is a lumbering zombie that just won't die. Did they think that the "Circuit City" was a sellable name? There's a reason why people don't name their kids "Adolph".

@xAnarChisTx: All stores were closed from the previous CompUSA. TigerDirect IS running a few of their stores, but none in Texas and also TigerDirect runs the website.

The only good to come from CompUSA dying is that TigerDirect has become a pleasant to deal with now. I order from them quite often.

@The_IT_Crone: Yes!