Fri, Nov 27 2009
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Published March 11, 2009 06:09 pm - I was strolling through Circuit City in November 2007, looking for movies for my new HD-DVD player. Circuit City loss will be felt across U.S. A ROBERT LEBZELTER column for March 15, 2009 Star Beacon I was strolling through Circuit City in November 2007, looking for movies for my new HD-DVD player. Little did I know within 17 months, both would be extinct. The country’s second-largest electronic chained breathed its last a week ago. HD-DVD has already been gone a year. In Circuit City’s wake is 18.71 million square feet of empty retail space in an already depressed market. It also means 40,000 people out of work, the same number as everyone in Ashtabula, Conneaut and Geneva combined. Shopping centers will lose rental income. Suppliers are out display space. Newspapers already struggling will lose another advertising insert on Sunday. The loss won't impact the Star Beacon, however. Although both Conneaut and Geneva were within a half-hour's drive of a Circuit City store, the chain didn't choose to advertise with us. Maybe if it had…, well, that's just speculation. Store sizes ranged from 17,000 square feet in Steubenville to 66,000 square feet in El Paso. Retail experts say new stores, if there are any, don't want to locate in space that big. I visited the Circuit City in Erie two days before its closing. There was little left with yellow tape strewn about the empty spaces where customers weren't allowed to go. Saying it looked like an accident scene isn't too far off. During its going-out-of-business sales, people complained prices weren't that good. Pickets formed outside one store. One customer at a DVD Web site said Circuit City had DVDs on sale for $4.99 before the going-out-of -business sale. He expected to go in and get another 10 percent off, but the store returned the movies to their original price of $12 before taking off the discount. He said he found the movie he wanted at $3.99 at Best Buy. There was at least the perception during the past few years of a dip in quality at Circuit City. The store apparently abolished commission sales awhile back, firing some of its best and most knowledgeable salespeople . An essay made the rounds on the Internet awhile back from a supposed disgruntled former worker who claimed salespeople would take accessories out of the boxes of merchandise and try to sell them separately. When someone would call inquiring about whether the store had an item, the clerk would be too lazy to check so he would wait a few seconds and then say "no." Whether on the mark, somewhat true or a complete fabrication, such Internet rumors can be devastating. Circuit City was indeed vulnerable. All that was needed was a recession to do the rest. I bought my daughter's first college computer at Circuit City and when the frame started to fall apart for no reason, the store was little help, despite me having a service agreement. That was the last computer I bought there. But a digital camera I purchased there still works well. 
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