Tue, Nov 24 2009
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Circuit City loss will be felt across U.S. A ROBERT LEBZELTER column for March 15, 2009 Star BeaconA year ago I visited a Circuit City in Mayfield Heights. There was a bin advertising whole seasons of the Sopranos for $11 each. I grabbed two but when the woman rang it up, the cost was $125. When I questioned the discrepancy, the woman asked me to grab the sign with the advertised price. When I did I immediately noticed the problem. It was March 2008 and the sale ended in July 2007. How an old sign got there, I have no idea, but figured my chances at a bargain were doomed. But without calling anyone over, the clerk rang the items up at the sale price. I paid $22, not $125. The loss of Circuit City will impact more than retail landlords and those left jobless. Less competition will not help keep prices lower at rivals like Best Buy. Many people will buy even more online where it is easier to comparison shop and get the lowest possible prices. I did it recently and saved $90 on a camera flash. But shopping online doesn't help the local economy, it doesn't provide local jobs, it doesn't provide sponsors for local Little League teams and donations of prizes for local charities or service organizations. And don't forget smaller stores in the area that depended on the larger Circuit City for traffic. That Mayfield Heights store where I got the Sopranos bargain was near Café 56, a sandwich shop , which reports business is down since the store went out a month ago. The shop was so popular with Circuit City employees that a wrap sandwich was named after an assistant manager there. Certainly stores like this all over the country will have to look at its number of employees with business down. Not to mention cell phone provider Verizon and cable company Comcast, which operated ministores within Circuit City locations. At Christmas, I went to Best Buy to buy and have installed a new stereo system in wife's car. The technician discovered he had no harnesses in stock, required to install the system. So while I waited, he jumped in his car and drove down the street to a rival store to buy my harness. In the future it won't be that easy. He better make sure Best Buy stocks more of those harnesses. That's because the store he drove to was, yep, Circuit City. Lebzelter is special sections editor. E-mail him at bobleb@starbeacon.com. 
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