WhereIsAtlas · Consumer electronics

Circuit City

The electronics superstore that Best Buy and the internet switched off

Defunct — Liquidated in 2009 after failing to outcompete Best Buy; about 567 US stores closed.

Circuit City started in 1949 as Wards, a Richmond, Virginia television shop, and by the 1980s had grown into one of America's two big consumer-electronics chains. Its Superstore format - huge showrooms of TVs, stereos and appliances with knowledgeable, commissioned sales staff - made it the destination for the early home-entertainment boom, and its "Circuit City: We're responsible" ads stamped it into the culture.

The 2000s undid it. To cut costs it eliminated commissioned sales, which gutted the service that differentiated it; it walked away from PC retail; and it kept operating big but unfocused stores. Meanwhile Best Buy ran leaner, cheaper big-boxes, and Amazon and big-box discounters undercut prices on the exact products Circuit City sold. By 2007 the chain was bleeding money.

Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 on 4 November 2008 and liquidated in 2009, closing about 567 US stores and roughly 34,000 jobs. It became the textbook case of a category killer done in by its own cost-cutting and a leaner rival.

Quick facts

Founded
1949, as Wards
Renamed
Circuit City, 1984
Peak
#2 US electronics retailer, 1990s
Missteps
Killed commissioned sales, quit PC retail
Chapter 11
Nov 4, 2008
Liquidated
2009 (≈ 567 stores)

Sources

Related: kodak · toys r us · blockbuster