Circuit City to Close All Stores

In not surprising news, Circuit City will close all 567 of its stores in the US after successfully filing for bankruptcy.

Just the other day we were discussing how despite the fact that Circuit City frequently had better deals than Best Buy, the latter chain was far more potent in its marketing tactics. For example, last year I became a “Premium Silver Member” just because I bought a few big ticket items. I subsequently received an email from BB two days before Christmas Eve telling me I could choose from a list of DVD or CD titles to pick up absolutely free at the closest Best Buy; in essence whatever it takes to get me into the store to browse and creep and ultimately upsell myself. I never saw any such promotion from Circuit City.

With the demise of Circuit City, Best Buy and Wal-Mart will invariably grab larger pieces of the tech, gadget, video game and home entertainment pie, but remember that competition engenders competitive pricing and service. The less players there are in the field the less those left standing have to play by any rules.