CircuitCity

There was a time when RadioShack mattered -- it was the easiest place to pick up those tech items you had to have, from odd-sized batteries to coaxial cables. Now you can get that stuff everywhere, and RadioShack is dying so fast that even Wall Street's analysts can't keep up with its decline.

If the consumer electronics industry were an aging diva, it might be gazing into a mirror and declaring "I'm ready for my closeup." Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA and RadioShack are all vying for the media spotlight. And now there's news that RadioShack may be up for sale and Best Buy the rumored...

Nothing can be more detrimental to a retailer than arrogance. Once it gets too big and has blown away any competition, retailers often focus more on serving their own needs, customers be damned. Two best-in-class retailers have recently begun showing signs of self defeating arrogance in a way...

I love it when a major consumer products category stands up and declares that fully half the population is an important part of the customer base. In the case of consumer electronics, every year or so we get an industry initiative that claims to focus on women, as though women just figured out that...

It's been a rough week for Best Buy. The Minneapolis-based chain has barely gotten rival Circuit City out of its hair - thanks to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and subsequent liquidation -- when word comes that Wal-Mart is angling for a piece of the electronic giant's flat-screen pie. Now, Best Buy also...

Best Buy's decision to cut wages of thousands of its senior sales people, and eliminate up to 1,000 jobs, looks like a bad imitation of failed electronics retailer Circuit City.In a reorganization of the consumer electronics chain, Best Buy is cutting pay by 25% to 50% for 8,000 senior sales...

Best Buy has snapped up Circuit City's list of store cardholders and welcomed them to the fold. If you're on the list of cardholders who were invited to swap, Dan Ray, editor-in-chief of CreditCards.com, which wrote about the switcheroo, says take the new card and be grateful.If you didn't get the...

WalletPop readers already know that the Circuit City liquidation sales are to a good deal as pigs are to flying, but the last week has shown that Circuit City shoppers face a bigger threat than paying too much -- the threat of broken merchandise. Recession Watch Around the Globe A...

In a parody of a Slumdog Millionaire ad, Mad Magazine plans to spoof Bernie Madoff and all the investors he allegedly scammed. The entire scandal is so complex the government still hasn't even charged Madoff. Mad Magazine editor John Ficarra told me that Jeff Kruse suggested the parody and he...

After Circuit City announced that it's closing this week, I heard more than one person contemplate stopping by to see if there are any bargains to be had. The Sunday ad circulars came out in the newspapers today and my husband I noticed they had some already pretty good prices on laptops. (We also...