Nov 3, 2008 01:26 AM
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We have got confirmation from a reliable source: Circuit City is closing 155 stores tomorrow: "They are going to be midwest ones, which are underperforming right now. Liquidators will be taking control of these stores this Monday." He got more juicy details and his opinion on the possibility of Circuit City going under because of the current economic situation. Update: Circuit City's Director of Corporate Communications Bill Cimino has replied to the rumors about a Sony truck turning around from a delivery in an internal forum. Update 2: Another reader who works at Circuit City confirms the closing. Read more about it after the jump.
Basically, underperforming stores in certain regions are going to get shut down. This doesn't mean we are going out of business. Personally, I think that some stores can support themselves while others can't.
I know my store has a daily budget of about $38,000. We usually hit our budget and always make our goals, but some of the other stores in the region can't do that. There are still profitable stores even with the economy being crap. But then, the West Coast stores account for about 30% of the company's total revenue.
One of the store directors—obviously not from the Midwest—is quoted as saying that "we should have done this 10 years ago". The source points out that Circuit City is trying to refocus on the customer: "They are really stressing to us that we must have better customer service than before because they want us to win back our customers".
Update 1: David Cimino categorically denies that Sony truck turned around from a delivery to Circuit City distribution.
Update 2: Another Circuit City employee and Gizmodo reader jumps in about this:
I work at CC and we had a store meeting today in which we were explicitly told 155 stores were closing and a liquidity firm is going to take them over. Employees will be allowed to stay through that process if they wish. What the internal forum posting was saying was that the post about the truck of Sony products turning around or whatever was false, it has nothing to do with the store closings, which is definitely true. I have no idea if the Sony thing is true or not.
Send an email to Jesus Diaz, the author of this post, at jesus@gizmodo.com.
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