Surprise! Retailers Use Lighting To Trick You Into Buying Inferior HDTVs

The guys at HD Guru have shed some light, literally, on a bit of trickery retailers use to make lower performance HDTVs look more enticing. Have you ever noticed how bright the lighting is in many electronics departments? More »

Local Electronics Stores Defy the Recession By Not Being Terrible

While giant retailers are scrambling to nab whatever portion of Circuit City's suddenly available $11-billion in revenue they can, local electronics stores and midsize retailers are making out like gangbusters, simply by doing things the old fashioned way. More »

Standing Over Circuit City's Cooling Corpse, Walmart Steps Up Its Electronics Game

Where many see death and despair, Walmart's executives see opportunity. Starting this week, the big-box giant is drastically expanding its stores' electronics sections, hoping to compete head-on with the likes of Best Buy and Amazon. More »

A Master List of Holiday Online Ordering Deadlines For Last Minute Shoppers

Dealhack has compiled a list of major online retailers' ordering deadlines for shipments that need to arrive before Santa does. If you suffer from terminal-illness-grade procrastination like me, this is your list. More »

Take a Trip Down Memory Lane With Other Failed Gadget Sellers

Now that Circuit City's closing up shop, perhaps we should take a minute to remember other failed gadget dealers from our country's storied history. Technologizer's compiled a bunch of old television ads from now defunct tech stores and they're a treasure trove of early 1990s cheesiness and the repetitive mantra, “Lowest prices! Best Selection! Amazing service!,” that none of them could actually provide. Remember Nobody Beats The Wiz? Crazy Eddie? The short-lived death of CompUSA? Who doesn't love nostalgia for the ghosts of retailers past? [Technologizer]

Sharper Image Rises From The Ashes...as a Brand Only

A few days ago we discovered that Sharper Image had "something big coming," but as of today, there has been no official word from the company about their future plans. However, the WSJ is reporting that the company will resurrect itself as a virtual brand. No stores, just a name that retailers can rent to drive up the sales of any number of useless, overpriced gadgets. More »

Buy "Something" For $10

"A boat's a boat, but the mystery box could be anything. IT COULD EVEN BE A BOAT! You know how much we wanted one of those." - Peter Griffin More »

Where Did You Shop For Evil Holiday Consumer Goods?

It's Christmas Eve, and apparently that means people are making their last, mad dashes to immortalize their kinship through iPods and GPS systems. It's clearly too late to be shopping online for your holiday merchandise, but numerous inquiring minds need to know (OK, just ours), where did you do your holiday shopping this year? More »

CompUSA Supplies FAQ About Store Closings

Now that CompUSA is closing its doors, it has begun the process of tying up loose ends regarding issues like gift cards, rain checks, rebates and returns. In a nutshell, if you purchased anything from the store after December 12th you are pretty much S.O.L. More »

CompUSA Throws in the Towel, Sells to a Liquidator

While the rumor has been floating around all week, the Wall Street Journal reports CompUSA has been sold to a liquidation firm, effectively putting the company out of business. The move is largely based on declining sales, with the company speculated to only do $1.5 billion in sales this year (compared to $4 billion last year). While it will be open through the holidays, the company is actively working to sell and/or close its 103 retail stores. Can you say clearance deals? [WSJ]

Xbox 360 Failure Rate: 30%, Says Retailers

We always knew the Xbox 360 failure rate was high, but the only time Microsoft's put any sort of solid numbers on the thing it was always somewhere around 5%. Retailers, on the other hand, have just reported a failure rate of somewhere over 30%. That's pretty ridonkulous. It's a good thing Microsoft support is usually pretty good about taking them back, so you don't have to go all Picard and shout about how many lights there are over the phone. More »

Retailers Wish is Granted, PSP Priced Dropped to $169

Remember a couple weeks ago when retailers were calling for a price drop on the PSP? Their wish was granted today when Gamestop/EB Games dropped the price of the core system to $169. More »

Retailers Want a PSP Price Drop

Shit is hitting the fan with the PSP, and that is pretty obvious as of late. According to the folks at 1UP, some "big name" retailers are calling for a PSP price drop or the portable console may be dropped from the shelves entirely due to a lack of sales. We've heard confirmation of an updated PSP, but will that device come with a cheaper price tag or will the original PSP price tag be chopped down a bit? Either sound fine to me. More »