Aww, my first RAM upgrade I ever bought from a retail store was a 4MB upgrade for my 386SX25MHz computer in college. 50 bux a meg. Just to play doom.

Go Fry's!!!

And so it begins...

BestBuy is next.

Seriously. They have the same prices on the same gear, and their web presence is hampered by the bricks-and-mortar-presence loophole to the internet sales-tax collection laws.

They may see this as an opportunity to improve penetration and stop competing so hard, but it really means their backs are against the wall, too.

They might as well set up a kiosk in the middle of each store where you can take the SKU for the item you just eyeballed and order it from Amazon or Buy.Com or bid for it on eBay, trading the extra markup and the taxes for a nominal shipping charge and a two-day delay.

Because you know you've done that from your phone while looking at it on the shelf. Admit it. You have. I knew it.

Supplies!

Seriously, who didn't see this coming?

Chapter 11 doesn't mean liquidation. In fact it's a step to try to avert that. They get protection from their creditors, which lowers their expenses thus giving them more time at the same burn rate. They're trying to get through the holiday season (and need to spend to stock their shelves for that), hoping those sales (as bad as those look to be this year) will save them. For that to work they have to turn a profit on everything they sell for the rest of the year, which means no major discounts (other than what they'd normally do to get people in the door, eg black friday etc).

Unfortunately for them, one of the more profitable things the big box electronics guys sell are service plans, installation, etc -- and who is going to trust that CC is going to be around in a year to honor that extended service agreement?

Actually, I'd love to know what they think is going to happen in 1Q09, once they've made it through the holiday season. That's when you're likely to see those liquidation sales.

"flood of discounted merchandise" from Circuit City's closing stores could take holiday season sales away from Best Buy"

Not a chance, of the two store closings I have been to all they do is 10% discount the crap you really want...

by the time the "big savings" comes around your buying dinky camera bags and returned cell phones.

Over the last 20 years or so, I've probably spent a couple of thousand dollars with Circuit City. Their prices always seemed very good, or at least competitive, but I was never impressed with their customer service. Just my experiences. This could put Best Buy in a much better position.

Well it is coming to show how companies ran business in the time before is not the way it should have ran them. I can remember like most of us when they fired the senior sales guys and ladies to hire kids at 9 and 10 bucks and hour. Well I can say for my dealing with them just last week that’s what they have. They have 9 and 10 bucks hour support, and sales. So that’s one in many reasons why the hit the dirt.

Unfortunately, BB uses the same sales model, but their people are so much better at attaching service plans and other pre/post sales services that they are in the black. Both of them make their IT profits on the ignorant, BB is just better at it. Other than repair type stuff, which is legit, but like cars, overpriced if you can do it yourself.

I have a very fond (read: frustrating) and recent memory of walking into a Ciruit City to pick up a web order. I wound up waiting in the 'Online Orders' pick up line for about a half hour, all the while watching 3-4 employees just standing around chit-chatting like I wasn't even there. Eventually, the guy who was supposed to be servicing that line came back from lunch and I had to wait another 5-6 minutes while they brought up and found my order.

In short:

[LMAO]Welcome to Circuity City, where service is state of the art.[/LMAO]