The last time I was in a Circuit City store, it seemed a little empty and cold compared to the Best Buy up the street that had all kinds of people bustling about. What I saw was no different than what many of you have probably seen at your local Circuit City stores which makes it clear that they’re struggling. To define struggling, Circuit City hasn’t seen a quarterly profit since the 2nd quarter of 2007, almost a full year ago. Things aren’t going so well for them, but they’re not ready to give up. Their strategy is to open “The City” stores which they hope will help improve their image and sales.
A recent article published by the Associated Press explains these news stores and their employees. They say, “dressed in jeans and black t-shirts and armed with touch-screen laptops, Generation Y employees at “The City” help customers choose the latest gadgets.” So it appears as though they want their employees to look sophisticated yet laid back at the same time. “The City” stores themselves are much smaller too. The AP says they feature “special fixtures and lighting, streamlined product selection and a new feel - as well as being about two-thirds as big as Circuit City’s traditional 30,000-plus square-foot stores.”
More than ever, new technology gadgets are a necessity and not a luxury. You’d think then that this would mean that electronic stores would be having no issues with sales, even with a sluggish economy. They’re not though. More people buy their electronics online where they can find reduced prices and more people find other ways like online downloads to get their media like music and movies. Circuit City hasn’t been the number one American consumer electronics chain since the 1990’s and they’re hoping the new concept stores will change this. With 50-60 “The City” stores opening during their fiscal 2009, expect to see these smaller but updated stores popping-up in a city near you.
Image Source: Gizmodo
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“dressed in jeans and black t-shirts” reminds me of employees at an Apple store.
I stopped shopping at Circuit City after this happened
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....02185.html
As someone who works retail, I thought this was nasty of the corporate office to do.
taf
Beat me to it.
This is foolishness. Anyone I tell, “I’m goin’ to the city, be back later” will have no idea what I’m talking about. I’d just refer to it as that Circuit MiniCity. Or more appropriate, that new Circuit City store.
And bah humbug anyway, blue is my favourite colour. I heart Best Buy.
Smaller stores with a smaller selection and a new employee dress-code. Reminds me of “Service Merchandise”; any one remember them? Not many people do.
Having teenagers selling high-end electronics to middle age adults with money isn’t exactly a receipt for success. Their focus should be quality products sold at competitive price by a knowledgeable sells force.
Anytime a see a company trying to change their name after they spent years making it a household name just screams, “we trying to shack this horrible image we created for ourselves. we’re not the same horrible retailer that you remember.”
Ahh.. good point! Although the employees at the Apple store do change up their uniforms I noticed. I believe they were red around the holidays and then they changed to another color shortly after and it wasn’t black.
@Cory: That’s funny you mention Service Merchandise because Ryan and I were just talking about them the other day. We were driving by the location where they used to be and now it’s a Big Lots. All I remember from that store was that you usually had to go to their little kiosks in the store and place your order, and then go to the front to pick it up. There was no room for stock out on the floor.