Best Buy isn’t immune to the economic crisis and had a very rough last quarter. The country’s largest electronic retailer watched same-store sales fall 5.3% over last years and net earnings take a 77% face plant. Best Buy did see a net sales increase but that was due to new store openings. Blue-collar terms? They aren’t doing so well, haus.

The company is offering 4,000 headquarter employees buy-out packages and face a rough future. While it is unlikely Best Buy will end up in the poor house with Circuit City, the retailer has some cost cutting to do.

Electronics retailer hhgregg will now accept Circuit City gift cards through Super Bowl Sunday, 2009. The small print is that the cards can only be applied to 20% of the total purchase price and they cannot be used online. Other than that, go at it. If you have some Circuit City gift cards laying around and nothing to spend them – or your local Circuit City closed shop – head on over to hhgregg. They will take your money.

hhgregg via CEPro

So yeah, gift cards are a popular gift but you might wanna think twice about one from Circuit City. With store closing and poor inventory, it just doesn’t make sense at this time. I guess that the recipient could always using it on the website, but even still, it’s better not to put some through the hassle. Oh, and you might want to claim any points accumulated on the ‘ol Circuit City credit card, too.

We all know by know that Circuit City is a world of hurt, with the recent bankruptcy and all, but what Sony Electronics President, Stan Glasgow, recently said about the retailer sums it up nicely.

I don’t see Circuit City going away, I don’t want to see it go away. Jay and I have seen in our years in the business that there hasn’t been a successful transition out of Chapter 11 by a [major CE] retailer. It is going to be a real challenge. If it happens, competitors would absorb their business.

The a summery of the interview that included talk about the economy and Sony Stores’ expansion is here.

BlackFriday.info just posted Circuit City’s Black Friday ad. Hopefully the company will live to see next year’s ad, too. Some notable good deals:

• SanDisk 1GB MP3 Player Express for $16.99
• HP Pavilion laptop for $399
• Good deals on video games
• DVDs from $3.99
• $100 off select Garmin GPS units
• $99 Tom Tom GPS
• Blu-ray discs from $8.99
• SmartParts 5.6-inch digital photo frame for $41.99

We all know Circuit City is in the pooper, but Time gives a little back history for those not familiar with Circuit City’s last decade of suck. Best part?

For many consumers, however, Circuit City’s most obvious failing was its customer service. In March 2007, it announced plans to lay off its highest-paid hourly employees, including salespeople, and replace them with cheaper workers. That same year, then CEO Philip Schoonover received some $7 million in compensation. It may come as no surprise, then, that a quick Web search on “Circuit City complaints” brings up hundreds of thousands of entries.

Yup, not a good idea. Lets lay off all the people that understand the product and enjoy their jobs, only to replace them with $10 hour newbs. Good idea, Schoonover. 

[thanks for the tip, Akia789]

Circuit City seems to be having big inventory issues right now. We know that the retailer is restructuring under Chapter 11 and recently received a $1 billion loan from BoA, but inventory issues are rampant according to a Circuit City employee email. This employee’s store is one of the largest in his state and that store still hasn’t received new CD and DVD releases this week. The latest inventory truck just dropped off a few HDTVs and nothing else; no computers, cameras, or car electronics and according to the computer system, none are on the way. Hopefully the $1 billion dollar loan will purchase inventory otherwise working at Circuit City this holiday season will be extra horrid.

Circuit City has a lot to be thankful for this Thankgiving after a $1.1 billion dollar loan from Bank of America. That amount should cover operating expenses and take care of inventory concerns over the holiday season. In addition to yesterdays bankruptcy, Circuit City owes HP and Samsung, among the rest of the debt, over $2.3 billion – $119 million to HP and $117 million to Samsung.

Samsung and HP are even considering withdrawing its wares from Circuit City’s shelves after yesterdays fillings. Maybe after this loan though, you will still be able to buy ‘em for a bit longer. The question then becomes though, how will Circuit City screw it up this time?

There have been reports that the Circuit City liquidation sales rely on false pretenses and incompetent liquidators. Example: this 5% off tag for what appears to be an HP 12.1 inch laptop. Nice, huh?

Anyone else got some tasty pics for us?

Adios, Circuit City. You will be remembered forever as a not-good-enough version of Best Buy (even though Best Buy is pretty suspect, too.)

Yes, Circuit City has officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It did so last week, when we were busy talking about store closings and fake sales.

It is, I think, the biggest tech-realted failure (if that’s the right word to use) of the current economic downturn.

Be sure to watch its stock price this morning.

Red shirt Circuit City workers aren’t the only employees getting the pink slip as a report by the Richmond Times-Dispatch indicates that headquarter staffers will be laid-off too. The Circuit City local paper estimates that 500 – 800 people will be let go from the Richmond, VA home base and the remaining 1,000 white collared workers will be consolidated into one building.

Does anyone have any good news about Circuit City? Has the company rescued a kitty stranded in a tree lately? It just seems that every piece of news is bad news for the retailer. Oh well, that’s what they get for scamming customers.

Circuit City is hurting right now and apparently that is justification for ripping people off under the umbrella of a liquidation sale. These so-called sales are within the 155 stores that are being shut down immediately, but a few reports have indicated that prices are being marked up and then receive a magic 10% off, resulting in a “sale.” In fact, these in-store prices are higher than the Circuit City website which is exactly counter the latest Circuit City ad campaign which claims “A One Price Guarantee.”

Really, Circuit City? Have you slumped to the same level as furniture sales where you need to simulate sales in order to sell your wares? Wow. So is there any reason to shop at Circuit City now that even their liquidation sales aren’t really sales?

Circuit City’s awful, awful loss is our gain. The company is starting to close all those stores now, and is subsequently marking down the prices of all sorts of electronic gizmos.

You can expect to save up to 30 percent on merchandise.

My local Circuit City, which has always served me well, is staying open, so I won’t get to partake in the festivities.

Just in case you’re wondering if your local Circuit City store is going to be open this holiday season, Circuit City just announced the list of the 155 stores closing ASAP. [PDF link] These stores will be shut down quickly, with Firedog employees and Roadshop installers allegedly getting cut today and the inventory transfered to other locations. Do not expect liquidation or blow-out sales as part of the reason for the closures is that the company needs the extra inventory.

On a personal note, I’m glad to see the store [3631] that I called home for 6 long years is not closing – yet.

Consumerist.com is reporting that Circuit City may be announcing at 8 AM tomorrow morning that it’ll be closing 155 of its stores. This is still a rumor, so take it with a grain of salt, but it wouldn’t be surprising in lieu of the company’s recent financial woes.

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago saying that Circuit City was “considering a plan to close at least 150 stores,” so this may just be all of that stuff coming to fruition. So that makes two retail stores that I worked for in my younger years that have either gone completely out of business (CompUSA) or look like they’re about to crumble (Circuit City). I worked at Best Buy, too, so watch out.