After an attempt to regroup under Chapter 11 Reorganization, Circuit City, the nation's 2nd largest Consumer Electronics Retailer is calling it quits. Read the Official Announcement from Circuit City.
My perspective: Although this is not a surprise, it does not bode well for the consumer electronics retail market as the loss of Circuit City means less price competition and less product choice in the marketplace. Best Buy is now in a stronger position to shore up its top position, while Wal-Mart, Target, Fry's, and COSTCO now have a bigger share of the overall pie. This may make it difficult for upstarts to enter the market when the economy bounces back, unless they can offer a different type of shopping experience and/or lower prices that consumers will warm to. Of course, the saddest part to all this is the up to 30,000+ jobs that will be lost.
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If this continues, then Wal-Mart may end up being the only retail store chain left after 2009. My prediction is that at least 60% of the nation’s malls will close down. Walt Disney World will seek financial assistance. Multiple movie theaters will close. Road construction companies will rapidly go away. The trigger behind all of these predictions is easy: gas prices raising during the past 2-3 weeks!! Come on, oil companies, stop destroying our economy!!!