Circuit City stores to close by Sunday

RICHMOND, VA. — All of Circuit City's stores will close for good by Sunday, powering down what once was the nation's second-largest consumer electronics retailer, its liquidators said.

"Consumers reacted to the top-quality product that they had, and the prices we were able to sell it at, and we're basically running out of inventory a week early," said Scott Carpenter, vice president for Great American Group LLC, which has been managing Circuit City Stores Inc.'s going-out-of-business sales.

After it failed to find a buyer or secure refinancing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Richmond-based Circuit City announced in January that it would liquidate its remaining 567 U.S. stores and lay off about 34,000 employees.

Great American is among four liquidators — the others are SB Capital Group LLC, Tiger Capital Group LLC and Hudson Capital Partners LLC — that have been working since January to sell off Circuit City's remaining $1.7 billion worth of inventory at reduced prices.

Almost all of it has sold, and nothing will remain when the stores close, Carpenter said.

"There's never anything left," Carpenter said. "Everything will sell at the right price, it's just a matter of finding that right price."

A small staff will remain at the corporate office after Sunday to finish winding down the company.

Circuit City is guaranteed to receive at least 70 percent of the proceeds from the liquidation sales, but the final figure may exceed that amount, according to an agreement filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

At a store near the company's headquarters, shoppers sifted through CDs, DVDs, and bins of accessories and wires Wednesday while the machines that workers were using to dismantle fixtures roared in the background. The store's back half was blocked off with yellow tape, the shelves emptied of their inventory.

Many customers left empty-handed, including Jeff Prillaman, 48, who had stopped by to check out the deals.

"We're in a recession, and they're bankrupt and they want the same price you can get any day of the week at Best Buy," Prillaman said. "They should be giving it away."

Prillaman also visited Circuit City's headquarters, where liquidators are selling the company's office furniture.

"It's very disturbing to see the acres of cubicles," said Prillaman, a limousine driver who frequently shuttled Circuit City clients from the airport to its offices. "It's a bad thing."

Earlier this week, the company announced that telecommunications company Bell Canada is buying a chain of 750 The Source electronics stores across Canada operated by Circuit City's InterTAN subsidiary. Terms of the sale, which is expected to close in the third quarter, were not disclosed.

Circuit City, which posted losses in seven of its final eight quarters, filed for bankruptcy protection in November as it faced heightened competition, pressure from vendors and waning consumer spending. It reported then that it had $3.4 billion in assets and $2.32 billion in liabilities as of Aug. 31.

Under court protection, it broke 150 leases at locations where it no longer operated stores. Another 155 U.S. Circuit City stores closed in November and December. But the hobbled credit market and consumer worries proved insurmountable.

The company is trying to auction leases for its remaining stores, corporate headquarters and distribution and service centers. It has the court's permission to break the leases if no buyers turn up.

Circuit City also received approval to pay more than 150 employees as much as $4 million to stay with the company as it winds down, which the company said would increase its value by $250 million.

To help pay down its debt, the company also has sold pallets of defective inventory, its two corporate jets and the furniture, fixtures and equipment from its headquarters and distribution and service centers over the last month.

just think you could get a job dismantling all that shelving...unless the illegals get it 1st

Just think, 34,000 people out of work in one shot. Mister Obama man better help out his homies.