Don't look now... but Circuit City IS BACK!

[Todd Anderson]

Yup. I just received an invite for a CES press conference. Circuit City is going to re-emerge with an online presence. I am SUPER curious to learn about their plans... this is the company's third go around. Quite unbelievable.

 

[Tony V.]

Same people trying to get it going again?

 

[Todd Anderson]

I'm not sure. Fairly certain, however, that's it's online only...

 

[Tony V.]

The on line market is kind of crowded already, I'm surprised they want to give it a go

 

[tripplej]

The only way they can survive is to be very competitive with amazon and offer professional installation, etc very cheaply.

 

[leecreek]

Last time I was in Circuit City was with a coworker looking to get some speakers demoed. The only thing CC wanted to demo was Bose..Not impressed at all

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Good luck to them. At this point even Amazon is looking to develop a combination of their online footprint and physical locations so it will be interesting to see what they think they offer that is better. As mentioned, I hope they consider offering professional installation services at a good price as this might differentiate them.

I always complain about the pricing of Geeksquad being too high for what you get, yet I have to say, being on the other side as well, I won't do the same work for that price. I have a partner who does the contractor work for custom rooms and we always discuss the hourly rate to charge customers for installation. If we can send a fairly untrained guy out there to just pull some wires we can match their prices fine. If I have to go out there I easily come in at twice the price. At the same time they don't offer what I do.

 

[Todd Anderson]

The company's re-emergence is definitely a curiosity.

Here's the PR release:

"Circuit City is set to announce official company relaunch at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday January 8th at 3:00 PM PST during a special press event.

The iconic brand will relaunch with a new agenda of enhancing shopping experiences with cutting-edge technology.

Under new ownership, Circuit City will relaunch with a dynamic, social-focused e-commerce site, along with various concepts of innovative retail stores, and unprecedented e-commerce technology offerings.

At the CES event, Circuit City is expected to announce its official launch concentrated on the retail verticals of e-commerce, mobile, technology, omni-channel commerce.

The company is also announcing a partnership with IBM Watson commerce, which incorporates AI and other new retail technologies to its web platform.

After evaluating other options Circuit City selected IBM because of its aligned vision with AI and how this technology can ultimately transform how clients shop for electronics. The IBM web commerce platform will allow Circuit City to expand offerings for a personalized shopping experience and enhance the product discovery journey.

The new Circuit City leadership team consists of executives with experience across top-tier leadership companies. The relaunch will be lead by CEO, Ronny Shmoel, who brings vast retailing, e-commerce, and global sourcing expertise.

Additional details of the Circuit City relaunch and rollout plans to be announced at the press event. One-on-one interview sessions are available and currently being scheduled with Mr. Shmoel, and other members of the leadership team.

Circuit City is an iconic brand in the Consumer Electronic industry, established 1949 and relaunched under new ownership in 2016. Circuit City appeals to and

accommodates a vast range of customers from legacy Circuit City customers to Millennials.

For more information please visit CircuitCity.com."

 

[Tonto]

The younger generation is geared to lower quality and easy access. I expect this to be their main target population. Guess we will see.

 

[tripplej]

They better put them in the malls then. lol. Lot of millennials over there.

 

[Jeff S]

I worked for CC as an Ops Mgr in the late 80's and early 90's. Back then it was a good company, good product selection and knowledgeable sales people. As we all know, that model went away and so did CC. I don't see this re-emergence as anything spectacular. Just another online electronics retailer. I guess we will see but I am not so excited just yet.

 

[Tonto]

So Todd, what ever happened to CC @ CES?