Circuit City

Encyclopedia : C : CI : CIR : Circuit City

Circuit City (NYSE: [CC]) is A Fortune 200 company with over $10 billion in sales. It has more than 50 years in the retail business and more than 40,000 Associates. Corporate Offices in Richmond, Virginia. 20-plus departments. Circuit City is the third largest electronics retailer in the United States, behind Best Buy and Wal-Mart. Based in Richmond, Virginia, its over 600 stores located throughout the country have departments like Audio and Video, Camcorders and Photo, Home and Office, Music and Movies, and Toys and Games. The chain of stores also has services such as Express In-Store Pickup (24-24 Pick-up Guarantee), and Price Match Plus Guarantee. Circuit City also boasts a computer services department that provides their services in home or in store. Being capable of repairing and upgrading computers and diagnosing miscellaneous software and hardware problems, this department has allowed the consumer sector to delve into the realm of mainstream repair without having to seek out boutique shops and private specialists.

Circuit City has recently developed stores under the codename "Gen-C", stores that are operated differently from traditional stores, with relaxed management and a smaller focus on profitable numbers. These stores are run by associates, and have the funding to try new ideas before they are implemented on a chain wide basis.

On February 11, 2005, a hedge fund headquartered in Boston, Highfields Capital, offered to takeover Circuit City for $17 a share, arguing that existing management had failed to maximize shareholder value.

On March 7, Circuit City's board rejected this offer, but doubled its own share buy back program.

Circuit City owns InterTAN Canada Ltd which runs The Source by Circuit City (formerly Radio Shack) chain in Canada as well as [THS Studio] [UpClose], [Rogers Plus], [Battery Plus] and G-Wiz. With all the different retail chains IterTAN runs over 970 stores in Canada

Circuit City started and owned the CarMax Group as a wholly owned subsidiary until fall 2002, when CarMax, Inc. was spun off as a separate corporation.

During 2004, Circuit City experimented with eBay consignment stores under the [Trading Circuit] name. Circuit City abandoned the consignment store experiment later that year, but continues to use the Trading Circuit name for product liquidation on eBay and via the Trading Circuit web site.

Contents

1 Circuit City-Owned Brand Names
2 Slogans
3 Trivia
4 External links

Circuit City-Owned Brand Names

Centrios
ESA
Liquid Video
NexxTech
Verge
Wasaki
Sector 7
StarLogic
i-next

One of the Circuit City stores

Slogans

"Where Service is State of the Art" (?-1995)
"Price, Selection, and Service"
"Imagine That" (2001)
"We're with You" (2001-2004)
"Just What I Needed" (2004-Present)
"Circuit City Makes it Simple" (2005 Holiday Season - Present)

Trivia

Sometime in the late 1970's, when the company that was to become Circuit City was seeking a new name for its stores, a marketing firm was hired to find suitable names. One of the firm's principals mentioned this to his nephew, a Pennsylvania electrical engineer, who quickly thought of the name Circuit City. The engineer signed a release form and was paid $50 for his suggestion.

External links

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