Circuit City Doors Close for Good

All good(?) things must come to an end, and this weekend marked the end of Circuit City. Since announcing back in January that the company was going belly up, Circuit City stores throughout the country started dumping their inventories, culminating in last weekend’s final sell off of all remaining merchandise. While the last couple of months have seen Circuit City inventory clearanced out at upwards of 80 percent off, some customers (as well as potential employees) held out hope tha there might still be some sort of last minute reprieve, similar to what happened when Tiger Direct parent company Systemax bought out CompUSA’s assets when that company went under. Sadly, there was no last minute stay of execution and the switch was finally thrown, leaving all 567 Circuit City stores as nothing more than a memory.

One interesting note about this story, though. While all of Circuit City’s retail stores throughout the US have been shut down, there may still be a glint of life left in the company. A message on the company’s website states, somewhat cryptically that, “CircuitCity.com is also temporarily closed, although we anticipate the website will reopen in the coming weeks. Please check back for updates.”

Have we really seen the last of the Circuit City brand, or will the name rise up from the ashes of liquidation in some new form, such as an online-only retail presence? Only time will tell.