electronics: October 2008 Archives

Following a report earlier this month about slower store openings, Circuit City is now turning itself all the way around. It has retained Skadden, Arps as a bankruptcy lawyer and is investigating 150 store closings along with raising "emergency funds."

Meanwhile, sector leader Best Buy is launching several Best Buy Mobile stores this month and exploring a European expansion. The linked article here cites Best Buy's bet on mobile as successful compared to Circuit City's HDTV focus, but this page says Circuit City made its share of non-product-related mistakes the past few years as well.

Yesterday's commerce news was a striking 1.2% overall decline in retail sales, the largest in three years.

Notably, sales at electronics and appliance stores plummeted 10.8%, a particularly significant drop. This sector typically suffers during economic downturns as customers see electronics purchases as easy to delay or downgrade.

The Sharper Image, which filed for bankruptcy in February and sold its remaining assets in June, has forged a licensing agreement for its name. The company has sealed a (surprisingly strong) $540 million, five-year arrangement with Homedics to create products for sale in a variety of retail locations.

Electronics retailer Circuit City is slowing store openings for 2009 and saying it needs to fix core businesses first. There is no news yet of which stores are delayed and for how long.