Our own Emily Chasan visited two bankrupt retailers — Circuit City and Tweeter etc– in Burlington, Massachusetts, on Black Friday. She sent photos and this report:
Circuit City and Tweeter sit kitty-corner from each other where Middlesex Turnpike intersects with I-95 and were telling different tales on Black Friday.
Circuit City looked almost the picture of a healthy retailer, despite its bankrupt status. Tweeter, just nine days from closing for good, was sparsely stocked and looked almost like a warehouse.
It took six laps around the Circuit City parking lot to find a spot and customers got creative by parking on the lawn and sidewalk. The store was more crowded than any other retailer we visited that day, except the Apple store.
Circuit City, the second-largest U.S. specialty electronics chain, filed for Chapter 11 protection on November 10. It is closing 155 domestic stores, or more than one-fifth of its retail base, and plans to emerge from bankruptcy restructuring in the first half of 2009.
Shoppers said they saw newspaper flyers and were enticed by Circuit City’s six-hour specials.
John Laquidara, from North Billerica, Massachusetts, was among the shoppers who turned out and said he was not concerned about buying items at bankrupt retailers.
“There are a lot of stores in that kind of shape, and usually the kinds of things I buy don’t need to be returned,” Laquidara said.
Signs outside the Tweeter store advertised sale prices of 40 to 70 percent off. Inside the store we found equal numbers of shoppers and employees.
The only remaining items for sale were flat-panel TV display models, cables and speaker systems — all of which were steeply marked down. A flat panel that was once priced at almost $3400 was being offered for just $892.
Will you shop at a bankrupt retailer this holiday?
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8 comments so far
I purchased a tv and home theater system from circuit city on 11/5/08. I was told about the price protection guarantee they offer for 30 days, if you find it cheaper they will match the price difference 110%.
- Posted by mjToday I saw the same TV cheaper at Circuit City and the same home theater system cheaper at my local BestBuy.
I called the store ahead of time to find out what I needed to do to get the price match and was told I had to come in the store.So I did and they refused to match the lower prices!
This is false advertising at it’s best
Well the same items are the same price as yesterday.
Called the store and they won’t honor the price guarantee and it’s not black friday.
I asked what date I could come into the store for the price match guarantee and they could not provide one.
I visited my local Circuit CIty store and I must say it was the best customer service I have received in a long time. Not only did they have great 6 hour specials but I could really tell a difference in the stores, even with the employee attitudes . Everyone seems very willing to help me find exactly what I needed. I hope they come out of this and become even stronger!
- Posted by RyanCAfter visiting 2 Circuit City’s it is no wonder they’re going down. On the opposite, I think they have the worst customer service, at least on the managerial level. I wasted my time for a supervisor to deny offering me a lower price on a product that was in correctly tagged a few dollars less by the employees. When I explained to him that even his employees were not sure of what the price was. Since I work for a major technology company, I refrained from being the irate customer when I asked him, would you rather I leave as unsatisfied customer after wasting 1/2 hr while they argued how the error was made, he replied yes, because he couldn’t make an adjustment.
- Posted by DRNo wonder you can find such good deals at Tweeter. The owners, in Winston Salem, North Carolina, should be ashamed of themselves. They are outright stealing money from our pockets. Tweeter is not honoring gift cards, as the attorneys general forced them into doing, and from what I understand, are keeping deposits and refusing to turn over merchandise. This is stealing. Period.
- Posted by NancyI would be ashamed to shop anywhere such as this if I were you.
Be very careful at these stores. Tweeter is liquidating their merchandise, and they are screwing people over who paid for warranties, or had any deposits placed with them for any types of installations. Tweeter simply stole my deposit of 2,500.00 that I had placed down to have a TV installed on my wall, and I got NOTHING for it. I have no TV, no installation, no satisfaction. I wrote a check for the deposit to hold the install date and they took my money, and i have no idea if I will ever see it again due to the BK. They conveniently told me about the bk the day after the filing and now I am ripped off and angry! This is not their money, its not the courts money, its my money. Be careful out there before you place money down with any company.
- Posted by Joe P.Every circuit city is different. I work in the palmdale, california one. I must say that we actually do better than our competitor bestbuy across the street. They haven’t hit their budget in 24 months. I must say that the actual company policy states that we will not match anything from the six hour sale, but if was after then idk why they didn’t. I can honestly say our store is great on customer service.
- Posted by RobertI am not surprised at all that Circuit City is in trouble, a couple of years ago I decided I would never shop at Circuit City, the customer service was horrible both from the management and the employee’s. At the time I complained to corporate and never heard back from anyone. I remember saying to them don’t be surprised to when you have to have to file for bankruptcy. At least now if I buy something from them I they do not have to comply with any sort of care for the customer. I hope the the restructuring works and they come back a better company willing to value the customers.
- Posted by El CI thought this was the tweeter store when I found it on twitter but it was not. I had a great experience and had the stuff I bought delivered right to my door in two days! - I love it!
- Posted by Angela