Stock Itch

In a bit of sad, but not unexpected, news, Circuit City (NYSE:CC) has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.  I had held out some glimmer of hope, but the fact remains that the Circuit City has had problems for years and this cannot be credited solely to the current state of the economy.

Remember, Circuit City closed a lot of stores a few years back AND they still have leases on many of those still on the books…and last week they added 155 more stores to the list.

While advertising is an important part of marketing in the retail realm, I did find it silly that they’re running so many commercials recently and rolling out their “one price” campaign.  Watching football this weekend I can’t even count how many Circuit City commercials I saw…and I don’t think I saw a single Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) or Target (NYSE:TGT) commercial.  It was all Circuit City and Garmin (NASDAQ:GRMN) commercials…but Garmin can afford it.  I’m sorry, but people are so freaked out about the economy right now that a commercial blitz is not going to make a large return on investment.  Especially when “Black Friday” is just around the corner and there are rumors of huge HDTV price drops looming…not to mention that their marketshare has shrunk due to store closings.

Now that Circuit City has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy I think that it’ll be hard for them to move big ticket items at a decent profit due to customer fear of warranties not being valid if something happens.  I know that the only things that I’ll be buying from them this holiday season are movies, music & games.

However, I do hope that Circuit City is able to pull out of this.  While I do purchase most of my electronics from Best Buy (I have two within a few miles of my house), I do like competition and think that is good for consumers. Hopefully this isn’t going to be the final chapter to the Circuit City story.