Old-skool Circuit City stores, like the Roseville store, had an entrance shaped like a UL standard plug.
Circuit City has been circling in the drain for years and in early 2009, it finally kicked the bucket. Its demise was a long time coming. Circuit City has been living on borrowed time this past decade. With its empty parking lots and deserted stores, it was one of those places you wondered how it stayed in business. I swear, places like Circuit City and some of these other companies must have a deal with drug cartels to stay open and never have any customers.
Alright. So, it’s seven (or so) months later since the second-fiddle big box electronics dealer closed its doors and I’m finally getting around to writing about this. Better late than never, right? I can’t ignore a huge chain store closing – so it’s about time to pay homage to the giant red plug in the ground.
The pictures in this article are all from the Rosedale store, but I didn’t shop at that location very often. I shopped at the Brooklyn Center location. Actually, I think the only time I ever went into the Roseville store was during the liquidation “sale”, but we’ll get to that later.
For the record, here’s a list of the other locations that were in the Twin Cities at some point:
Brooklyn Center
Burnsville
Coon Rapids
Edina
Mall of America (Circuit City Express. They sold stuff like cables and wires and cell phones. So, kind of like a Radio Shack.)
Maple Grove
Maplewood
Minnetonka
Woodbury
Retailers everywhere are BEGGING for Circuit City's square footage
I was never a huge fan of Circuit City, but I can’t say I ever had a problem with it. It’s not like I’m hoping the chain is burning in hell as we speak. In a way, it kinda blows that Best Buy now has no real competition here. I always shopped at Best Buy for my electronics needs, but on occasion, I did stop in at Circuit City. Why didn’t I care for CC? A few reasons:
#1: Circuit City had checkout stations located haphazardly throughout the store and no one was ever manning them. When you wanted to purchase something, you had to wave down an associate or bring your purchase up to the Customer Service desk and get in line with people doing returns or filing a complaint. Best Buy has easy-to-find checkout lanes all located at the front of the store, where they should be.
#2: The entire checkout process was annoying. When you finally did find someone to ring you up, it was always complicated, arduous process, even if you were just buying a CD. The sales associate would ask you for your name, address, and whatnot. You had to stand at the station for like 10 minutes while they typed god knows what into the computer. All I wanted was a Smash Mouth CD! You expect paperwork when you buy a car or a house, but a CD? I’ve gotten bank loans faster.
#3: Circuit City was a confusing mess. The VHS (later DVD) and CD sections were one giant clusterfuck. Plus, Circuit City kind of had a slimeball feel to it; it always felt like something shady was goin’ on there, but I could never quite put my finger on it.
#4: I don’t like shopping in the dark. Upon entering Circuit City, you felt like you were entering an electronics bunker.
#5: Best Buy is a Minnesota company, so they’ve got that whole “Hometown Hero” thing going for it, just like Target. I don’t even know where CC is based out of, nor do I care.
#6: Their coupons were full of holes & you needed to read the fine print carefully. You couldn’t use them on anything you actually wanted. They basically amounted to, “Good for $15 off a purchase of $100 or more in USB cables.” I can’t say Best Buy is any better though. Plus, Best Buy makes you join some silly little club to get their 5% off coupons in the mail or whatever. Meh.
That said, I did make my first big purchase as an adult at the Brookdale Square Circuit City (you can see photos on the Brookdale Square post). I still have the paper trail to prove it.
My cell phone has more storage capacity than this $2,000 computer.
The year was 1997. I graduated high school that spring and was ready for college. I wasn’t going away to school to live in the dorms — I was going to continue living with my parents and commute to school. I insisted to my parents that our family computer, a Packard Bell 486SX purchased in 1995, was getting slow and I needed something that could handle the projects, papers, and tasks my professors would require.
My parents aren’t the most tech-savvy people out there, but they weren’t stupid and they certainly weren’t buying my plea. I wasn’t majoring in Computer Science or Graphic Design — I was going to major in Journalism (at the time). I’d be writing papers, not creating Shockwave animations. In their eyes, I could’ve gotten by with a typewriter. In the end, they gave me two options — they offered to buy the Compton ’97 Encyclopedia CD-ROM for me (uhhh..thanks, but no), or I could buy the computer myself with some of my graduation money.
That was good enough for me! My graduation money was to be used for college-related expenses ONLY (books), not for buying fun stuff like makeup, shoes, or CDs.
Visions of Windows 98, 56K modems, and After Dark screen saver software packages danced in my head, as I took a hammer to my piggy bank and headed out the door.
Now I could continue this charade of me telling you that I wanted a new kick-ass computer system to write papers, but I think you’ve already figured out my MO. The truth was, I bought the computer to fuck around: To play my cheesy games (SimCity2000), have more hard disk space for MIDI and WAV files, work on my Geocities homepage, and have a faster modem so I could download shit like AOHELL 9.0 and spam chat rooms with 50-line macros of Bart Simpson getting blown by Lisa. Sure, I’d use it for my coursework, but if that alone was the sole reason for wanting a new computer, I could’ve gotten by just fine with the 486. For a while anyway.
Circuit City wasn't in the electronics business, they were in the insurance business
After pricing out computers at Best Buy, Computer City, and Circuit City, I ended up buying my PENTIUM (!!!) Packard Bell computer from Big Red. I don’t know what made me buy it at Circuit City– it must’ve been the price, or perhaps I thought that the sports coat-wearing commissioned sales guy was cute (An 18-year old girl is swayed easily by these things).
I purchased the entire package — computer, monitor, printer, and according to my receipt, I must’ve been strong-armed into buying the 5-year warranty plan,which I never cashed in on. The computer also came with a software bundle with shit like Word Perfect, Corel Draw, and MS Encarta (which made Mom happy). (Oh Mom…sorry to break this to you, but I don’t think I even clicked on the Encarta icon. I probably ended up deleting the program so I could free up hard disk space for more WAV files and Photoshop Plug-Ins).
I didn’t pay with this purchase in cash like I had originally intended — I ended up getting approved for a Circuit City credit card. Being that I was only 18 and had little credit history, I wasn’t approved for the entire price of the computer, so I paid part of it on the CC card, and part with my Visa. The idea was to pay the cards off with my graduation money as soon as the bill arrived to build some credit history, and I did just that.
After buying the computer, my mom and I had to wait around in the pick up area of the store for it to be “delivered.” It was kind of like waiting for your luggage at the airport. They had this procedure for a lot of the stuff you’d buy at CC, not just computers. Most of the time, you couldn’t just pick up a VCR or whatever off the shelf…you had to flag down a sales dude (who was busy blowing spit bubbles and starting at the ceiling), tell him which model you wanted, then listen to an annoying sales pitch and extended warranty ballyhoo before you could actually buy the damn thing & be directed to the pick up area.
Check out this sweet $2,000 setup! Rory the Lion beanie baby keeps me company while I get into a flamewar on the AOL message boards. The diet Cherry Cokes and a bag of Easter M&Ms give me enough fuel to keep my trolling fresh and sassy.
I was thrilled with my purchase and my new system allowed me to be the AOL Renegade that I had always wanted to be. I could hop from chat room to chat room, harassing other AOLers with {S duckjob in 56K warp speed!
(if you get the duckjob.wav reference, kudos to you!)
Other than the computer, I really didn’t buy much at Circuit City. I remember stopping in one time, thinking about buying a Minidisc player. I requested help from an aloof sales guy, and in response to my question, he picked up the item I was holding and began reading the side of the box to me. (I didn’t end up buying a minidisc player. Even at the time, I felt that Minidiscs weren’t going to catch on & that MP3s would be the next big thing).
I bought a few CDs here and there, but shopping here was only out of desperation. I’d only stop in if Best Buy or Target didn’t have the oddball CD I wanted. It was too much of a hassle to shop here. Even their Black Friday loss leaders never tempted me. It was just too much work & effort to go to Circuit City.
When the liquidation sale was announced earlier this year, I didn’t rush down the same day to pick over the bones of the dead company in hopes of irresistible savings, but I did stop in a few times. At the time, I was looking for a new computer (a Macbook), and checked out CC, hoping they sold Macs . They didn’t.
The going-out-of-business sale sucked. I think I stopped in 3 times. The first two times, I went to the Roseville store. It was packed, it was messy, and it was loud. Everyone was looking for the same thing — the good stuff, like discounted WIIs, cheap HDTVs, and after-market car stereos for pennies on the dollar. We knew Circuit City was closing FOR SURE. They weren’t fucking around, like Wilson’s
The Circuit City Rosedale was in a poor location
Leather or mall jewelry stores. This was it. Circuit City’s gettin’ snuffed and electronics junkies everywhere were lookin’ for deals.
Like most big stores that go out of business, they turn the sale over to a liquidation company. The company they chose couldn’t even run a going out of business sale properly. Everything was marked back up to its original MSRP. The 20% off a $19.99 DVD of Pretty in Pink wasn’t tempting; it was insulting. Target has the same DVD for $5.
“Up to 30% off”. What’s 30% off? CD disk cleaning solution, laser pointers, and candy bars. Right, time to hurry in! Anything you’d actually want was only 10% off. The discount gradually increased over time, but even in the sale’s final days, I didn’t see anything good. Even if I did find anything good, those frightening “All Sales Final” signs pretty much deterred me from purchasing any big-ticket items. I did buy a candy bar though (Baby Ruth, if you must know). It was delicious.
I went to the Maple Grove store during Circuit City’s final weekend. The store looked like a warzone. We went there looking for speakers, but there were none to be had. What was left? A bunch of CDs no one wanted, J-Lo movies on DVD, cables, and broken shit. The store was in complete disarray, with broken store displays, cords hanging from the ceiling, and empty CD-R spindles and plastic twist ties from speaker-wire packaging littering the floor. We walked out of Circuit City for the last time, empty-handed. There wasn’t even a discounted candy bar to buy. 
Fourty years from now, I can’t say I’ll be waxing nostalgic about Circuit City to my grandkids. It wasn’t my favorite place to shop, but it wasn’t horrible either. However, throughout the years, it changed for the worse. The sales guy who sold me the computer in 1997 was great. He was helpful & knowledgeable. Sometime after that, Circuit City made a turn for the worse. The sales associates no longer wore dapper blazers; instead, they sported red polo shirts. Sales folks all became non-commissioned hourly employees, and in 2007, many of their high-paid store associates were let go to make way for cheaper, less knowledgeable employees to save the doomed company money. Because of all this, Circuit City’s customer service reputation took a hit throughout the last decade. The poor service combined with the confusing store layout and high prices resulted in Big Red going down in flames.
Adios, Circuit City. You reap what you sow.
Photos of Circuit City taken June 2009. All other photos are circa 1997.
Did you find any treasures during the Circuit City liquidation? Former employee? Any Circuit City memories you’d like to share? Post in the comments!
#1 by Pseudo3D on August 20, 2009 - 12:32 pm
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I’m almost Circuit City’s demise was caused by the fact they stopped carrying Macs. And I had one of those Circuit Citys in my town too. They moved out a few years ago just to close when the company died. It WAS dark and had a low ceiling, a sharp contrast to the bright and open Best Buy, but I kinda liked it.
I wish I could feel sorry for it and am sad that it died only because it was Best Buy’s competitor.
#2 by Pseudo3D on August 20, 2009 - 12:34 pm
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Oh, and SimCity 2000 is not a “cheesy game”. I feel insulted!
#3 by admin on August 20, 2009 - 1:41 pm
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Oh yes, SimCity2000 RULED. I would play that for hours on end!
#4 by The Old Scowl on August 20, 2009 - 4:39 pm
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I remember that Best Buy and Circuit City had competition in Brooklyn Center that they wiped out in the early half of the 1990s. It was called ‘Highland’, and sold electronics and large home appliances. I think that they were from out East, and my one encounter with them was very disappointing.
I received a CD player for Christmas of 1989. As part of their warranty (I don’t remember if it was a store warranty or an add-on service type) replacement was covered for a year after the date of purchase. About 13 months after I get the clunker (this thing was so old it did not use batteries–you had an AC plug or you could hook it up to your car’s cigarette lighter and run a cassette adapter into your car’s tape deck if you wanted a ‘portable’ mode), it dies on me.
I take the thing to Highland and drop it off, where, for a modest fee of around 45 bucks they tell me that something in it that contains the word ‘servo’ is dead, and it has a replacement cost of around 120 bucks. Mind you, the price for the player and it’s amazing accessories (the aforementioned adapters AND a set of headphones) was about 100 dollars, plus the 6 and quarter (or was it 6 and a half) percent state sales tax back then.
Highland kept the carcass, and I got another cheap CD player at Best Buy to listen to the Zamfir CD my parents got me (they thought it was a good joke to get it for me, but they got to listen to it thanks to that cassette adapter).
Circuit City got a little of my business, Best Buy a little. But I stay away from electronics stores and stick with thrift stores to get VHS (I missed the thrift store-beta format bargain wave and am not going to miss the VHS crest ).
#5 by Disco Studd on August 21, 2009 - 1:14 am
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Wow, I remember Highland! Can’t say I ever had the “pleasure” of buying anything there. I always stuck to the “Best Buy Co.” back in those days. I remember the Highland in Brooklyn Center was in that tiny mall back by Davanni’s (IIRC, there was a Highland in Har Mar Mall as well.)
My oh my, where do I begin on Circuit City? First, I gotta comment on that old Packard Bell monitor you have pictured there, Dumpy. My 3rd PC was a Packard Bell 486 DX2/66 Desktop (complete with a 2X CD-ROM, 12MB of RAM, a 350MB HDD, and a 9600BPS faxmodem! I was excited as shit when I upgraded to a 28.8k!!!), and it had that same monitor, which lasted through 3 preceding PC’s. The speakers were crummy, but it saved quite a bit of space on my desktop! I liked the case of that old Packard Bell, it was 2-tone and had a funky “wavy” front facade. Would’ve been cool to stuff a different motherboard inside of it, but the PB MB was a proprietary design and the case wouldn’t allow for a standard AT-style MB.
I’ve purchased quite a few things from Circuit City over the years (2 TV’s, several cordless phones, a laptop, an external HDD, a TV wall bracket, a car stereo or 2, etc.) I actually liked the “coziness” of the stores, ’cause you could get in and get out rather quickly without their annoying (not to mention stupid) salesmen pestering you. I always made sure I researched what I was looking for before I went mind you, but compared to Best Buy, an excursion to CC wasn’t an all-day ordeal. When I bought my last TV at the Northtown Village store 2 years ago, it literally took me 5 minutes from the time I walked in the door to the time they had it loaded in my car. Conversely, when I went looking for a laptop at that same store a year prior, the kid that waited on me was dummer ‘n dog shit (rang me up and then found out that their store was sold out, so they ended up sending me to the Roseville store to pick one up after I already paid!) The little “inventory glitch” wasn’t his fault, but his lack of knowledge of the products he was selling almost made me not want to shop there again. I certainly wouldn’t have if I was a customer that knew less about PC’s than he did.
I will give the hometown team some props, however. The new Best Buy store in Blaine has a “Racetrack” layout, not unlike CC. I’m most impressed with their new check-outs (there’s one line and you proceed to the next available cashier.) The new layout is very “Get-In-Get-Out.”
#6 by admin on August 21, 2009 - 11:57 am
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I don’t remember Highland at all. I found some youtube clips of their old commercials, hoping it would ring a bell, but no dice.
I thought I’d at least remember the logo, but no:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVo0J8dUB60
Was it in that little strip mall next to Best Buy? Where the Office Depot/ShopNBC are? There used to be an F&M drugstore there…and WAYYY back when that strip mall first opened, there was a clothing store called Designer Depot (it was kind of like a TJ Maxx). It didn’t stay in business very long and the store was a mess. I only remember it because my mom bought me a pair of kick ass purple & gray Moon Boots in 1986.
Looks like that Highland Superstores was based out of Chicago and folded in 1993. I can’t believe I don’t remember this!
#7 by Disco Studd on August 21, 2009 - 8:29 pm
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YES, that’s exactly where Highland was. IIRC, the F&M was on the left side of the mall as you faced it, and Highland was on the right side (where Office Max is now.) I think Highland opened there around 87 or 88.
#8 by Jake on August 23, 2009 - 8:52 pm
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I remember going into that highland in Brooklyn Center back in the late 80′s and I’m not sure if it was a going out of business sale, or if the store just look that normally disorganized, but me and my parents both left in frustation. It was also one of the most poorly lit stores I’ve ever remembered visiting.
#9 by JT on August 24, 2009 - 4:06 am
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Well remember that with Circuit City, they used to be the deity of electronic stores. Best Buy here in Georgia was Johnny come lately in the early 1990′s, but I was absolutely astounded at the time how far superior they were to dark and dingy circuit city. Before Best Buy, their principal competition was Service Merchandise. Service Merchandise pretty much was killed by Best Buy, so Circuit City had a tough act to follow after that. They were not up to the challenge.
It’s too bad with Circuit City on service…they once advertised as “Service is State of the Art”, but obviously tht was not true from 2000 on. I, too, wondered how they stayed in business. If nobody shops there and they are not a front, they WILL die. Note the deserted parking lots today at places like Kmart and Burger King…you can bet those will one day go the way of Zayre and Burger Chef.
Ironically, Sears still has commissioned sales people but they are cutting back on staff and service. They remain along with Wal-Mart and Target the only competition remaining to Best Buy…the first moreso on appliances and the second on electronics.
#10 by DeKay on August 24, 2009 - 11:35 pm
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Somehow, all this talk of old business’ reminded be of Shopper’s City. The old joke was to say it five time real fast. I believe the same can be said of Circuit City, after a few drinks at the Ground Round.
This site is so depressingly refreshing that I cannot get enough of it.
#11 by Jake on August 26, 2009 - 7:50 pm
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I guess Circuit City was trying a “Spinoff” concept store called “The City” shortly before the whole CC franchise went under:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/storeadventures/3434020096/in/pool-75745254@N00
#12 by Johnme on August 28, 2009 - 2:23 am
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We had a The City location at our local Deerbrook Mall. This store opened up less than a year before the company went bankrupt in a closed down Mervyn’s on the second level. Steve and Barry’s opened on the first floor of the same anchor. Since the mall was two stories with entrances on the second level theoretically this setup should have worked. I found some deals at the Circuit City closing sale. Guitar Hero half off, Free Nintendo strategy guides, and DVD’s for next to nothing (in the last 10 days on the DVD’s). For some pictures of this Circuit City location and other Houston locations click on my name to visit my blog. Keep up the great work and humor on this site; you rock!
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#13 by Brooks Rownd on September 21, 2009 - 5:07 pm
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This is the Circuit City where I bought my first digital camera in 2006. Keep up the nostalgia trip (ok not so much with Circuit City) about all these places I used to go…there have to be more malls and strip malls dying every month these days. I love the caption under your computer photo.
#14 by Wayzata Dave on September 23, 2009 - 6:22 am
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I spent most of the 80′s in Fargo _ insert joke here – We considered ourselves lucky to have Team Electronics and Total Electronics – Wow. CC came much later. BB came to Moorhead in the Holiday Mall – basically a dead mall at the time – then boom build a new addition for a Best Buy – they would have been better off razing the thing and just building a BB.
Anyway – I bought a lot over the past few years at CC – I liked it because I could tell the polo people to bug off and they pretty much would – since they were getting paid hourly and not on commission.
Closing buys for me – Some CF memory cards – found them at 50% off; A tripod; A Wii – First weekend of the sale – they had like 200 per store… that’s about it.
#15 by AM on January 17, 2010 - 3:42 pm
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You’re very dead-on correct about Circuit City’s internal problems, as someone who likes observing retailers and trends with retail. Not to mention, it always seemed like corporate never focused on updating their older stores(and gosh, I agree with you about disliking their layout of having cash registers in various places inside the store, instead of at front), versus spending unnecessary money on new store concepts(i.e. their small ‘The City’ stores inside places like malls, that were usually the size of a Radio Shack, and/or not much bigger) that could’ve been better done by improving their older stores. Never exactly made it to a The City store before the old CC(not the online only company that a certain entrepreneur(or -s?) started by buying the domain name after CC’s liquidation ended.
I’m really loving your blog, as someone who grew up in the Chicago area, and seeing your posts about similar chains that are also common in my area too! Eventually I will start a WordPress blog on local retail topics(like this, Georgia Retail Memories/Sky City), but the only thing I’m hung up on is the name I will call my new blog, since my goal is to focus on other areas besides Chicago. (Milwaukee and Indianapolis will be areas I plan to cover, too)
-AM(Allan/Allan M on Labelscar)
#16 by Jason on February 5, 2010 - 8:08 am
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Does anybody else remember the store that used to be in the Best Buy location before Best Buy existed? None other than LaBelle’s! LaBelle’s was kind of a JCPenney’s type department store, they even put out a Xmas catalog. i remember buying an air rifle there and my parents had to give permission since I was only 14 or so. This was as recently as about 1987, they must have closed shortly afterward and Best Buy took over that location.
Also who can forget the absolute paradise that was Children’s Palace toy store! This is what was located in the Brooklyn Center Curcuit City location back in the 80′s. Possibly the greatest toy store ever! they had everything! The natural “high” I used to get as a child in this store is better than any drugs I have taken as an adult.
#17 by Tony B on March 11, 2010 - 12:37 am
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I actually got some good deals at this circuit city right before they closed. bought a 400 dollar camera lens for half price (and sold it on ebay) and a Sony digital picture frame for 60 dollars (retail price is 130 even at walmart)
I always kind of feel bad for these stores when they go under, if only just for the employees who are getting fired because the company couldn’t keep itself above water… usually it’s not the big stores though… not that circuit city surprised me
#18 by Donna on July 7, 2010 - 11:34 am
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I had a friend who worked there for a few months. She said that she left because CC regularly deducted sales commissions from her paycheck with no warning, pushed insurance plans even more than merchandise, and had sales meetings in which those with low insurance sales were insulted and laughed at, even thouth they had top merchandise sales. I came to visit her at the store once and ended up buying a boom box from her, which I still have. I asked her if she was going to try to sell me an insurance policy, and she just winked at me and said “nope.” A nearby employee heard our discussion and tried to sell me one as I left the building. I knew that CC would only last so long after that.