It’s not like Q2 2007 was anything to write home about. It wasn’t – consumer electronics retailer Circuit City lost $62.8M back then. But this time, the loss approached almost four times that amount, digging down to minus $239.2M and leaving the company scrambling for answers. It also withdrew its guidance for 2009. Execs blamed weak brand position, competition and poor store traffic for the poor performance. Flat screen TV sales were up a bit, and the company did pull in some revenue selling ditigal-to-analog converter boxes, but neither category was strong enough to offset other problem areas.
RBR/TVBR observation: At the moment Circuit City is having its clock cleaned by Best Buy, which as many of you will remember, did not opt to slice the cream of its sales crop right off the top of its personnel roster in a cost-saving move. It certainly doesn’t help that serious economic woes have consumers watching their wallets just when we hoped many would be in the market for a new television, or perhaps an interoperable satellite/HD receiver (as if one existed). We don’t know if the ill-effects of the staffing decision are still a prime factor in the company’s troublesome economic situation, but the move certainly opened a hole for Best Buy which it seems to be exploiting to this day.
