Well, I figured this would happen, and now it’s been announced that Circuit City will liquidate its remaining stores. That includes the one that I go to almost weekly, that is about four miles from my house.
I’m left with…
Best Buy. O Joy. Let me do my happy dance now. NOT. Best Buy just sold me a power adapter for a notebook for $90 on New Year’s Eve. The same adapter that, if I’d had time to order online, would have cost about $20. And could have been gotten from Circuit City for about $40.
I am not a happy camper. We really have no more choices to buy technology locally. CompUSA died a horrible death, and previous larger stores have all crashed and burned. I can get some things at the Office Max or Office Depot, but that’s limited. There are a few smaller resellers around, but they are pricey and their stock is extremely limited. And I don’t mind buying most of my technology online, but the value of the local store was the ability to pick up an emergency item, like a power adapter.
What’s scary is I live in a major metropolitan area. How can we be losing so many choices, heck, ANY choices we have in technology products? It’s frightening to think I’ll never get to buy any more technology that I can touch and feel first. I’ll have to take the chance and order it online and hope it is what I think it is, and will do what it’s supposed to do, and not mind waiting a week or two to get it.
Hard to do when you have a laptop with no power adapter and all of your presentation files locked within it, along with all of your contact information and maps and I could go on and on. Where can I go for on-hands technology purchases when all of the technology stores are closing?
Very sad situation indeed, I feel bad for the employees who are losing their jobs. I think Circuit City just didn’t get it. I’m lucky I have a choice of Fry’s, Micro Center, Best Buy as well as several excellent small independent shops in my area. I occasionally went in Circuit City and the layout of the store just didn’t work. They had a poor choice of BYO parts and those they did have were overpriced. I seldom made a purchase there.
I thought they might try a different approach after they went into chapter 13? in November, but they just kept doing the same thing. I just hope Micro Center is doing fine, they have very good help and a great selection of computer components and parts.
Don’t look at me, i can remember when Radio Shack wasn’t a byword for cheap crap and you actually had to have a class 1 ham license to work there