Scanned directly from my journal back in 2002, hence the spiral in the middle. This was either right before or right after Circuit City closed at Mercury Plaza, and when Barnes & Noble just opened at Coliseum Mall.
Now both of them are torn down and replaced. The Burlington Coat Factory at Mercury Plaza moved to the mall around 2003, and when the mall was torn down, it moved back to the ground the Mercury Plaza was back on.
Coliseum Mall went on to be the Peninsula Town Center.
After I took this pic as I was driving away this grandma and her grandchildren were walking their poodle to PetSmart and the poodle got on her hind legs and looked in the windows of the closed store. I couldn’t get my camera out in time. 
I bought my first DVD here in 2003. Strangers With Candy Season 1.
(I had a better post for this, but apparently WordPress or Firefox ate the end of it)
Oh, wow you haven’t lived until you’ve seen the Circuit City webpage from 1996.
Here is a screen cap in case that archive.org page doens’t work, which it doesn’t from time to time:
You guize, the store locator is totally done in Microsoft FrontPage. Now, FrontPage is fine for a personal webpage, or your Daily Show fan page, but for a company? Even in 1996? The generic “store locator” graphic is totally made in mid 1990’s colors.
I also like that the site has the new feature of sending things to Mexico.
(from my friend Kristin)
Commercial break includes:
-Montgomery Ward (with Scottie Pippen, notice how Scottie isn’t wearing an offical Bulls jersey). I think this was just a local spot for Illinois?
-Ford Escort (lol, I had the 2000 Ford Escort which looked similar to this one, thing died after six years, but yet Escorts that are 20 years are still on the road)
-Illinois lottery (I swear they repeat people’s names)
-Miller Lite (reminds me of the time I went bezerk when the power went out during the 1992 Olympics when I was 9, but without the beer)
This video is lol.
I think it was made 3-5 years ago when Staunton Mall went under the moniker “Colonial Mall” for a short while. I couldn’t watch it on Firefox for OSX, so I had to use Safari.
This is from when mom taped Troop Beverly Hills for me one night in January of 1992, I think.
Check out all the old Farm Freshes in the Central Fidelity Commercial! Now no Farm Freshes have banks…right? I know the bank in the Smithfield location closed down a few years back.
Also notice the other local ads. Is elephantsgalore still open? The only results I found were vague city search pages. However, it looks like The Paneling Factory is still open.
(I am not surprised. When I was shopping in the Newport News, VA (seen briefly in this photo of mine) location with my half sister this Christmas, I knew that was going to be my last time in there and it was sorta like when you’re saying goodbye to someone and they say they’ll stay in touch with you, but you know its not true)
Bankrupt Circuit City Stores Inc., the nation’s second-biggest consumer electronics retailer, said Friday it failed to find a buyer and will liquidate its 567 U.S. stores. The closures could send another 30,000 people into the ranks of the unemployed.
“This is the only possible path for our company,” James A. Marcum, acting chief executive, said in a statement. “We are extremely disappointed by this outcome.”
The company had been seeking a buyer or a deal to refinance its debt, but the hobbled credit market and consumer worries proved insurmountable.
The liquidation of Circuit City is the latest fallout from the worst holiday shopping season in four decases. People have slashed their spending since the financial meltdown in September as they worry about their job security and declining retirement funds.
Other recent casualties include KB Toys, which filed for bankruptcy in December and is liquidating stores. Department store chains Goody’s Family Clothing and Gottschalks Inc. both filed for bankruptcy this week — Goody’s plans to liquidate, while Gottschalks hopes to reorganize.
Industry experts expect more bad news in the coming months as spending likely will deteriorate further.
Circuit City said in court papers it has appointed Great American Group LLC, Hudson Capital Partners LLC, SB Capital Group LLC and Tiger Capital Group LLC as liquidators.
“Regrettably for the more than 30,000 employees of Circuit City and our loyal customers, we were unable to reach an agreement with our creditors and lenders,” Marcum said.
Shareholders are likely to receive nothing, as is typical in bankruptcy cases. It was unclear what would happen to the company’s 765 retail stores and dealer outlets in Canada.
“Very, very sad,” said Alan L. Wurtzel, the son of company founder Samuel S. Wurtzel, and the chief executive from 1972 to 1986, board chairman from 1986 to 1994 and vice chairman until 2001. “I feel particularly badly for the people are employed or until recently were employed.”
Wurtzel has previously said Circuit City didn’t take the threat of rival Best Buy Co. seriously enough and, at some points, were too focused on making a profit in the short term instead of building long-term value.
Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November as vendors started to restrict the flow of merchandise ahead of the busy holiday shopping season.
It had been exploring strategic alternatives since May, when it opened its books to Blockbuster Inc. The Dallas-based movie-rental chain made a takeover bid of more than $1 billion with plans to create a 9,300-store chain to sell electronic gadgets and rent movies and games. Blockbuster withdrew the bid in July because of market conditions.
Circuit City, which said it had $3.4 billion in assets and $2.32 billion in liabilities as of Aug. 31, said in its initial filings that it planned to emerge from court protection in the first half of this year.
Under court protection, Circuit City has broken 150 leases at locations where it no longer operates stores. The company already closed 155 stores in the U.S. in November and December.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Huennekens had given the company permission to liquidate if a buyout was not achieved. The company still needs final approval of a liquidation from the court.
The liquidation is the latest big blow to the nation’s malls, which have suffered from a rise in vacancies as a slew of chains from Mervyns LLC to Linens ‘N Things have liquidated. But analysts say that the demise of Circuit City, whose stores range in size from 20,000 to 25,000 square feet, will hurt the fortunes of mall operators even more.
“It will bring to market a glut of big box spaces across the country,” said John Bemis, head of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.’s retail leasing team. “It will have one of the largest impacts on big box real estate across the country.”
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Daily Press (Hampton Roads, VA)
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Va Pilot (Hampton Roads, VA)
Hampton Roads has five Circuit City stores: Janaf Shopping Center in Norfolk; the Greenbrier area in Chesapeake; Portsmouth Boulevard near Chesapeake Square Mall in Chesapeake; South Independence Boulevard near Town Center in Virginia Beach; and the Oyster Point area in Newport News.
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Dead Circuit City, Colonial Heights, VA.
I took this picture in December of 2007, and forgot to make an entry about it here. I don’t know how long its been closed.
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