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Is Circuit City in danger?

According to a recent report from Ina Fried, Circuit City is having quite a bit of trouble turning a profit and making something out of its business.

Fried reports that the big box retailer will post another loss for its fourth quarter (its busiest) after a staggering $208 million loss over the past quarter. Even worse, the company's stock price is floundering at just $4.75 and once it posts these losses, look for that to tank even further.

Of course, the story doesn't quite end there. Circuit City's major competitor -- Best Buy -- is enjoying a $52.48 stock price and a $228 million profit last quarter alone. Amazingly, Best Buy posted a $1.377 billion profit over the 2007 fiscal year, while Circuit City is poised to lose about $200 million during its own year.

And while Circuit City is still a major retailer with about $12 billion in revenue, it can't sustain these kind of losses if it wants to even have a fighting chance to stand up to the Best Buy juggernaut. After all, take a look at CompUSA and try to tell me Best Buy isn't capable of outright destruction of any and all opponents.

It may happen sometime down the road, but trust me, if Circuit City doesn't change its ways, look for it to be just another victim of Best Buy.… Read more

Say bye-bye to link buys

With Google's recent crackdown on Web sites the sell PageRank--which really means selling links--a new era has begun for backlink building. In Google's eyes, links coming into a given Web site from external, quality sites increases that site's PageRank, and therefore its standing in the search engine's eyes. Until recently, there were many sites that had quality in Google's eyes (in other words, they had great PageRank) and also sold links. Anyone could get a piece of that good PR for a price.

Google is now actively lowering the PageRank of sites that deal in … Read more

Say goodbye to CompUSA

Engadget recently posted a rumor claiming a Best Buy memo was being circulated within the company claiming it has on authority (but not "verified) that CompUSA's holiday revenue has been cut in half this year and liquidators are being called in to shutter the rest of the company's stores.

Now, it should be mentioned that CompUSA has already shut down about 128 stores with the help of those same liquidators and ironically, that shut down occurred in February of this year -- the same month current stores are expected to close next year.

But after reading the rumor, which has yet to be substantiated in any way, I thought I would dig a little deeper to find out exactly what's going on with CompUSA and whether or not there is any financial backing to this claim. And while everyone already knows the company is in dire financial straits, the truth may surprise you.

Simply put, CompUSA is on the way out and by the end of February, look for empty parking lots and gutted stores.… Read more

Dell to sell PCs at Best Buy

This blog was updated at 10:30 a.m.

Beginning in the next few weeks, Dell notebooks and desktops will be for sale at Best Buy, the companies announced Thursday.

Several models of XPS and Inspiron PCs will be available at 900 Best Buy locations, including the XPS M1330 in white, the Inspiron 1521 in blue and black, the Inspiron 1420 in black, and the all-in-one XPS One desktop. Other available desktops will be the Inspiron 530, 531, and 531s. More models and colors will be added in the next few months, Dell said.

This is a huge step for … Read more

Stocking stuffers for the 21+ crowd: Booze gift cards

This post was updated at 1:04 PM PT to clarify the launch date of the Drink Card program.

Forget your run-of-the-mill Best Buy and Barnes & Noble gift cards. I know more than a few people who think a gift card that you could redeem for whiskey sours or Stella Artois would make a way better stocking stuffer.

Meet the "Drink Card" from BuyYourFriendADrink.com (BYFAD). The ambitious little start-up allows you to pay a dollar amount by credit card that a friend can then redeem for a drink at a participating bar by showing a text … Read more

Black Friday showdown: Best Buy vs. Circuit City

My partner and I decided to brave the Black Friday crowds and got up at 6 a.m. to do some bargain hunting.

We planned to head to Circuit City first, given that its day-after-Thanksgiving sale had the most things we wanted. When we arrived at the suburban Los Angeles store--nearly two hours after the store had opened--there was a long line of people just waiting to get in the store.

Figuring that the most-sought-after items were likely gone anyway and that the line might be shorter in a few hours, we headed to the nearby Best Buy in Sherman … Read more

Attention home theater shoppers: Think twice before buying a center channel speaker!

First things first--center channel speakers do one thing really well--they anchor dialog to the screen for listeners sitting over to the left or right sides of home theaters. So if your family or friends watch movies together, I'd definitely recommend using a center channel speaker.

But for one or two people sitting directly in front of their TV a center isn't necessary, and almost always sounds less good than the left and right speakers. Center speakers tend to sound boxy, so Denzel Washington sounds like he's in a box. Ditch the center and your A/V receiver … Read more

Beware Black Friday laptop deals

Editor's Note: If you've stumbled across this page looking for the latest on Black Friday laptop deals, we've rated many of the 2009 Black Friday bargains here.

Like opening weekend box office numbers to Hollywood bean-counters, the weekend shopping extravaganza known as Black Friday is read as tea leaves for the rest of the holiday shopping season (even though these initial impressions are not as accurate as they used to be).

Besides door-busting deals on big-screen TVs and digital cameras, one of the most-watched categories is laptops, where eager bargain hunters are looking for a sub-$500 … Read more