I needed to get out of the house today, and decided to take a drive to Tustin. Why Tustin you may ask? Because that is the closest Circuit City I could find. First Comp-USA, then The Good Guys, now knows Circuit City is going out of business... and I wanted to see the deals. I had heard that everything was on sale from 30-50% off, and thought I might be able to pick up some sweet items at good prices... Boy was I wrong!

Upon entry to the store, I was immediately hit with a wave of regret. The store looked like an earthquake had hit it about a week before. Gone were the amply-stocked shelves, brimming with fine electronic equipment and accessories. In their place were dozens of empty shelves, lonely clam-shelled products hanging solo from mislabeled hooks. What were once 8 aisles of hit CDs and DVDs has beend reduced to about an aisle and a half of close-outs, no-names and Big Momma's House 2. All that is left are open boxes of accessories, little-known titles and floor model TVs, stereos and speakers. Many of the the boxes of smaller products and accessories were open, strewn about hap-hazardly. The employees all had these dejected looks on their faces. All this was to be expected.

What really came as a surprise to me were the prices... they were NOT very good at all! Plasma, DLP and LCD TVs (floor models, open boxes) were "on sale" for 30% off, but those prices were just about what their list prices on line were - new! I looked at a pair of Sony Mdr-As50G headphones. They were 50% off, and STILL came out more expensive than their online counterparts (see link).

And there lies the issue. Everyone credits stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart for busting CC, but I submit that online sales are the primary reason. Keeping in mind that the entire consumer electronics sector fell by 26% in 2008, online electronic sales fell only 5% in the same period (comscore report Jan.2, 2008). Online, consumers can find a much wider selection of products and marketplaces, not to mention product research and reviews. The only drawback is paying for/waiting for shipping, but that is easy to get over once people realize how much they are actually saving. With the reduced overhead of an online store, they can keep the prices lower. And now, with increased consumer price sensitivity due to the economy, (we're in a recession, you know), look for those people who continued to patronize brick-and-mortar because they liked the idea of getting what they want right away or because they were not yet comfortable with online purchases to begin to shift their purchasing patterns more online.

Personally, I don't remember the last time I bought any electronics at a brick-and-mortar store, and with my little Circuit City pricing experiment, I don't know the next time I will.