Circuit City files Chapter 11

From the “not so much about gizmos as about where we get them” department:

High-profile North American electronics retailer Circuit City, a chain nearly as ubiquitous in the US as Best Buy, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This comes a week after the company announced that it was closing 155 stores as part of an effort to improve its cash position going into the holiday retail season. This, in turn, was presumably spurred at least in part by the New York Stock Exchange’s notification to Circuit City on Oct. 30 that its stock no longer meets the NYSE’s requirements for listing.

The holiday season’s expected to be brutal, especially for retailers in Circuit City’s line, which is no real surprise. They’re basically toy stores for grown-ups, and people don’t buy many toys when they’re either out of work or worried that they soon will be (in short, when the sound of the US economy collapsing is audible in Buenos Aires).

Here’s a list of the stores to be closed. On the plus side for those of you who do have some cash to spend on gizmos this Christmas, chances are they’ll be offering some interesting liquidation deals at those stores, especially given that they’ll be liquidating during the run-up to Black Friday.