Circuit City

### Founded

January 1, 1949; 74 years ago (as Wards Company)Richmond, Virginia, U.S.January 1, 1984; 39 years ago (as Circuit City)

### Subsidiaries

Circuit City Express
The Source by Circuit City
Circuit City Mobile

**Circuit City** is an American dealer and retailer in brand-name consumer electronics, personal computers, and entertainment software.

Circuit City operates superstores and locations in the USA, American territories, and the District of Columbia. Circuit City Superstores range in size from 15,000 to 45,000 square feet (1400 to 4000 m²) and offer a large selection of brand-name consumer electronics, personal computers, and entertainment software.

Circuit City also has retail stores and dealer outlets in Canada. Circuit City's locations in Canada are operated by InterTAN Canada Ltd which Circuit City acquired on May 19, 2004. InterTAN runs The Source by Circuit City (formerly RadioShack) chain in Canada (some of them now called La Source in Quebec).

## History

### Early history and growth

In early 1949 Wurtzel was on vacation in Richmond, Virginia when, while at a local barber shop, he was witness to the start of television in the South. Imagining the opportunities, in late 1949, he moved his family to Richmond and opened the first Wards Company retail store. Later, Abraham L. Hecht joined him as a partner in the business.

By 1959, Wards Company operated four television and home appliance stores in Richmond. The company continued to grow and acquired stores in other locations including Albany, New York; Mobile, Alabama; Washington, D.C.; and Costa Mesa, California. During the 1970s and early 1980s, it also sold mail-order under the name "Dixie Hi Fi", advertising in hi-fi magazines. Wards experimented with several retail formats in Richmond, including smaller mall outlets branded "Sight-n-Sound" and "Circuit City".

Samuel Wurtzel served as president of the company until 1970 and remained the chairman until 1984. His son, Alan, became CEO of Wards in 1972 and initially focused on digesting the acquisitions and shedding unprofitable operations. After developing a long range plan for the company in 1973, construction began on a distribution center and new corporate offices building at 2040 Thalbro Street (named after Thalhimer Bros. Department Store) in Richmond, Virginia and in the extra space, "Wards Loading Dock", its first warehouse showroom opened in 1974. The large-format store was very popular with customers. The company continued to expand with the new format modeled after "Wards Loading Dock" and renamed it Circuit City Superstore in 1981.
Original Circuit City logo, used from 1984 to 1989.
The second Circuit City logo, used from 1989 to 2000. (continued to be used at some stores until 2009 liquidation)
Third and final Circuit City logo, used from 2001 until its liquidation in 2009. (it was also used for the revival throughout its entire run until it shut down in 2012. A slightly modified version of this logo is used for the second revival.)
Wards Company officially changed its name to Circuit City and became listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1984. One of the company's early slogans was "Circuit City — Where the Streets are Paved with Bargains". The company, which had leased floor space from the Zodys discount stores as well as other department stores, began acquiring retail stores and turning them into Circuit City Superstores. The first of these replacements occurred in Knoxville, Tennessee; Charleston, South Carolina; and Hampton, Virginia.

In 1981, Circuit City entered the New York City market by acquiring the six remaining stores of the bankrupt Lafayette Radio chain. They operated the stores under the "Lafayette/Circuit City" name and expanded to 15 locations, but the stores were not profitable and were closed in 1986 after spending US$20 million to enter the market.

In 1985, Circuit City entered the Los Angeles market by opening seven Superstore locations in former The Akron discount stores. The next year, Circuit City opened five more Superstores in the market and closed the licensed electronics and appliance departments it operated in Zodys stores. The new stores featured the "red tower" entrance that ultimately became a trademark of the company. The towers were designed to make the store more identifiable to drivers among the endless stores and shopping centers in Los Angeles.

In 1988, the company began constructing the new "plug" design Superstore formats. During this era, Circuit City became known for its exceptional service, going so far as to have many of its staff factory-trained. Its slogan, likewise, was "Welcome to Circuit City, Where Service Is State of the Art". Later, Circuit City returned to New York City opening a 40,000 sq ft (3,700 m2) superstore in Union Square, the first of two planned Manhattan locations.

### 2000s

By 2000, many Circuit City stores were out of date and in bad locations, unable to compete with newer Best Buy stores. In 2000, Circuit City abandoned the large appliance business to make space for more small electronics. This was controversial because in the previous year Circuit City was the second largest appliance retailer in the United States, behind only Sears. The company had earned nearly US$1.6 billion in sales revenue from large appliances in 1999. However, executives were concerned about the competition from Home Depot and Lowe's and believed there would be big savings in warehouse storage and delivery costs if they quit the large appliance business. It was later realized that Circuit City thus missed out on the residential housing boom of the mid-2000s, which saw a dramatic rise in new-appliance sales.

Every Superstore was retrofitted after the exit from the large-appliance business, using the space for an expanded self-serve computer accessory and software selection. Stores at the time sold only PlayStation games under an exclusive agreement with Sony. The new space allowed them to sell Nintendo, Sega, and eventually Xbox games after the agreement ended. Music and movie sales had been added to most stores years before, but the extra space allowed the selection to be added to smaller stores. The retrofitting project alone cost the company US$1.5 billion.

Beginning in 2000, Circuit City moved away from the Superstore showroom format and introduced a new more self-service "Big Box" format called "Horizon." The new format offered better product adjacencies, shopping carts, a front checkout area, and better lighting and signs. The warehouse area was reduced in size since more products were placed on the sales floor. All new stores were built using this new format with some older Superstores receiving full remodels to this new format.

In 2003, Circuit City converted to a single hourly pay structure in all stores, eliminating commissioned sales. Many previously commissioned sales associates were offered new positions as hourly "product specialists", while 3,900 salespeople were laid off, saving the company about $130 million per year. Many company insiders later revealed that they thought this was the most influential company decision that would ultimately lead to its demise.

In 2004, with the expansion of the wireless phone market, Circuit City partnered with Verizon Wireless to include full-service Verizon Wireless sales and service centers in each Superstore. These locations were owned and staffed by Verizon Wireless. Circuit City stopped selling wireless phones with all other carriers due to the agreement.

In April 2004, Circuit City announced its purchase of Canadian retailer InterTAN. Circuit City paid approximately US$284 million for InterTAN's 980 stores, which operated in Canada under the trade names RadioShack, Rogers Plus, and Battery Plus. Chairman and CEO Alan McCollough believed these existing small-format stores provided an easy entry into Canada, a country where Best Buy had been expanding. RadioShack sued InterTan in April 2004 over the branding use of RadioShack in Canada. Circuit City lost the lawsuit and all Canadian locations were renamed The Source by Circuit City in 2005. These stores were sold to Bell Canada and continue to operate.
Circuit City's most recent store format nicknamed "The City", used from 2008 to 2009.
In 2007, a new 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) store format was introduced as "The City" and designed to eliminate previously under-utilized space. The smaller format gave the company greater flexibility to enter new markets and backfill existing ones. Most new store openings in 2008 used this new store format.

### 2010s

In 2011, Circuit City phased out "The City" moniker due to consumer confusion.