Take a good look at both stores: Best Buy and Circuit City. For many years both were extremely successful electronics stores. Despite the economy Best Buy has continued to grow while Circuit City ultimately  closed all their retail stores in March of 2009. Why did Circuit City fail while Best Buy succeed? Let’s dig in.

Circuit City
Circuit City was founded as a television store by Samuel Wurtzel in 1949. They were highly successful in the 1970′s because they pioneered the electronics superstore format. They went on an acquiring rampage throughout the 70′s and early 80′s and had steady growth. Wikipedia explains that in the late 80′s and early 90′s Circuit City was known for its exceptional service, going so far as to have many of its staff factory-trained. Its slogan at that time was “Welcome to Circuit City, Where Service Is State of the Art.”

If Circuit City was doing so well why did they go bankrupt? In this Time article analyst David Schick says that “Circuit City was incredibly successful in the 1980s and 1990s, but they never changed after that.” He goes on to say that if Circuit City had changed with the times like Best Buy they might have survived.

Circuit City rode their wave of success in the 80′s and 90′s and became totally complacent. While other retailers were buying prime real estate for their customers Circuit City was not. While other companies like Sears continued to sell appliances Circuit City stopped selling appliances. While Best Buy joined forces with thriving companies like Apple computer and improved their Web presence Circuit City was passive. They actually did do something in 2007 when they laid off their highest paid commission employees and replaced them with untrained cheaper workers. Bad move! It was completely disastrous and totally destroyed their high quality customer service. At that time anyone could punch in “Circuit City complaints” in Google and bring up hundreds of thousands of results. Things continued to spiral as they were found to have violated state labor laws, were sued, and the  economy soured. By November of 2008 it was curtains when they filed for Bankruptcy.

The final day of operations for Circuit City brick and mortar stores was March 8, 2009. Besides retail auto dealerships, Circuit City closed more retail locations in the U.S. than any other retail chain in 2009.

Best Buy
In contrast Best Buy’s success has been because they’ve evolved. They were founded by Richard M Schultze in 1966 and have steadily grown ever since. Just look at this Wikipedia page of their history and see their growth for yourself. I’ve only selected some of the major highlights from that page:

• 1985 – Best Buy (symbol BBY) debuts on the New York Stock Exchange^[17] with an offering of 8.3 million shares
• 1990 – Best Buy eliminates commissions for standalone sales people, but retains bonuses for management and supervisors
• 1992 – Best Buy hits the $1 billion mark in annual revenues
• 1997 – Best Buy becomes the first national retailer to sell DVD hardware and software.
• 2000 – Best Buy enters the online retailing business by launching Bestbuy.com; Best Buy acquires Magnolia Hi-Fi, a retailer of high-end consumer electronics;^[17] music Compact Cassettes are removed from most stores
• 2002 – Brad Anderson succeeds Schulze as Best Buy’s CEO; the company acquires Geek Squad, a 24-hour computer support taskforce; first Canadian Best Buy store opens in Markham, Ontario
• 2003 – U.S. Best Buy stores surpass the 600 mark. The company opens its first global sourcing office in Shanghai; the corporate offices are consolidated in one headquarters campus; Best Buy divests itself of Musicland;^[17] the company begins to segment their stores, which is considered a major part of the company’s “customer centricity” transformation; the Reward Zone loyalty program is introduced in the U.S.
• 2004 – Geek Squad precincts are opened in every Best Buy store nationwide, offering in-store service during store business hours
• 2007 – On January 26, 2007, the first Best Buy in China had its grand opening – touted as the largest Best Buy in existence. In March, Best Buy announced plans to purchase Seattle, WA basedSpeakeasy, Inc., a broadband and VOIP services provider.^[20] Best Buy becomes the first major retailer to exit the analog television market, carrying only digital products that became mandatory in June 2009 by the FCC.^[21]
• 2008 – Best Buy opens 1,000th physical store on October 24, this store located within the Mall of America in Bloomington,_Minnesota opened in August 2008.^{[citation needed]}
• 2009 – Best Buy Canada in Partnership with Carphone warehouse opens a Best Buy Mobile “Store Within a Store” at all Best Buy locations.^[29] During October 2009, the website BestBuy.com had a facelift. The font used in the site was changed to the font seen in the alternative logo that appeared in 2008. In November, Best Buy announced plans to team with Roxio CinemaNow to launch an on-demand movie download service that will allow customers to pipe Hollywood hits into any device sold by Best Buy that connects to the internet. This currently^[when?] unnamed service is expected to be available in early 2010. Once available, consumers will be able to buy or view more than 20,000 of CinemaNow’s movie and television titles.^[30] On 19 December, the first Best Buy in Turkey opened inİzmir.^[31]
• 2010 Best Buy opens its first UK store in Thurrock, Essex. New locations have already been announced in Aintree in Liverpool, Hedge End in Southampton and Merry Hill, Dudley. Coinciding with their first store launch, Best Buy also launched their Customer engagement program for UK called as My Best Buy.

It’s easy to see that Best Buy thrives itself on innovation! While Circuit City became lazy in their success Best Buy continued to steadily grow by expanding into new markets, trying new ideas, listening to the customer, and relentlessly moving onward. This BNet article explains that Best Buy evaluates their employees from their customers! Wow. Imagine that. Best Buy grades their workers solely on what customers think of them.

Best Buy: Our Mission this July
This July at BuyaPC.org we’re going to take a close look at Best Buy’s most successful desktops, laptops, and netbooks. We’re going to show you the bottom line why each machine is successful and the particular reasons for why you’d buy an item. We’re going to drill down into the customer reviews and give you the overall buyer synopsis. When available we’ll link you to the direct YouTube or CNet Video so you can see the machine in action. Also, since they’re a major retailer, if you have a local store you can there and try out systems yourself!

It’s going to be a great month swimming around in the Best Buy Bubble. We hope you enjoy!

-Jeremy Ashburn

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