Circuit City's Home Entertainment: Large Screen Flat-Panel TV May Be The Solution

I am about to enter this Circuit City store in California. I am looking for an iPod for my husband. I want to buy an iRiver MP3 Player for my son. After all, this year, MP3 Media Players are what is on everybody's gift list. I can clearly remember the small Circuit City Store that I used to shop at with my parents. This one is not small. The company had realized that its main competitors were going for more floor space. This store is one of the new stores that displays a lot of electronics products. In the world of consumer electronics resellers, things have changed. Best-Buy, Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Dell, Radioshack, Target, Sears, CompUSA, Costco and SAM's Club have been juggling for position.

In a strange way, Circuit City which used to be the leader of the consumer electronics market has to contend for a third place right now. Best-Buy is the top dog. Even Wal-Mart which is determined to get a piece of the lucrative warranty services and electronics market appears to have done much better. The once-No.1 chain of consumer electronics stores, Circuit City has to carve or create new niches. It has to refurbish its images. While the sales of digital cameras such as Canon, Kodak, Sony, Nikon, Fuji and other brands, laptop computers and desktop computers may be used to draw customers in, the company is banking its resources on the more expensive and sophisticated items such as Advanced TVs which coincidentally are dropping in price. The low prices offered on the electronic products will not hurt consumers who are searching for great deals. Circuit City officials hope that more customers will want to invest in the flat-panel TVs, want to buy installation services, accessories and furniture. All of this change is part of the leadership of Mr. Philip J. Schoonover who is a former Best-Buy official.

It will be interesting to see how he is going to turn this company around. If he does succeed, Circuit City may reclaim the top position. If Wal-Mart gets on top, then at least Circuit City may have to fight Best Buy for the second spot. Until then, I will continue to shop at Best Buy and Circuit City. I still have to wait and see what type of electronic brands Wal-Mart is carrying.