Over the weekend, GamePolitics reported that giant electronics retailer Circuit City has recently had all of their orders with Sony cancelled. Apparently Sony was concerned that Circuit City would simply be unable to pay the bills, and did not want to risk sending the beginnings of holiday orders to a deadbeat store. The theory then went that if Sony was wary of Circuit City's ability to pay up, it could spell the beginning of the end for the company, as other manufacturers would become equally as leery of Circuit City's liquidity. Well, it looks like things are as bad as the doomsayers predicted.

GamePolitics is reporting (via Engadget) that, although there are no more official announcements of suppliers cancelling orders, Circuit City has announced that they will be closing 155 of their retail outlets.

From Engadget:

 

Details are sketchy, but it seems that the company's traditional "holiday kickoff" meeting was actually a "holiday layoff" discussion instead. Apparently, a full list of store locations getting the axe will be revealed.

 

The closings are set to begin in the Midwest. While Circuit City hopes this move will be enough to turn the company's profit margins around, not everyone is as convinced.

From Gizmodo:

 

One of the [Circuit City] store directors... is quoted as saying that "we should have done this 10 years ago". The source points out that Circuit City is trying to refocus on the customer: "They are really stressing to us that we must have better customer service than before because they want us to win back our customers".

 

No word on which stores will be closing, but we'll let you know as soon as we find out.

UPDATE: Here's the list of stores that are closing. Click on any of the pages for a closer look.

 

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