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RICHMOND, VA.- Once upon a time, before the distractions of CarMax and Divx, before it de-commissioned its sales force, before it dropped appliances, before Best Buy went corporate, before it lost its way - Circuit City was the CE specialty chain supreme.
But bad lease deals, outdated locations and aging infrastructure eventually took their toll. All boats rise with the tide, but when flat-panel prices plummeted and the economy went south, so too did Circuit's fortunes. Firing the company's highest paid but most experienced sales clerks saved money in the short term, but only hastened the inevitable.
What follows is a brief history of the iconic chain that created the big-box CE format and brought high-technology to the masses.
1949 : Samuel S. Wurtzel opens the...