Bankrupt retailer Circuit City has filed a motion in bankruptcy court to receive permission to sell all remaining stock at its 567 remaining stores and begin a complete liquidation of all assets starting on Saturday January 17th with the liquidation to be complete by March 31st, which marks the end of the 1st quarter.
Circuit City was at one point courting three potential buyers for the troubled retailer after thier bankruptcy filing last year, but with no buyer surfacing the company was forced to liquidate in order to satisfy its obligations with four of its largest creditors. The website and callcenters will be shutdown after January 18th, but giftcards will be redeemable until the stores shut down for good.
The liquidation is expected to affect a total of 34,000 employees across the entire company, with employees who are and were laid off earlier receiving pay and benefits for the 60-day period beginning Friday, with those that remain until the shutdown receiving pay and benefits as well.
The bankruptcy will also not affect the Canadian chain of stores known as The Source by Circuit City with 765 retail stores and dealer outlets across Canada with 3,000 workers at last count. The liquidation does affect Verizon Wireless, as the carrier served as the exclusive wireless sales partner for the retailer, with kiosks in most freestanding and mall locations, with no word on how many dealers are affected.
All is not lost for Circuit City, as they may follow in the footsteps of TigerDirect owned CompUSA, where few retail locations are opened in selected markets, with an online store serving as the anchor, since the company’s web-based sales are worth about $1 billion according to Growth Ventures Group CEO Love Goel.
