So I am playing with an odd little computer device that Circuit City actually sold exclusively called an “i-Opener”. It’s just one of those WebTV/Netpliance things. I actually found it at Goodwill for 10 bucks, so I thought “What the hell.”  Upon plugging it in and starting it up, it dials out to an ISP. (Dialup, I know!)

So once online, there is a little map of preset websites.  Under Electronics we have “Netpliance,” the company that made the little device (now defunct). We have Amazon, some other web pages that doesn’t exist, and Circuit City.  I giggle to myself that over half the presets don’t work anymore… But when I click on Circuit City, I am not greeted by the farewell message, the page actually loads! I try to brush it off  that the little i-Opener has just cached the page before it’s plug was pulled, but there are recent items for sale! I immediately move over to my real computer and double check the page:  Yep! It’s there!

So Circuit City is back… Sort of.  The name has been bought by Systemax Inc., who are also owners of TigerDirect and CompUSA’s online retail work. With them already owning CompUSA and TigerDirect I’m wondering if they’ll all be selling essentially the same things? A quick look at all three sites came up with the same merchandise, same prices… even the same basic web layout and the charming little “Click Here to Show Lower PRICE!” gimmick.

So… While it’s kind of nice to see Circuit City back, that hope faded once I saw it wasn’t a miraculous rise from the grave, and more of a shambling zombie wanting to eat my brains.

[Source: http://www.circuitcity.com]

Tags: circuit City, CompUSA, Stephen Hawking, Systemax, Zombie

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 24th, 2009 at 5:58 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.