Buh-bye, Circuit City

I can't say this surprises me, but according to a PDF available from Circuit City themselves, the 155 stores that they're closing no later than the end of the year include all of the Atlanta area stores. The closest store staying open -- for now, I guess I should add -- is in Rome.

I seem to recall that some culling of the home-electronics herd was expected this Christmas, due to widespread availability of HD televisions at a much lower price point than expected.

What's appropriate?

BestBuy Heath Ledger Memorial
Originally uploaded by DLJenningsII

The Consumerist | Best Takes In-Store Display Cashing In On Heath Ledger's Death Very Seriously
Hours after actor Heath Ledger's death, a Best Buy store already had a table set up with his DVDs on sale, urging customers to "remember a great actor through his great performances."

The user comments are the most entertaining part of this story. If you've never worked in retail (as it's obvious many of these people have not), this display raises an issue you should think about.

This particular tempest has two components:

Is it appropriate for the retailer to create a display collecting an actor's work when he dies?

Well, yes, of course. No one would have denied the suitability of such a display for, say, Michael Caine, or Sean Connery, or Clint Eastwood, on such faraway day as any of them meets his maker. Public figures die all the time. I would expect retailers to be ready for it.

Does this display in particular look cheap, tacky and thrown-together?

Boy, does it ever. I would hate to think that Best Buy's marketing layout is so rigidly planned that there's no flexibility in it to replace an end-cap (one of those displays at the end of the aisle) with something of indisputably timely interest should events dictate it. The store should have a stack of blank printer compatible signage, and a computer with the chain's chosen display fonts installed.

What am I saying? All that would require thought. I've shopped at Best Buy. I've talked to the people who work there. This fan-club bake-sale-esque table is probably the best they can do.

An icon is gone

Hydrox cookie Originally uploaded by milatchi

It may say something about the dedication inspired in generations of sweet-toothed Americans that, although Sunshine / Keebler / Kellogg stopped making Hydrox cookies in 2003, its loyal fans are only just now beginning to notice that they can't find one anywhere.

WSJ | The Hydrox Cookie Is Dead, and Fans Won't Get Over It
Robert Fliegel was craving a Hydrox. The 52-year-old computer consultant says he always liked the way the chocolate sandwich cookie, which he found crisper than Oreos, "stood up to the milk" when dunked.

But Mr. Fliegel, who used to be able to devour an entire package of the crème-filled biscuits in a sitting, couldn't find them in any stores near his East Stroudsburg, Pa., home.

Only when he went online a few months ago to try to order some did he learn the truth: Hydrox is dead.

In 2003, without warning or announcement, Kellogg Co. killed off the cookie -- by then rechristened Droxies -- after failing to gain ground against the dominant Oreo, one of the country's best-selling snack foods.

I'm thinking that if they really were as enormous as that photograph makes them look, they might still be around.

Old W. K. Kellogg must be spinning to know that "his" health-food company now owns Keebler.

Best Buy Acquires Speakeasy

Huh? Did I read that right? The internet service provider with possibly the best reputation of any ISP, better in fact than most computer manufacturers I could name, is being acquired by the retailer with the second most ignorant sales force on the planet? (CompUSA holds the title, but they're closing stores left and right and not likely to spread their seed.)

Bad Headline, Good News

Bookstore assailant gets shelved
CARLISLE -- When a would-be robber walked into Erin Moul's used-book store and demanded that she open the cash register, she told him, "no."
When the man persisted on Tuesday, she showed him why she wasn't going to open it -- the 9mm pistol she pulled from her purse.

This is the kind of encounter that simply doesn't get counted when the gun control crowd is advocating the abolition of the second amendment.

If you should happen to find yourself in Cover to Cover Books in Carlisle PA, buy one. Buy several. Good deeds should be rewarded.