Circuit City stores closing by Sunday, ahead of schedule

All Circuit City stores will shut down for good by Sunday night, putting an end to what once was the nation’s second-largest consumer electronics retailer, a company spokesman said.

Going-out-of-business sales have been conducted since mid-January at the chain’s 567 U.S. stores by a group of liquidators selling off Circuit City’s remaining $1.7 billion worth of inventory at reduced prices.

The stores were to close by late March, but sales have gone quicker than expected.

“Consumers reacted to the top-quality product that they had, and the prices we were able to sell it at, and we’re basically running out of inventory a week early,“ said Scott Carpenter, vice president for Great American Group LLC, which has been managing Circuit City Stores Inc.‘s going-out-of-business sales.

After it failed to find a buyer or secure refinancing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Henrico-based Circuit City announced in January that it would liquidate its remaining 567 U.S. stores and lay off about 34,000 employees.

A small staff will remain at the corporate office after Sunday to finish winding down the company.

Circuit City is guaranteed to receive at least 70 percent of the proceeds from the liquidation sales, but the final figure may exceed that amount, according to an agreement filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Earlier this week, the company announced that telecommunications company Bell Canada is buying a chain of 750 The Source electronics stores across Canada operated by Circuit City’s InterTAN subsidiary. Terms of the sale, which is expected to close in the third quarter, were not disclosed.

To help pay down its debt, the company also has sold pallets of defective inventory, its two corporate jets and the furniture, fixtures and equipment from its headquarters and distribution and service centers over the last month.