Retail Casualty: Circuit City

This one hits at home.  I am a native Richmonder and have lived in the area all of my life.  I have friends who work or have worked for the company.  It’s HQ was here.  CarMax started here (CarMax was owned by Circuit City, but was spun off years ago.)  Circuit City is probably one of last national retailers to have called Richmond home.  Best Products closed up many years ago.  Thalhimer’s and Miller and Rhodes-not quite national, but they had stores in several other states, were bought up and are no longer around.

Circuit City filed for bankruptcy protection back in November of 2008.  The holiday buying season did not do much for Circuit City’s bottom line.  The remaining 567 stores will be liquidated and thirty thousand people will lose their jobs.  The company had hoped that a buyer would be found for the company, but none came forward.

Circuit City began life as Wards Company in Richmond, Virginia in 1949.  The company was founded by Samuel Wurtzel.  During the 1950’s, the company expanded and, by 1959, there were four stores in the Richmond area.  From that time through the 1980’s, the company tried many formats and operated stores under several names, including 'Wards Loading Dock, Sight N Sound and, of course, Circuit City.  The Loading Dock was the company’s first large format store.  That format was the more successful and customers also liked the Circuit City name, which became the company name in 1984 when it began trading on the stock exchange.  By 1990, the chain was a significant national chain.  It entered New York by acquiring the remnants of Lafeyette Radio. 

It entered the banking world by founding the First North American National Bank, which it sold to Chase Bank in 2004.

Circuit City’s biggest problem was, of course, Best Buy.  Circuit City really did not anticipate the emergence of Best Buy and, unfortunately, they are paying for that mistake now.  Other factors include the big box warehouse stores and the internet.  Circuit City was just too slow in trying to catch up and, sadly, never really offered anything to make them standout.  They could not compete in price and, over the years, developed a poor reputation in the customer service department.  I can remember many times where I either needed help and could not get any, was swamped by sales people when I did not need them or, get this, was made to wait or just plane ignored when the attractive woman JUST came in the area.  Happened many times. 

Admittedly, I am part of the reason they are going under.  I pretty much stopped shopping there years ago, for the very reasons mentioned above.  When Best Buy opened a store right across from the Circuit City I frequented, I was unimpressed and continued to shop the City.  However, about six months later, I went to Circuit City to buy a computer.  The service was terrible.  They made me so mad, I went across the street and bought one at Best Buy.  I’ve been shopping there since.  Oh, I still went to Circuit City, when they had a sale or had something I could not get at Best Buy.  I don’t remember the last time  I bought anything there.  Probably sometime before Christmas, but I don’t remember.

In a month or two, Circuit City will just be another footnote in the retail history of the nation.  While I may not have shopped there regularly over the last few years, I will miss them.  Anytime competition is diminished, the consumer will suffer.  Circuit City’s demise removes a big competitor from Best Buy and others.  I feel worse for the 30 thousand or so who will lose their jobs.  I suppose the only good thing about this is the timing.  They did at least make it through the first of the year.

 

Note: this is a repost from my ‘Half Byte’ blog.

Richmond’s Children: Golden Skillet

Golden Skillet began in Richmond in 1964.  The first Golden Skillet fried chicken was served in the downtown Richmond Thalhimer’s department store.  A gentleman named Clifton Guthrie developed the recipe and, as the story goes, served his fried chicken at a Richmond Planning Commission meeting.  A Thalhimer’s executive was there had the chicken added to the Richmond Room menu. When Thalhimers turned a railroad dock into a restaurant, it became the moneymaker for that location.  The chicken was featured in Women’s Wear Daily. 

The first free standing location opened in 1968  with the signature yellow roof and giant pan-shaped sign.

By 1981, there were over 220 stores and had gone international.  Roy Clark, a native of Virginia, was hired to be the pitchman for the company in its advertising.

Mr. Guthrie passed away in 1981 and the fate of the chain was sealed.  The family sold the company to International Dairy Queen, who eventually sold the chain to a franchisee.

Today, most of the franchised locations have closed and there are only a handful of locations left open.  However, former Golden Skillet locations can still be found due to the signature giant pan. 

Richmond Shopping: Southside Plaza

Growing up on Hull Street not far from Chippenham Highway and the border of Chesterfield County, we were not far from any shopping centers or even the newly built Cloverleaf Mall.  Even so, I remember that we frequently shopped at Southside Plaza.  From the 1950’s through the late 1970’s, Southside Plaza was one of THE shopping centers on the south side of Richmond.  The plaza featured retailers like JC Penny, Sears, Giant Food, Miller & Rhoads and Woolworth’s.  When Cloverleaf Mall opened in 1972, the big tenants like JC Penny and Sears abandoned Southside Plaza for the new mall, which was an enclosed shopping center.  The closing of these two retailers began the slow slide of the plaza.  The store that housed the former JC Penny went through a variety of tenants including a Dart Drug.  Dart did not last long and the store would see use as ‘Santa’s Workshop’ and other temporary uses.  Southside Plaza, for years, held a Christmas ‘parade’ and other holiday events.  The retailers would frequently have sidewalk sales and the plaza was generally busy all year long.  The outlots contained an upscale retailer, Miller & Rhoads,  and a couple of fast food restaurants and a White Tower.  I remember having many lunches with my dad at the White Tower.  In fact, I seem to recall my first cup of Sanka was at that White Tower. 

Most of the retailers that I remember being there are either gone, as in out of business, or morphed into other companies.  There was a ‘Wards Loading Dock’ which was a forerunner to Circuit City, which is now liquidating itself and should cease to exist very soon.  Woolworths, GC Murphy, S&W Cafeteria, Giant Food (which is still around, just no in the Richmond market) are all gone or exist in some other form.

Also on the complex property was a drive-in theater.  The Plaza Drive in had this really cool and very 50’s sign.  The sign towered over the entrance with the word PLAZA in colorful diamond shaped appendages on the sign.  The drive in made into the mid 1980’s before it closed.  An attempt to reopen the drive in failed.  A used car dealer was the last occupant of the drive in property.

Today, the plaza is nearly fully full, but it is a shadow of it’s former self. In its heyday, the plaza was a vibrant place to shop.  It’s luster may be gone, but the memories go on.

America’s Retail Past

Recently, I was searching for photos of abandoned amusement parks and other abandonments.  The WebUrbanist has many great photo galleries featuring abandoned buildings, towns and whole cities. You’d be amazed at how many 20th century cities are deserted.  This website is a tremendous find.  Go and check it out.  Anyway, I found a link to deadmalls.com.  Specifically, the link was for the mall that was demolished by the Blues Brothers in the 1980 film of the same name.  While on the deadmall site, I checked the Virginia entry and found several malls in the Richmond area that I remember visiting in my more youthful days.  Along the way, I found sites about retail chains I had forgotten about.  Wikipedia has a surprising amount of information on these long gone chains.  Some of them, like the Woolworth company, were quite large at one point and employed thousands of people.  Some merged with other companies and are still sort of around today while others did not meet such good fate.  Woolworth's is a company that is still around, but not as Woolworth's.  Today, they are known as the Foot Locker.  The transition from a ‘five and dime’ to a sports oriented retailer is pretty incredible.  Along the way, Woolworth's also operated several other chains, the best known was probably Woolco.  Woolco was a major department store at one time.  I remember going there with my mother.  The Woolco we went to had a cafeteria and some of the best popcorn.  The Woolworth's store also had a lunch counter.  I think I always had grilled cheese or a hot dog. Woolworth managed to stay around for over a hundred years and also had the distinction of building the worlds tallest building from 1913 to 1930, in New York City.  Another interesting note is that it’s international chains are still around and most still operate under the Woolworth name. Most notably in Great Britain.

Another store I have fond memories of, and totally forgot about, is GC Murphy.  Murphy’s was another ‘five and dime’ like Woolworth's. The stores were small compared to other chains, but substantially bigger than many drug stores.  I think they also had lunch counters as well.  I remember the Murphy’s that we used to go in the now run-down Southside Plaza.  Back then, Southside Plaza was a bustling shopping center and rented at full capacity. Each Christmas, the whole shopping center participated in festivities that included a visit from Santa.  Murphy’s was at one end of the center and that’s where we would always go first.  The other side had a Safeway grocery store-which has not been in the Richmond area for nearly thirteen years.  I miss them too.  Murphy’s always had, in my opinion, the best toy section.  Oh, then there was the ‘penny candy’.  LOTS of candy. GC Murphy also operated Murphy’s Mart.  We had a couple in Richmond, but I honestly do not remember much about them.  I don’t think they were around long.  Sadly, GC Murphy sold out to Ames, which converted many of the larger stores to Ames (probably why I don’t recall the larger stores that much. I do remember-and liked-Ames.)  Ames itself went out of business later on.  Before going under, Ames sold off the old five and dime business to the McCrory company, which also went out of business.  Retail is tough.

Other chains I remember, and found information on, include:

• Lafayette Radio (a Radio Shack wannabe)

• Erol’s (the video rental business)

• Phar Mor (a sad tale, it’s upper management embezzled the company out of business)

• Eckerd Drug (split between Rite Aid and CVS)

• Big Star (Colonial Stores) grocery (Big Star is another of my childhood memories.  My mother LOVED this place and they always had good sales.  My mother would go nuts here.  I remember one month, EVERYTHING she fixed had some kind of italian like sauce because it was on sale for some ridiculous price like ten for a dollar.  No wonder they went out of business.)

Richmond based stores that I remember include Miller and Rhoads, Thalhimers (Thalhimers was purchased by the May company and became Hecht’s and then Macy’s) , Heilig Meyers (once the largest furniture retailer in America), Golden Skillet (a few still survive.  Golden Skillet began as a chicken dish served at Thalhimers.)

One other distinct memory I have from that wonderful time are the old S&H Greenstamps.  For those who may not remember, the stamps were given out by participating retailers to consumers.  The amount of stamps given depended on how much they spent at the retailer.  You would fill up books and then could redeem the books for merchandise from the S&H catalog.  Murphy’s and Woolworth’s, if I recall correctly, gave out the stamps.  I remember my mother had lots of those books and stamps.  What I can’t remember is if she ever actually redeemed them for anything.  Probably not.

UPDATE: one of the web sites linked to above (the Colonial Stores/Big Star link) links to a site called Groceteria.  This site is full of interesting stories, facts and photos of grocery retailers of the past and present, mostly past.  Check it out at http://www.groceteria.com/index.html.

 

Note:  This is a repost from my 'HalfByte blog’.

Greetings!

RetroRichmond will be my attempt to capture the flavor and history of Richmond, Virginia's retail and cultural past.