Circuit City, Best Buy focus on home theater
May 22nd, 2006Big-box electronics retailers are beefing up their home-theater sections.
Circuit City will launch a new home entertainment format at more than 500 of its 630 stores in late fall, according to TWICE. In the remodeled stores, a 70-ft.-long plasma TV wall beckons customers to an 8,000-sq.-ft. home entertainment department. But whatever you do, don’t look at it! Customers at a prototype store equipped with the plasma wall ended up buying televisions with sticker prices 15 percent higher than at other test sites.
Rival Best Buy, the top consumer electronics chain, has plans of its own:
Best Buy…plans to add Magnolia Home Theater shops to about 200 stores, and will expand its assortment of digital TVs.
The big boxes aren’t the only ones capitalizing on the digital TV sales boom. RadioShack has announced plans to sell flat-panel LCD televisions in its retail stores starting in June. The chain, which plans to close 480 stores, has stumbled lately. But RadioShack isn’t half-hearted about its flat-panel strategy: To make room for the LCDs, they’re even clearing out the karaoke keyboards.
Earlier:
Circuit City plans ‘affordable’ home theatre installs