January 8, 2008
This Week in Consumer Electronics: Circuit City has seen the future of CE retailing, and it may very well be found in its new store format, The City. The concept stores embody "a portfolio of ideas" culled from two years' worth of "innovation work" in the company's Boston and Miami lab stores, said Steve Pappas, small-stores president and point person on the project. While still a work in progress, management had enough confidence in the format to open seven of the smaller stores around the country following the first trial run in Norfolk, Va., in June, and the company is on track to have 20 sites up and running by the end of February.