Circuit City’s Going Out Of Business Sale: Everything (Especially Those Janet Jackson Albums) Must Go

noah | December 15, 2008 2:00 am

Two years ago, this site chronicled the long, slow demise of Tower Records painstakingly, with notes on what albums were burrowed away in the deep-discount bins. Well, in the current era, there are fewer music-specific stores left standing, but it would seem like there’s a similar, if slightly more depressing, story unfolding with the Chapter 11 bankruptcy and substantial closures borne by the electronics chain Circuit City, which, you may remember, sold records now and again.

While out shopping today at one of its imminently closing outlets in the Atlanta metro area, Lucas Jensen sent along the picture at left, which depicts the “Circuit City edition” of Q-Tip’s The Renaissance, with the note “I’m gonna go back and buy it though. It’s probably the most recent release there. They stopped buying new stuff right around then.” (That album came out in early November, right before Circuit City went BK.) Also of note: Janet Jackson’s Discipline was in plentiful supply and 50% off; there was also “a lot of Usher”; and the staff was blaring Incubus, presumably because hey, what was their manager going to do, fire them? While the opportunities for crate-digging bargains probably won’t be as plentiful as they were at Tower, the further deflation of music pricing, the increased shrinkage of floor space, and the markdowns on relatively recent titles are notable as well. Feel free to share your holiday-shopping observations on any musical fire sales here!