Circuit City will close Cape Girardeau store Feb. 23

Consumer electronics chain Circuit City Stores Inc. plans to permanently close its Cape Girardeau store and 18 others across the country on Feb. 23 to cut costs as it struggles with declining sales, company officials said Monday.

The Cape Girardeau store opened on Nov. 8, 1999, in a 17,000-square-foot building at 164 Siemers Drive in a busy commercial area just west of Interstate 55.

The store closings in Missouri, Minnesota, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Washington, Arkansas, Texas, Indiana, California, Virginia, Illinois, Nebraska and Kansas will mean the loss of 360 full-time and 500 part-time jobs, company officials said.

The closing of the Cape Girardeau store will put 20 full-time and 24 part-time employees out of work, said Steve Mullen, Circuit City spokesman with the firm's corporate office in Richmond, Va.

"There was just no reasonable expectation of a positive cash flow," Mullen said.

"It is definitely not a move that we take lightly," he said. "We never like to close stores."

The closings will leave the chain with 605 stores in 45 states and plans to open 65 to 70 new stores over the next 12 months, Mullen said.

Half of those new stores involve relocations of existing stores, he said.

"We are constantly looking at real estate around the country. There's nothing to say we won't bring a store back to Cape Girardeau if we find a location that's good for our store," he said.

But Mullen added there are no current plans to operate a store in Cape Girardeau.

The 19 stores were closed Monday as employees inventoried merchandise. They are scheduled to reopen today for close-out sales.

Circuit City Stores Inc. has seen its business throttled by larger rival Best Buy Co. Inc., according to national wire service reports.

Best Buy opened a store in Cape Girardeau in September 2002.

Mitch Robinson, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association, said competition from Best Buy probably hurt the local store.

Circuit City has been struggling with sales declines as it worked through a store remodeling project.

Circuit City said the 19 stores had combined revenue of $151 million last year.

The company reported $9.95 billion in revenue for the fiscal year that ended Feb. 28, 2003.

Robinson said the closing is "disappointing" for workers who are losing their jobs.

Circuit City leased the building from St. Louis-based Drury Development. Officials at Drury Development couldn't be reached for comment Monday.

Robinson said the building should attract a new tenant. "It is a great location," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123