Best Buy Vs Circuit City

Best Buy and Circuit City are the leading retailers that deal consumer electronics and other digital media such as DVD's and CD's. Also know as "Big Box" stores, Best Buy and Circuit City can be found in and around all major metropolitan areas, and even in some rural communities across the United States. Each offers their own way of drawing the customer in and each has their own level of customer service. Let's take a look at these two consumer giants and highlight a few areas that give one store the advantage over the other.

Technology has come such a long way within the past 10 years, and Best Buy and Circuit City have capitalized on that. They offer cutting edge products to consumers when they first hit the market. Many times, these prices are sky high because the products are band new and have no competition. Once other companies come out with their versions of these popular items, demand decreases as does the price. While I cannot accurately compare Best Buy with Circuit City from the stand point of price, I can give you a synopsis of specific departments within each store.

1. CD's - Personally, I feel that Circuit City is lacking in this department. As an avid listener of obscure, hard to find music, I can tell you that Best Buy has the edge here. Best Buy has a very broad selection of CD's that are usually located right where they are supposed to be. Circuit City's selection is just ok, but I would expect more from them if they want to keep up with Best Buy. Prices are pretty equal here, giving Best Buy the upper hand in the CD department.

2. DVD's - Now, anytime I need to go out and purchase a DVD for my collection, I will go to Circuit City first. I feel that their selection is far and beyond that of Best Buy's. Once again, I looked at the availability of those "hard-to-find" movies, and to my surprise Circuity City had some titles that I thought they would never stock. Best Buy's selection seemed to focus on have a lot of the same movie, instead of having more titles. Advantage, Circuit City!

3. Television - Ok, up until recently, I would have easily gone with Circuit City. They had a great in-store selection and the "user reviews/rating" on their website are very, very helpful in finding out which TV's are best. But, Best Buy has recently added a cinema experience to certain stores called Magnolia Home Theater. I visited the local Best Buy and was impressed. The employees seemed to be very knowledgeable and friendly. The separate room that Magnolia is in is very nice, acoustically sound and very soothing to the senses. Point, Best Buy!

4. Audio - Lastly, I visited each stores audio department to check out their surround sound speakers, as well as their receivers. I liked Circuit City's separate audio room for listening to different components with different speakers. That does make a big difference. Best Buy's audio components are literally just placed on the shelf and hooked up to 1, maybe 2 sets of different speakers. That's not going to cut it. If I'm spending a lot of hard earned dough on audio, I'm going to want to hear different speakers hooked up to different receivers, like at the Circuit City store. Easy call here, Circuit City takes it!

In conclusion, I'd like to point out that I do make multiple purchases from both stores throughout the year. Service is always good at both stores, and usually the sales people are knowledgeable and courteous. The comparisons I've made are simply based on my experiences. For you to truly find out which store is better, you'll have to visit both to decide which store meets your individual needs best! Good Luck!