Short Circuit City

I may be the biggest, but I'm definitely not the brightest tool in the box. There are things I know about - sports, comic books, Tina Fey - and things I don't - politics, religion, current affairs, anything that is really actually important. Because of this, I am writing with a shaker full of salt lodged between the letters on my keyboard.

The economy sucks. Duh. We've known this for months and nothing has really changed to make us think any differently. And just as we all decided that Yes We Could, we come to the realization that 2009 has the potential to be even worse. Hooray. Did I understand that America was struggling? Yes, but only on the most basic of fronts. But that all changed today. Something happened that hit me dead between the eyes.

Circuit City closed its doors. Well, not all of its doors, but over 560 of them. That's right, Best Buy's overshadowed little brother is laying off thousands of employees after filing for bankruptcy. Now, I've never shopped at Circuit City. Not once. I've always been a Best Buy man myself. But ever since I can remember I've seen those gaudy red blocky building fronts from the road. I've had friends stand in line there at 5 a.m. to buy laptop computers. I've watched their terrible commercials for years. I've recycled dozens of their ads in the weekend newspaper. And now they're gone.

So this is what the economic crisis is all about. Just down the road an IHOP closed down. A place more popular on Sunday mornings than a free money machine in Las Vegas is now dark. I've heard that the closing is just temporary, and that it might not even be for economic reasons. But it got me thinking. Tonight I was talking to some friends about Netflix and Red Box and all the alternative ways to rent movies these days. I hardly know anybody that actually goes to the movie store to rent movies anymore. Could you imagine all Blockbusters just shutting down? While some of this has to do with alternative outlets and marketing strategies, the weak economy has to be to blame for some of it, right?

Businesses are darkening all over America. Just think of your favorite shopping center of 10-15 stores. In the coming years they could one by one be going dark, like a storefront sign with some of the letters burnt out.

No Circuit City, IHOP or Blockbuster? Troubling times indeed, my friend.