Will Best Buy (BBY) have a harder time competing with Circuit City gone?

With Circuit City gone, will this force Best Buy to become less competitive? That remains to be seen, but history tells us that lack of competition is generally bad news for the consumer. But wait -- will internet retailers like Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) become the new, non-physical biggest competitive threat to Best Buy? Sure, Amazon.com has competed heavily with the brick-and-mortar consumer electronics retailers for years. But, with a major name gone from the landscape, will consumers who would have done their comparison shopping at Best Buy and Circuit City now put Best Buy and Amazon.com on their shopping radars?

Many consumers already visit a physical store when interested in a product to size it up and touch it all over. Then, to save state sales taxes and product costs, they order from a reputable online retailer. Will this practice become a larger detriment to Best Buy with Circuit City out of the way? The one thing Best Buy does not want to become is a place of research instead of a place of business. And, although mega-retailer Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is competing more heavily in the consumer electronics arena, the world's largest retailer still cannot come close to matching the product selection or even pricing of Best Buy when a store level apples-to-apples comparison is made. That may change, but for now Best Buy stands alone on the top of the consumer electronics hill. At least, from a physical store perspective.