Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) has been the subject of media speculation since the first quarter implosion of now-defunct retailer Circuit City. Billions of consumer electronics revenue dollars needed to go somewhere, after all. Based on Best Buy's most recent quarterly results, revenue dollars aren't just spilling into its coffers, even as the default market share gain from Circuit City went nuts last quarter. Will it continue?

All indications point to yes. Best Buy is the lone nationwide big-box consumer electronics retailer that is making all kinds of cutting-edge moves to remain relevant as its products and customers change. The theory around Best Buy's revenue drop in the last two quarters centers on more consumer electronics business going to mass retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), where customers have been taking refuge from the economic storm in the U.S. since last fall. Can Wal-Mart really compete head-to-head for dedicated consumer electronics customers once the money fog lifts as it is starting to do?

Now that Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is the last surviving member of the national specialty consumer electronics retail club, where can it go? Up and up. Sure, mass chains like Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and others have stepped up to the plate and are greatly enhancing their consumer electronics sections, but then again Best Buy has a new CEO who is thinking differently and isn't going to give an inch if he can help it.

This is not an abstraction: buildings large and small are showing gaping vacancies. Storefronts are empty. Entire buildings sit waiting to be occupied. In Manhattan, retail vacancies have reached their highest rates since 2001. For the second quarter of this year, vacancies hit the absurd height of 12.4%, thanks to unemployment trends that won't quit and consumers reluctant to pry open their wallets.

Retailers are being hit just like the residential market.

Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) is widely assumed to be the biggest beneficiary of the downfall of Circuit City, but Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) is looking to crash that party. "Circuit City's business is up for grabs right now and we expect to get our share," Gary Severson, Wal-Mart's senior vice president of home entertainment, told (subscription required) the Wall Street Journal.

Companies like Nintendo and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will get their own in-store displays, and Wal-Mart will also be revamping its electronics departments to create a more open and interactive Best Buy-like shopping experience. Wal-Mart has been trying to move upmarket in the consumer electronics business for years, and offering Palm's soon to be released Pre smart phone is another part of that strategy.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Accenture Ltd. (NYSE: ACN) said revenues and bookings both declined in the most recent quarter.
• Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) reported strong Q4 results in the wake of Circuit City's demise.
• Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) sailed past analysts' Q1 projections, sending shares higher.
• ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) Q3 results topped analysts expectations and drove shares higher.
• DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) swung to a larger-than-expected Q4 loss and revenue slipped.
• DSW Inc. (NYSE: DSW) reported a bigger-than-expected Q4 loss as same-store sales declined.

Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) CEO Brad Anderson indicated this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that the largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S. would be looking at about-to-be-vacated retail locations that are closing due to Circuit City's ongoing liquidation that's expected to run until sometime in March.

Where it makes sense, Best Buy could most likely snap up locations for smaller-format stores for its Best Buy Mobile operations or other concept stores it would like to test. It certainly will be able to acquire some former Circuit City locations on the cheap. It's a good move as the mass market consumer electronics retailer experiments with growing sales outside the standard big-box format.

• Corporate bankruptcies -- Experts are predicting one of the biggest waves of corporate bankruptcies and restructurings in years. Already, Circuit City Stores Inc. (OTC: CCTYQ) has bitten the dust and the year is just getting started. Loads of retailers who are already operating on the razor's edge of profitability may be pushed over the edge. I doubt that enough credit will be unlocked by government fiat to address this problem.