When Circuit City went out of business this past Spring, there really was not much left in its wake. Competitive retailers like Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) really didn't take the billions per quarter of new business that Circuit City was booking right up until the end. Yes, it must have been that bad.

Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC), the consumer electronics chains that continues to have earnings and profit meltdowns every quarter, may be seeing one of its more lucrative businesses slipping.

When it comes to offering services, the company's Firedog installation and service business is one of its most profitable. Similar to competitor Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY)'s Geek Squad and Magnolia services businesses, this is how Circuit City makes a decent profit in the wake of slashed margins on many electronics products like flat-panel televisions.

But in Circuit City's case, the slowdown in home construction across the U.S. is having an effect on its installation business now -- so the main bandage on the wound is coming off. The company will be laying off 67 workers across the U.S. who specialize in pre-wiring new homes for sound and video. Although the retailer hopes to retain many of those workers in other areas within the company, my bet is that this won't happen.

There is no word on whether Best Buy's Magnolia installation business is being hit as the new housing construction business continues slowing across the U.S., but as the company reported Q4 earnings today, the weakness domestically and decline in same-store sales could indicate it would be hit as well.

In an effort to get some kind of public recognition of its Firedog installation and help-desk services, consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) and Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) have partnered to find the most lovable pooch possible to star in the retailers' Firedog ads.

Firedog was basically a response to competitor Best Buy, Inc.'s (NYSE: BBY) Geek Squad services, which will perform all kinds of computer services in-store or on location at a customer's home.

In proper marketing fashion, Chief Marketing Officer for Circuit City, Peter Weedfald, stated that "We're looking for a dog that represents the personality of Firedog: fun, professional, loyal, quick and intelligent." Loyal, quick and intelligent are good qualities to look for in a canine. But professional?

While Circuit City searches high and low for the pooch in a business suit, Kodak is sharing the stage by pointing out that Americans who love to photograph their pets should consider using its EasyShare all-in-one printers.

Never mind that this dog and pony show says nothing about the quality, costs or types of services Circuit City's Firedog offerings will provide. Something about a smiling dog gets the American public all warm and fuzzy, and presumably more likely to rush out and buy new printers.

You too? Go ahead and bite. We know your dog is the cutest of them all. Visit this website and submit your doggy submissions until December 8, 2007. If your pet has that winning doggy style, Circuit City and Kokak will make a $50,000 donation to a local humane society of your choice.

Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) is striving to do what it can to lure customers back into its stores in the face of rapidly declining sales and the public relations backlash of firing 3,400 workers so that they could be replaced with cheaper workers. Well, the company is still not sure it is on the right path, and CEO Phil Schoonover must be one of the sweatiest leaders in the retail world right now. If I owned CC shares, vocal disapproval would be an inadequate way to describe the position I would take. How about you?

What will Circuit City do to reinvigorate itself and its sales? A piece of that strategy seems to be enhancing its Firedog services (that name is, well, lame); the retailer is moving fast and furious to make sure all customers know about its PC services, home theater installation services and more mobile installation services offered through Firedog.com. As the focus moves away from retail transactions and into more of a services approach, this must mean that the retail electronics field is lacking in margin and is roughly commoditized. Yep, I can see that. Competitor Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) saw this quite a while ago.

Circuit City's Schoonover said last week that the retailer must move beyond selling TVs and move into the arena of selling multiple pieces of entertainment gear together as some kind of integrated solution for the consumer. Sounds like a plan: get customers to buy multiple pieces of equipment like DVD players, home theater receivers and game consoles and then sell them a services package from Firedog to get it all connected and working together since the manufacturers make it impossible to do that for yourself. Do I hear conspiracy here? Just kidding . . . maybe.

New Yorkers don't take kindly to retailers that advertise goods for sale -- on sale -- and then don't end up carrying the items at all inside stores unlike what it's advertising may state. This is what happened in Westchester Country, New York -- as consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores agreed to pay a $3,500 fine to the county and issue rain checks to customers at three area stores due to this issue.

The stores apparently did not have any stock of some items listed as "on sale" -- but it took an undercover investigation to show that the chain was in actual violation of a local consumer code.

The code that was violated stated that rain checks must be issues unless an ad stated that "quantities are limited. " In this particular case, no rain checks were offered to the undercover shoppers as they found that advertised items were not in stock. This can lead to the old "bait and switch" method of capturing higher-margin sales, but hopefully Circuit City was not engaging in this practice.

With thoughts of declining margins in the consumer electronics business filling the heads of CEOs everywhere, consumer electronics retailers Best Buy Co.,Inc. (NYSE:BBY) and Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE:CC) are always looking to push heavy-margin products and services like extended warranties (which are mostly useless), software install services ($99 to install virus software? Come on!) and now, home install and computer/home theater setup services.

This is nothing new -- Best Buy's "Geek Squad" started the trend and rival Circuit City ended up launching its own "Firedog" home assistance service last year and promoting it like crazy. I expected to have leaflets dropped from airplanes all over my neighborhood, but that didn't happen. Darn.

But CC's "Firedog" can now put a rather nice feather in its cap, as it has attained Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status, the retailer announced today. Almost 700 of its PC technicians have earned Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) credentials, according to the company.

Now those are actually pretty impressive credentials if you know what they mean -- these techs aren't just kids who show up to install Windows XP on your machine and let it go at that. It will be interesting to see if Best Buy's Geek Squad service responds with similar credentials-based customer tech support of its own.

With shares of Circuit City being bombarded this week on the entire precept that flat-panel TV sales may be the short-term undoing of the company (I guess nothing else sells there), now comes a goofy story about Circuit City's new "Firedog" installation service offering. Today must be a slow news day on the net, eh?

In what can be seen as a marketer's rather absurd absolute requirement that all Circuit City subcontractors who want to participate in the new Firedog installation service wear cargo pants, the company then stated that no Firedog contractors can wear "denim pants or cargo pants." Sigh -- is someone asleep at the wheel here?

It also begs the question: What kind of pants should they wear?

Is Circuit City's marketing department so inept that it can't define a simple definition of "cargo pants" for a lauded new service offering and ensure all marketing collateral features that specific dress type? Guess not -- so I laughed a bit at this story, set my thoughts on the table for a second, and looked for some real news.

Shares of the second-largest U.S. consumer electronics retailer were downgraded by Analyst Mark J. Rowen of Prudential Financial. Circuit City (NYSE:CC) was changed from "neutral weight" to "underweight." The target price set by Rowen was $22 per share. CC shares are trading at $23.38 this morning .

The downgrade is driven by retail pricing across the flat-panel television business. Rowen suggests that the sector is already becoming commoditized by the discount retailers (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) and others I'm sure), with lower prices already starting to appear (um, this is normal in the product lifecycle, right?) along with increasing competition starting to appear next year as well.

These facts alone will squeeze margins at Circuit City as the chain stops selling everything in its stores except flat-panel televisions. Just kidding! Remember that although LCD and Plasma TVs are hot-ticket items this year, there is quite a bit more to the consumer electronics biz than that. Perhaps Circuit City's challenge will be to take back some of the evaporating margin in the flat-panel television space with other margin-offsetting offerings ... like the Firedog services business? They're already working on it -- let's just see if it succeeds.

National consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores (NYSE:CC) has retained former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani to promote its new Firedog service. The service provides computer setup and in-home installation. Most likely, it's a response to Best Buy's (NYSE:BBY) "Geek Squad" service.

Why would Circuit City be promoting Giuliani in a webcast about its Firedog service? Well, the ad regarding this new promotion -- which I received in my email inbox yesterday -- announces a contest for entrants to write an essay about how much their firehouse has helped the community.

Since Giuliani has been an outspoken proponent of firefighter heroism in the wake of the 9/11 attacks over five years ago, Circuit City's marketing team apparently wants to connect that image to its new "Firedog" service.

Now, explain to me again, what exactly is the connection between the Fire Department and in-home computer services?

Best Buy' Co., Inc's (NYSE:BBY) "Geek Squad", an aptly-named group of in-store technicians that also makes house calls for the computer-challenged (which includes millions of Americans) is helping the nation's #1 consumer electronics retailer beef up its services business. As a result, it's forming closer relationships with consumers who may be tempted to look elsewhere for assistance to deal with all the vagaries of owning a PC these days, from hardware upgrades to virus protection to wiping spyware off your computer.

I am a fan of the image Best Buy has created -- a "Geek" is exactly what computer novices need when terror strikes on the computer screen, and help is almost always a trip or phone call away. Although the fees charged by Geek Squad for its services are a little steep, it's yet another golden goose for Best Buy in addition to extended warranties -- oops, I mean "product performance" plans. Best Buy has made it a habit to goose services revenue from every possible angle these days -- much to the delight of its investors.

What about rival Circuit City (NYSE:CC)? The chain that was once the #1 retailer of consumer electronics before Best Buy ran over them launched its "Firedog" brand of in-store and at-home service a few months ago to answer Best Buy's Geek Squad offering. While the image "Firedog" does nothing to conjure up what the service actually entails, Circuit City needed to do this. Are Best Buy and Circuit City both seeing services as the future answer to ever-decreasing consumer electronics margins? Sure! Marc Sieger -- Circuit City's Services SVP -- said that "We've got a vision of being a services company with retail roots ... services is going to be a huge play, and people want it." There's your sign.