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.

Best Buy Co., Inc.'s (NYSE: BBY) Geek Squad technical support services have been very successful for the largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S. in recent years. It's a profit-making machine that's put the emphasis on service margins over ever-shrinking product margins. Anything and everything PC-related that you need done -- personal or business -- the Geek Squad can be there.

Technical support is the best way to describe much of what Best Buy's Geek Squad does -- so would you believe the retailer wants to get involved with technical support in a social networking sense? FixYa.com, a website that allows customers to help each other with technical issues and owner's manuals from almost any piece of technology, is generated by users -- not retailers. However, as many of us have seen, user-generated destinations can be some of the most successful. Why pay to support your customers when they can support themselves in a sense?

I don't believe this is any kind of cost-saving move by Best Buy -- the retailer simply wants to provide its customers with an additional way to receive support as fast and efficient as possible before handling in-depth issues directly to a Geek Squad representative. Best Buy's co-branded version of the site located here will allow customers an easy entry path into support and troubleshooting. Again, it looks like Best Buy is outpacing competitors in terms of getting help to its customers as fast as it can, and in this case, at no charge.

Earlier this morning, Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE: BBY) let investors and analysts know that even it was not immune to a slowdown in consumer spending. The company reported a nearly 18% drop in Q1 income, reporting Q1 EPS of 39c (vs. Reuters consensus of 50c) and Q1 revenue of $7.93B (vs. Reuters consensus of $7.83B). As a result, the company cut its fiscal-year earnings forecast, and now sees FY08 EPS of $2.95-$3.15 (vs. Reuters consensus of $3.16), down from April's forecast of $3.10-$3.25 per share. Shares of the retailer fell 5% from Monday's closing price of $48.01 to open at $45.61.

Best Buy's disappointing earnings may not be a good sign for retail competitors like Tweeter Home Entertainment Group Inc (NASDAQ: TWTR) - Tweeter filed for bankruptcy last week - and Circuit City Stores Inc (NYSE: CC). Analysts believe the companies are likely to face pressure this year from falling prices of flat-screen TVs and increased competition from other retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT) and Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) that are increasing their consumer electronics offerings. This morning, following Best Buy's earnings report, Circuit City shares dropped 2.6%; the company is scheduled to report its own earnings Wednesday morning.

Despite a challenging environment, analysts believe Best Buy remains the best-positioned in the consumer electronics segment. Executives, too, are optomistic about the second half of the year, expecting "materially better sales" in home theater and digital imaging, as well as with the company's Geek Squad service. Executives expect flat panels, notebooks and gaming will remain "very appealing." Additionally, the company is planning to expand Apple Inc's (NASDAQ: AAPL) store-within-a-store concept, and anticipates to have just under 300 of these by the end of the year.

While Best Buy's performance and expansion have helped it in this area until now, let's hope that CEO Brad Anderson's comment that the company's strategy is consistent with the long-term results the company hopes to achieve, even if Q1 results may not have shown it, holds true.

In the light of consumer electronics giant Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) beating up all over the competition, has its CEO earned his pay recently? Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson received $5.6 million in fiscal year 2007, which I say I say is underpaid according to how Best Buy has performed in the same period. In other words, this is probably a case of a CEO not being compensated enough. When some CEOs take home packages worth tens of millions for under-performance (with incompetent boards blessing them highly), it's refreshing to see a CEO who has taken his company to the top, has taken the share price for a ride (it's not done fabulous, but it has not sunk) and is being paid according to that effort.

If you were a BBY shareholder back in August 2005 when a 3:2 split happened and ended up selling late in the summer of 2006 (as fears of losses from flat-panel TV price plummeting gripped the industry), you may be sitting pretty right now. Are you? If so, do you agree with Anderson's pay package for Best Buy's fiscal 2007?

Although BBY has not made much movement in the most recent year, Best Buy as a company continues to make what I consider to be all the right moves from a merchandising and services standpoint. At the same time, competitor Circuit City (NYSE:CC) has told 3,400 employees to take off and CompUSA us in the midst of closing half of its stores in the U.S. that show under-performance. That leaves Best Buy as a top PC retailer (where margins can be very thin) as well as a burgeoning provider of all kinds of services (Geek Squad and the purchase of Speakeasy). Things appear on track for Anderson and Co., in other words.

Best Buy Co., Inc.'s (NYSE: BBY) "Geek Squad" army of personal computer and home theater installation experts are turning into one heavy asset for the nation's top electronics retailer. In fact, the division has become so large that a new 165,000-square-foot Geek Squad City warehouse was recently built on the Kentucky countryside. Why does Best Buy need a center like this? Well, it wants to ensure it can complete repairs on PCs it sells (especially laptops) and return them to its customers faster.

Sounds like a Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) or Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) strategy here, right? But this is the retailer (not the manufacturer) that built this large, manned repair center. In what I continue to see from Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson these days, Best Buy's recent unwavering focus on the customer continues to rise to new heights. The proof is in the pudding: Best Buy is smashing all other computer retailers these days. Ask Circuit City Stores Inc. (NYSE: CC) about this.

Michael Rogers, a Geek Squad spokesman, said, "This is all about giving the customer a better experience." This is something I am inclined to agree with. The area of Kentucky where Best Buy located the center was near a major flight hub and near a tech-savvy workforce as well. Hundreds of technicians "fix" hundreds of computer and more than 2,000 laptops a day. That sounds like commitment to customer service -- and Best Buy is the middleman here, not the hardware maker. All in all, this sounds impressive to the layman.

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.