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.