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To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (25678)	5/6/1998 10:33:00 PM
From: Night Writer	Respond to of 97611

Elwood, Dig the new "Computer Build To Order Stations" at Circuit City. Looks like a number of companies jumping on the BTO band wagon. NW Subj: Circuit City Stores, Inc. Reports Record April Sales For... Date: 98-05-06 08:44:12 EDT Circuit City Stores, Inc. Reports Record April Sales For The Circuit City Group and The CarMax Group RICHMOND, Va., May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Circuit City Stores, Inc. today reported April 1998 sales for the company, the Circuit City Group (NYSE: CC) and the CarMax Group (NYSE: KMX). For the month, total sales for Circuit City Stores, Inc. rose 17 percent to $675.3 million from $576.8 million in April 1997. The Circuit City Group Total sales for the Circuit City Group were $571.5 million, which represents a 10 percent increase from April 1997 sales of $520.8 million and a 1 percent increase in comparable store sales. "We are pleased that, given a tough prior-year comparison, sales continued to exceed our expectations in April," said Richard L. Sharp, Circuit City's chairman and chief executive officer. "We saw positive results in a number of categories including digital satellite systems, wireless communications, video-cassette-recorders, camcorders, music software and major appliances. Unit sales of personal computers remained extremely strong, although the category continued to experience significant year-over-year declines in average retail prices." During the month, Circuit City opened two new Superstores: one in Lafayette, Ind., and one in Idaho Falls, Idaho. "We also continue to make progress towards the successful retail launch of Divx," said Sharp. "In April, we were pleased to announce that Harman Kardon will include Divx in its DVD product line." In addition to the April announcements, Circuit City today released more specific plans for Computer Build To Order Stations, scheduled for introduction in all stores by late summer. "Our plans for build to order in the personal computer segment are similar to the highly successful major appliance stations operating in our stores today," said W. Alan McCollough, president and chief operating officer for Circuit City Stores, Inc. "These stations will give consumers nearly instant access to the inventory of the top four worldwide retail computer brands, beginning with NEC, Hewlett Packard and Compaq. IBM also has announced its intention to participate. Friendly touch- screen kiosks will enable Circuit City customers to search the inventory selection by price, brand and feature, giving them literally millions of configuration options at competitive prices and with quick delivery. Because products are ordered directly from the manufacturers' inventories, we expect the stations will help reduce retail distribution costs and increase inventory turnover while also giving consumers immediate access to the latest technology in the PC industry. The store-based kiosk solution will itself utilize the latest technology, including one of the first large-scale deployments of Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition from Microsoft Corporation." <Snip>