Hhgregg will soon penetrate ITP in Atlanta. Indianapolis, Indiana-based hhgregg will open a new location in the former Circuit City in Buckhead Triangle. The store has been vacant since Circuit City shuttered the location, and their entire company, in 2009. I'm told Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Best Buy was also interested in the space and there may have been a bidding war of sorts to lease the space.
Best Buy would have made little sense considering they announced they would close 50 of their big-box stores. Best Buy is opening hundreds of smaller Best Buy Mobile stores, and perhaps this site could have tested a larger format mobile store. Instead, though, hhgregg will open in the former Circuit City in addition to a portion of the current FedEx Office. FedEx is in the midst of a twelve week downsizing and renovation program to make room for its new neighbor.
Hhgregg entered the Atlanta market in the early 2000s and has locations in Buford, near the Mall of Georgia, in Duluth near Gwinnett Place Mall, in Smyrna near Cumberland Mall, and six other locations in cities even further OTP like Fayetteville and Douglasville.
hhgregg, unlike Best Buy, does not sell CDs and DVDs and other media items, and instead sells theater packages and appliances, along with vacuums and mattresses. South Florida-based BrandsMart USA, with four metro location,s and San Jose-based Fry's Electronics, with two metro locations, are closer competitors to hhgregg on some items though both are relegated to mostly suburban locations. hhgregg will likely do well when it comes to large appliances with little area competition. Mattresses on the other hand, can be purchased at countless Mattress specialty stores in Atlanta, and in Buckhead especially where there are Mattress Firms in what seems like every other shopping center.
Buckhead Triangle, once the home of Just For Feet, Circuit City, Kinko's and Borders, welcomed Pinkberry in place of Marble Slab Creamery ( in the former Just for Feet), FedEx Office in place of Kinko's, and will soon welcome a relocated The Container Store in the former bi-level Borders space. Sources also told me that hhgregg's decision to open in the center hinged largely on the co-tenancy of The Container Store.
What are your thoughts of hhgregg? Do you think hhgregg will find success in Buckhead? Where do you buy your large appliances?