During the next several weeks, the company's Mayland Drive headquarters in western Henrico County virtually will empty out - the first to leave likely will do so next week.

Yesterday, a federal bankruptcy judge in Richmond approved the company's request to begin liquidating. The sales will end on or before March 31.

Circuit City notified some 1,500 employees in its corporate headquarters that they'd be out of a job in 60 days. The judge's decision means 30,000 employees at its 567 stores will be out of work by late March.

The demise of the chain, which got its start 60 years ago by selling television sets out of a small downtown Richmond storefront, marks the loss of a local Fortune 500 company that was a major contributor to charities as well as a supporter of the area's traditionally strong job market.

The shutdown is another blow to a business community reeling from the pending bankruptcy of two other corporate stalwarts.

Circuit City, the nation's No. 2 consumer electronics chain, became the largest retailer to fall victim to the expanding financial crisis.

Already squeezed for cash when the credit-market crisis hit in the fall, Circuit City couldn't convince creditors it could find a buyer who could keep the long-ailing company alive long enough to pay its IOUs. As of Nov. 30, it owed $2.9 billion.

"We are extremely disappointed by this outcome," said James A. Marcum, vice chairman and acting president and CEO.

"The company had been in continuous negotiations regarding a going-concern transaction," he said. "Regrettably for the more than 30,000 employees of Circuit City and our loyal customers, we were unable to reach an agreement with our creditors and lenders to structure a going-concern transaction in the limited timeframe available, and so this is the only possible path for our company."

Alan L. Wurtzel, the son of the company's founder and the chain's CEO from 1972 to 1986, said the retailer's demise is a hard blow.

"This is a sad, sad day," he said. "I have never had this experience, but I can imagine this is like losing a child - something you raised and grew up and 20 years later it got sick and died. This is pretty terrible."

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The company struck a deal with a consortium of four liquidators to sell all the merchandise in its 567 stores after trying to seek a buyer through an auction earlier this week or a deal to refinance its debt.

The four are guaranteeing Circuit City will get 70.5 percent of what it paid for those items. The merchandise is valued at $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion, according to testimony in bankruptcy court yesterday.

The company and the liquidators will split anything above that guarantee, at first on a 70-30 basis between Circuit City and the four.