

Circuit City's liquidation sale: long lines, few bargains - technologizer
http://technologizer.com/2009/01/18/circuit-city-under-siege/

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noonespecial
These kinds of sales are usually handled by liquidation companies. Their first
act is to close the store, mark everything up 100% then mark everything down
50-70%. Each week after that, they take 10% off until the item reaches an
actual total discount of about 10% of the original pre-liquidation price. All
that doesn't sell at this price gets packed into 18 wheelers and sold at
auction. You will then find the items in "ebay stores" set up by the next
creatures in this food chain.

They don't bargain, you don't get a deal. Its retail theater. A play in one
act designed to skim the cream before the real action starts on the auction
block where the entire store is sold, lights, display cases, merchandise and
all.

This information gleaned by talking to an employee of said liquidation firm
during the closing of a hardware store chain in the area.

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dcurtis
This isn't _totally_ true. When CompUSA was going out of business, great deals
could be found on the final days before the stores closed. I got a brand new
MacBook, worth 1299 at the time, for 359 and a Velodyne subwoofer (299
normally) for 35 bucks.

I think generally it's hard to find deals though.

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noonespecial
I kind of looks like circuit city isn't doing it this way either, but you can
never be too sure. Usually the liquidators either hire on some of the old
staff, or dress their people in the stores old uniforms. The best way to tell
is to find an item you _know_ was $100 last week, marked $199 and then
discounted 50% off.

One things usually certain though. Its not an _everything must go!!!_ sale
like you are lead to believe. They're more than happy to truck all the good
stuff off and sell it elsewhere if they think they're not going to get near
retail for it during the "sale".

Think of it like one last "President's Day Blowout!" before the parking lot
starts growing weeds.

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tlrobinson
I went to the store closing in Palo Alto in December on the second to last
day. Almost "everything" was 70% off... but there was hardly anything left
except a lot of bad movies and CDs.

They wouldn't even bargain with me for a display model of a clock radio that
was missing all it's accessories and _still_ cost more than it would have on
Amazon.

Overall, it was lame.

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ROFISH
I went to one that closed earlier in the year. The problem is that the prices
don't even beat online prices. For example, there was an external 1TB hard
drive for $150 (after 50% off) which you can easily get online for $100.

