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Home > Smart Spending > Archives > 2009 > January > 29 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USSolid advice on liquidation sales: Compare prices at other stores
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Once upon a time, if you saw me going into a store to do business, chances were good that I was lured by a going-out-of-business sale. Or, as the retailers call it, a liquidation sale.
Here’s how I thought it worked:
Stores, eager to lock their doors shut, quickly wanted to unload inventory and had tagged it with rock-bottom prices. They might even be willing to haggle. Wrong. Here’s how it usually works:
A liquidator company purchases the merchandise, then sets the prices, sometimes above the retailer’s own. Because it has agreed to pay a fee to the store’s creditors, it must keep prices at a reasonable level to cover the upfront cost and generate some profits.
An insider once told me that liquidators of furniture would ship tables and sofas from other stores to the one about to turn out the lights. So much for clearing out the floor.
Were you aware of this?
Advertised prices can be misleading. Fifty percent off might mean half-price on suggested retail, not the store’s price.
Experts say you might secure a better deal at a doomed store before it begins the liquidation sale. So, if you hear a starting date for liquidation, visit the store a week prior.
Let’s hear if you’ve sampled bargains at the latest major chain to liquidate, Circuit City.
A few bloggers have issued warnings and advice to Circuit City scavengers. One is a disgruntled employee, so consider where he’s coming from. The other tipster lacks the employee’s bitterness.
Going out of business? From what I’ve learned, you can go without me.
Comments
By dICK
January 30, 2009 6:35 AM | Link to this
Visited Circuit City last week. Had 10% off tv. Looked at tv that was on sale Christmas and currently with 10% off, it is higher than it was at Christmas. Oh yea, it wasn’t on sale at Christmas. Won’t be buying anything there, no deals. Got to Bestbuy, get it cheaper.,
By Cathy
January 30, 2009 7:00 AM | Link to this
Same concept at Expo. I pass the one by Mansell Drive 6 days a week…for months little to no cars in the parking lot, after annoucement by Home Depot they are closing parking lot full..went in..no real bargains..
By Tamara
January 30, 2009 7:40 AM | Link to this
Learned about this from one of the consumer reporters on TV. Sometimes if you can remove the price tag that’s on top and see the price tags below, you can see the prices have increased instead of decreased. It’s sad the way we can be manipulated and just plain ripped off. That’s partly why we are in the shape we are in… GREED!
By Becky
January 30, 2009 8:12 AM | Link to this
I’ve known about this scam for a long time..I always look for good deals & have noticed this way of doing business years ago..
By diddy
January 30, 2009 8:41 AM | Link to this
Wasn’t all this already stated in an article on CNN or CNNMoney about a week or two ago? Come on AJC, can we get some original news and information instead of recycling old news?
By Bob
January 30, 2009 9:24 AM | Link to this
Channel 2 also did this story at about the time that Circuit City announced Atlanta closings. They went to several of the chains that are going out of business and found that, like most stores, you can find some savings but MOST of the time you do pay more at a liquidations sale.
By lovelyliz
January 30, 2009 9:51 AM | Link to this
I went to Circuit City the first weekend after their formal bankruptcy announcement. My niece talked me into it. As I walked into the store, past all the people walking out with nothing, I noticed a stand with 20% off DVD’s. The label on one of the more popular kids movies was $29.99 minus the discount. Within a 1/2 mile radius, I could have walked into a couple of stores and found that exact same movie, the exact same edition with a normal list price of less than $20.
$29.99-20%=$23.99 which is still more that the other stores’ everyday price. Ditto on their CD’s.
A friend went buy with her husband looking for a big screen and everything she looked at in the 45 inches+ range was more expensive. She ended up buying a TV at a local family store that actually services what they sell.
Same story with Linens & Things. Liquidation prices were too high before the markup to justify the discount that really weren’t discount prices they were offering. Besides I’ve already seen their inventory at ROSS.
By lovelyliz
January 30, 2009 9:59 AM | Link to this
When I was living near Washington DC, Potomac Mills was the palce to go for great deals. There were outlets from Neiman Marcus, Calvin Klein, Saks, etc. some fairly high end names. Then one of the networks did a big investigative story on how much of what is sold at those outlets would never see the light of day in their regular stores. They have factories that make products and slap their name brand on it and then send it directly to outlets. The lack of quality showed. It’s one thing to pay $150 for a NM suit that NM would normally sell for $400, but if the quality rivals that of a $100 suit sold at Target or Kohls why would you pay more for the NM label?