If you were waiting to get some fliers in the mail announcing the beginning of clearances at your local Circuit City, we're sorry to report you've probably already missed the best deals. The
liquidation was just made official last week, but, when Christen over at
Gadget Review happened by the trendy Santa Monica branch of the doomed franchise yesterday, he found lines of people already waiting for their chance get in on the "everything must go" action. It looks like the crowds were somewhat contrived, as sales associates were making people wait outside before going in, but just the same you might want to bundle up before heading out for bargain hunting today.
posted Jan 19th 2009 9:54AM
If it goes anything like the store closings they did a month ago these people are going to be severely disappointed.
"Good" deals didn't really start showing up until the last 2 weeks and by then most all the stuff worth buying had already been snatched up for the bargain price of 20% off (and you could still find it cheaper everywhere else)
Ya, I stopped in looking for some deals on BD movies or some video games. Nothing discounted to be found. But I know someone who got a decent deal on a 37" TV. I don't expect to see the majority of stuff be discounted for quite a while.
Most liquidations for large chains will start off with little discounts until they find a wholesaler that will take a large part of the inventory. When that happens, whatever is left over is drastically reduced.
So pretty much this means all the good stuff won't be reduced much as all.
The store I stopped at, cables & accessories were 30% off, DVD's and music was 20% off, everything else was a measly 10%, which is not really a discount as Circuit City was overpriced by about that much to begin with.
Most of the people that waited in line were just scouting out the inventory to see if they should even come back at a later date when the discounts really get heavy.
Obviously Circuit City is not REALLY interested in liquidating those assets.
That lack of understanding of the consumer electronic marketplace is what got them in this position.
Yeah, it was business as usual at my circuit city. The sign outside said "up to 30%". The signs inside said "10%" and "20%". The TV's all looked like demo's and had really high prices on them.
Newegg FTW! (Although, for some reason buy.com has been the lowest bidder lately and always with free shipping!!)
At this point, its not up to Circuit City. Its being done by a separate liquidation company. If that company says you can have 40% off, Circuit City can't say no.
apparently, it starts at 10-30% and goes up ten percent every week after until everything is gone. I'm waiting for 90% off of a demo external hard drive, myself.
Yeah... same problem... I saw forest gump there for $10, I was like yeah! $10... then I put it down after I saw the long lines. We went shopping at walmart and I picked it up for $7.50... Also, walmart was still beating the crap out of every electronic they had on "sale".
For instance... PS3 camera at Circuit city: $50, marked down from $60 or something like that.. at walmart it is $30... rubbish... I bet on newegg the damn camera is $20 :\ meh... so sad.
I wonder if any of those were "30% off with mail-in rebate" ;)
The look on an idiot consumer's face when they realize they're waiting for a check in the mail from an out-of-business company would be priceless.
I went to one at lunch. Prices were jacked up. But, there were lines of people at the checkout.
Go figure.
Yeah, I went in there today and the deals are just stupid. 10% off most goods, 20% off DVD's - for things which are already overpriced. I can't believe so many people went into that store to buy stuff thinking about a "store closing sale". Even DVD+Rs are cheaper in other stores or at least online. Complete waste of my time. This isn't a liquidation. Maybe when they come to their senses, they will reduce the prices further - just maybe! One of my friends at work was creating a list on Friday, of things he was gonna buy from Circuit City over the weekend. I can't wait to go back to work tomorrow and see if he got anything useful.
R.I.P. Circuit City.....your sometimes good offers on new video games will be missed...
lmfao funny but true
Everyone else is reporting that the crowds are unruly and the deals are craptastic. The savvy consumer should probably keep out of this mess.
Hey, since the deals suck, at least there's less of a chance of someone getting trampled to death this time.
So there's a silver lining for ya.
I was in a store where customers were cursing out associates because the Liquidators weren't honoring the sales paper ad.
The discounts were no where near as good as the sales they were scheduled to have.
The associates were fighting back too, mostly because they REALLY HAVE nothing to lose.
Read between the lines and be advised if you are an asshole, you probably wont be tolerated.
Yeah my local store was packed. I didn't even try because the parking lot was full. Since I figured the 30% off "everything must go liquidation" actually means 15% off all items priced at 150% retail, I could probably still get better prices on amazon or even at best buy. I have to say, I didn't see many people walking out with any items. I'm not at all surprised that they have no good deals. They will probably just resell everything... not liquidate to consumers.
yep. liquidators come in with the goal of making as much money as they can out of the mess so they tend to take everything back up to the recommended selling price and starting from there. as if the retailer got no additional discounts for bulk orders from the wholesalers etc. the idea being that they might get someone to buy it at cost and not at a loss. it's a wonderful little trick.
then as they have to start taking a loss they will do it slowly. by the time the prices really area steal, there will be so little left that it's not worth it. what you want is likely gone. either to another customer or some wholesaler comes in and grabs all the good stuff at a discount, adds it to his stock and sells it at his regular price and makes money out of the deal.
I went yesterday, everything was at MSRP with 10% off. Yea what a deal...
A TV I have had my eye on was a $900 after the 10% off. Amazon has the same TV for $750 with their white glove delivery. Really who do they think they are fooling in this day and age of the internet and the informed consumer?
Yeah I got my TV a couple years ago for $2300 via Amazon, no sales tax, free white glove delivery. Local stores like CC wanted $3000 for it, PLUS sales tax, plus you know those clowns would have wanted money to deliver it a whopping 5 miles to my place. Good luck guys.
Judging by the throngs of people fighting over items like they were fighting for the last barbecue rib at an "All You Can Eat" Biggest Loser reunion party, quite a few.
the circuit city near me was 10% off too almost all the stuff was gone. i believe that by the 3rd week the store will only selling the fixtures i think this was the only time i seen the store really busy other then chirstmas season
$10 says some other guy walked in half an hour after you, saw that TV and said 'holy crap what a deal!' and bought it.
If not, it will at least be gone before the next mark down.
We are not the vast majority of the consumer, we are the teeny-tiny minority, and the sucker to intelligent per minute ratio is even worse when it comes to situations like this.
these liquidators have hype down to an art. Only Congress can pass off a better sense of urgency and get people to buy shit that is too expensive to begin with.
This will just be like the Gordon Bros CompUSA liquidation. All the idiots will stroll in and buy crap at 10% off out of fear that it will begone before it hits 20% off.
Hopefully the weak economy will force them to keep the majority of their crap until 40 to 50% off when it is REALLY being sold below cost so these punks will take a bath on the inventory.
viva la Newegg!
That's funny you mention that. Because CC is being liquidated by Gordon Bros. They really are sleazy.
The Fry's own Fry's! Best Buy own Best Buy and I would much rather go toFry's any day (after I shop at Newegg, Onsale.com, eBay and Craigslist first). Besides, Fry's is the only place where you can find a portable lunch of an individual can of tuna, mayonnaise and crackers right in the middle of every candy bar known to mankind at the checkout!
i love those portable tuna salad lunches. Got a few in my pantry.
This is what a recession does, kills the weak. Sadly BestBuy is now pretty much THE only store that is in electronics business. But i hope New Yorks J and R, and PC Richards will use this opportunity to expand nationwide.
What about Fry's? Micro Center?
On top of that, Wal-Mart, Sam's and Costco have pretty big electronics sections now to at least see stuff in person.
Best Buy owns Frys.
I use a local store that keeps smaller stocks, they're able to give me better deals, for instance a while ago I was able to get logitech Z-2300 computer speakers for $125, when BestBuy was selling them for double that.
For every store that gives you a good deal there is another that jacks up the price.
Fry's is basically west coast only (1 store on the east coast), and Microcenter doesn't seem to have many stores over here either (I can only think of 1 in the entire southeast).
There's a Fry's in Illinois, also. Just outside of Chicago in the 'burbs and less than a mile from where I live. In fact, I'm headed over there in a few minutes. Just my way of celebrating MLK day...
Theres a frys in Indiana as well... just outside of Indianapolis... they are getting alot bigger and spreading... not to mention its like heaven inside!
Microcenter? Are you kidding me? Microcenter has the worst prices for new retail packaged items. (and I wont even talk about the help)
Just checked on this but Fry's is basically California and Texas: http://www.frys.com/ac/storelocator/index.jsp
OneLove - it may have the highest prices, but damn if they don't have a lot of stuff that is otherwise impossible to find at a brick-and-mortar store like Best Buy, so they do in a pinch for stuff that we can't wait for Newegg to ship (honestly, by the way - if Newegg set up retail locations even at slightly higher prices than what they have online, that would be WTFBBQAWESOMEZ!!!!)
MicroCenter in Radnor, PA actually sometimes has prices that beat Newegg, and its only a 30 minute drive. I was able to get a CoolerMaster case with a CoolerMaster 550w power supply for $90. The case without the power supply on newegg was $129 + $15 shipping. Their motherboard prices are a little higher than normal, but not always. Really, they're pretty competitive with Newegg.
What, and go the way of Crazy Eddy Antar?
@ The Steven, i see you are an auditor. Because it is mandatory to study the Crazy Eddie case if you are an accountant or an auditor.
Matt
Matt @ Jan 19th 2009 10:16AM
"Best Buy owns Frys."
No they don't
Fry's? Microcenter? I'm sorry, what? I see them in the [H]ot deals section all the time, but they don't exist on this coast. Forget Walmart, Sam's, and Costco. Sure they have a decent TV and computer section, but movies, games, tv shows, software, cables, speakers, tuners, radios, receivers, hard/optical drives, externals, etc etc are either nowhere to be found or almost non-existent in selection.
I wouldn't pretend to say CC or BB have good prices on either, but they're acceptable and without competition it's going to be much worse.
Circuit City would have liquidated even without the recession. They had absolutely no viable plan going forward. They probably should have done it a month ago, though, and capitalized on Christmas sales.
Microcenter is decent.... if you can get over the fact that the people there don't even know simple shit about computers. Then just ignore the fact that the store(i've been there a few times) is usually covered in filth. but ignore those two factors, and you can get some decent deals.
unfortuntately for every informed customer there are 10 misinformed idiots. That is who they are counting on to buy this marked up trash.
It begin on Saturday, I saw their website press release on Sunday. So I went to check it out. 30% off on wireless accessories, cables, etc. 20% off on CDs and DVDs (movies and music, not blank media and does not include video games). And then it's 10% off everything else. Also, there are policies of no returns on anything.
I didn't buy anything at all. The deals just weren't that amazing, most things are still cheaper on things like Amazon. The worst of it all is the fact that there are no returns. The only reason to shop locally is to get it immediately, and be able to return it if you decided you don't like the item.
does anyone know of a mobile price checker page? I need to be on site at the store entering in model numbers and seeing how badly marked up they are.
txt to google (466453)
http://www.google.ca/mobile/sms/index.html
its not listed on that page, but it can do it. text price the whatever the thing is and it will text you back, usually interesting. its free except if you have to pay your carrier for texting.
text "help products" to google and it will give you more info. i sound like an ad, huh?
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