Circuit City's liquidation party supposedly started today. Send your first hand accounts to us at tips@consumerist.com and/or submit your photos to our Flickr Group! Put "Circuit City Death Watch" in the subject of your email, and tag your photos "circuit city."
This is a test contextual ad for the SHOPPING category. It should appear on all SHOPPING entries, unless the subcategory has its own ad.
Post a comment
Comments:
Will be going to circuit city tomorrow, will see what is up.
Does anyone have info about their 'extended warranties' for cameras and stuff? will they still be honored?
@tenio: From what I've read, warranties will still be honored. And by honored, I mean you will probably be given the runaround, and end up sending Consumerist a story about your experience.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0535423020081105
The CC Liquidation "Sale" is being brought to you by the same great people who brought you the CompUSA closing sale...
So I imagine yesterday was busily spent marking everything up to Full MSRP and putting up the same Crappy Nothing held Back and fill in the Blanks Discount Posters
@tenio: Presumably, since they're still selling them in the other 3/4 of their stores, the extended warranties still work just as well as they did before.
CC going out of business sale is crap. I was looking for PS3 games and found them costlier than Amazon. Plus I have to pay tax. Plus "All sales are final".
No wonder they are going out of business.
The warranties are owned by Assurant Solutions and they will still be honored.
Sort of honored. Assurant did CompUSA's warranties too. Ask their ex-customers about how well the warranties are honored.
i had a pretty good experience at my circuit city. last year i bought a Garmin GPS and a 2 year extended warranty. They told me that if i got the extension, I'd be able to get the updated maps during the next 2 years as a free upgrade. When I found out the store was closing, I went to get this years map. The kid there was so pissed that he was now losing his job, he just exchanged mine for a brand new model, the upgraded version and a widescreen, in the box!
Is this another Gordon Brothers thing with "bargain" $1000 36-inch TVs?
warranties are still honoured by the circuit cities that are not being closed.
Store in Clarksville, IN was pretty busy by the middle of Wednesday. Twice as much staff as I've ever seen in a CC store. Most items are 10% off, CDs/DVDs are 20% off, and car stereo 30% off (with that staff having been laid off). All floor models and furniture have been marked for sale. Lots of mice from displays now in plastic bags with accompanying manuals, software, and the original UPC cut from the cardboard box, but without prices (staff have to look up in computer).
At least one customer was unaware of the store closing, even after looking at laptop computers for 20 minutes. Most customers and staff fully aware of the closing and not afraid of talking about it. In-store Verizon sales people were commenting out loud that most of the TVs are more expensive today (with 10% off the "original" price) than they were just two days earlier. "Just because there is a yellow tag doesn't make it less expensive" Adding that many of the big screen models are $2-300 more expensive now, and that the liquidation company must be making out pretty well in the deal.
On checkout, they cross out all bar codes on merchandise, and stamp "all sales final, no returns" on both sides of sales receipt.
I saw an ad in today's Washington Post about certain stores where the "Entire Store is on Sale" but no mention these are the stores that are being shut down by Circuit City.
I'm sending a pic of the ad to the flickr group. One of the locations is nearby me so I will head over there to witness the bloodbath tonight
BTW, tagging photos circuit city in flickr makes two separate tags. one called Circuit and the other called City, I have tagged mine circuitcity as well.
I went to our local one last night and there weren't any "deals" to be had, unless you wanted to beef up your DVD collection. They actually had a decent variety of stuff, but the prices were absolutely horrible. Take for instance a Nikon 70-300mm VR lens. I bought it BRAND NEW from Ritz right after it was released for about $500. Circuit City's "store closing" price was still $610. Who are they trying to fool?
First, I like not being able to change my screen name!
Second, checked my local store yesterday (Morrow, GA). While it was packed, the majority of items on sale was only 10%. The cds and dvds were 20%, but that was hit or miss too depending on the sticker price. The console games were only 5% (oohh big saving there...not). Maybe in a week or two there will be some deals, but I doubt it.
I was at my local closing CC last night and noticed that most of the DVDs had shiny new price stickers on them for $21.99 or $24.99. Apparently closing for a day before the clearance sale gave them enough time to mark all their prices up. I even took a picture of two copies, same version, of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, one priced at $21.99 and the other at $24.99.
I guess it's easy to offer a 20% discount when you've marked everything up 10-15%.
@MassimoEldred: I'm not a fan of this "all sales final" business. I live in an area where some are closing and some aren't. Seems to me that I should be able to make the return at another "non-closing" store if I want to, as long as I have the receipt.
drove past the deer park, IL store on tuesday and they had the gates down in the doorways with all the flashy "out of business" signs up everywhere. may stop in this weekend and check it out... sure hubby could find a dvd he "needs" if it's 20% off, like people are saying. =)
I went by on Wednesday and the store was very busy, but no good deals to be had. It was 10% and 20% off stuff you can still find cheaper elsewhere, no real electronics had been marked down at all yet. The lines of people walking *out* empty handed should have been a clue. I will probably check another store today while I'm out.
The final liquidation of the company's assets has begun. The assets [inventory, Firedog, the Canadian operation, leases, CircuitCity.com, the name, fixtures & equipment, etc.] are being auctioned off tonight and tomorrow by the Bankruptcy court in NYC.
Ricardo, Wattles, and O'Shaunessy [among others] are battling it out. There is enormous value there for the liquidators. It's too bad - I still think it could have been reduced to a significant 300 store chain that could have successfully competed with Best Buy and provided suppliers with the type of environment they need to sell something besides entry level POS.
They aren't owned by Circuit City. They are owned by a company called insurrant... all warranties will still be honored and maybe easier because they will most likely send you money if the thing breaks.
Assurant*
I went to the local Circuit City today to look at a Digital Hard Drive Camcorder that I had looked at last week. How surprised was I when the price tag from last week showing $299 had been replaced with $399. But hey lets not forget that we get another 20% off. Even with the discount you are looking at a new sticker price of about $319. These liquidators are modern day vampires that are taking advantage of not only the consumers that they deceive but also the companies that they quietly represent.
I work for a large digital camera manufacture. We received several calls where the item in the box did not match the model stated on the box. Before you hand over your credit card inspect the item inside the box. The manufacture will not take responsibility for an incorrect model inside an open or as is box since you would normally return it to the dealer. Technically, you are responsible to pay for missing items in the box, not the manufacture. Most will provide a couple of missing items if you have the receipt. Also most warranties are voided for as-is or open box purchases.
As much as CC sucks, they are nice to have to supply a little competition to BB to keep prices low. The 2 CC's in my town are across the street from BB, so it is/was always nice to go back and forth to get the best deal.