Circuit City: Long Lines For Few Bargains
Consumer Reports took a look at the so-called deals that people are flocking to at Circuit City — and again found that prices are higher than they would have been had the store not been liquidated. Judging by the photos of enormous crowds that are showing up in our Flickr pool — people still think that liquidation sales are bargains.
Consumer Reports says:
For example, at the liquidation, a 50-inch Panasonic plasma TV was discounted to $1,800, a $200 savings. That might sound like a bargain, but if you check the circular you’ll see that Circuit City had planned to cut the price this week by $500. What’s more, we found the same model online for $1,365, including free shipping.
An HP all-in-one printer, at the liquidation for $270, was scheduled to be on sale for $150. And we found it as low as $135 online. A Garmin GPS system, discounted to $225, was $160 in the circular and $141 online.
Despite the modest discounts, the checkout counter was mobbed. We repeatedly overheard salespeople telling customers that they had run out of merchandise. Shoppers were undeterred by signs proclaiming that all sales are final; that the store no longer was accepting the Circuit City credit cards, personal checks, or coupons; and that it wouldn’t match competitors’ prices.
They did find a few deals on items that are rarely on sale, such as the Nintendo Wii Guitar Hero World Tour bundle — but ultimately decided that the sale just wasn't worth it.
Meanwhile, Flickr pool member lanenem provided us with these photos of the liquidation mob. Sad.
Good deals hard to find at Circuit City’s liquidation sale [Consumer Reports]
(Photo:lanenem)
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Comments:
The Apple store recently gave me a free printer with my laptop that did not include a USB cord. Since I needed a USB cord, I figured I'd try Circuit City to see how good the deal was. The cheapest USB cord was priced at $30, going as high as $45. It also promised a 10% discount, which didn't seem like a deal. So I went next door to Target and found a USB cord for $10. And there wasn't a line ten people long.
Who seriously thinks there will be good deals there and that you STILL want to do business with Circuit City? They have poor service, terrible management, a slim selection of products, and somewhat high prices as it is. These are the reasons they're going out of business, and it's going to be just as bad if not worse during their liquidation. I would just avoid the whole mess. I failt to see why everyone is telling me, "Hey, you gotta go check out their sale!"
facepalm
There is a CEO somewhere saying to himself "Damn it! Why didn't we have this "liquidation sale" earlier. We could have made a fortune!"
Think about it. Right now, Circuit City is selling more merch than probably any other time in their history. Plus the merch is selling at MSRP or just slightly below. They are making a killing.
A carpet store in our town was criticized for their "Store Closing Sale" sign that had been posted for years. Now I am starting to understand why it was there.
@techstar25: Too bad CC isn't getting any of the money from the sales - they sold off the merch for pennies on the dollar to the liquidators who will get to keep all of the profit...
Those who don't do any research before they make purchases deserve what they get.
CC should switch to a full-time, permanent "going out of business" model, like oriental rug shops and some furniture stores.
@techstar25: Most likely truth in advertising laws. Just like they can't (legally) have something "on sale" at the same price for months on end.
And even worse (better), sales at msrp without the annoyance of having to deal with returns or exchanges or product support.
CC should have handled it's own damn liquidation.
This is American Consumerism at its best. Throw the words "Closeout" or "Liquidation" on a sign with some weird looking man outside holding it and dumb people will flock by the hundreds and over spend. Those two words are hypnotizing to people of low IQ's and more than likely these people shouldn't be spending their money anyways. What happened to people researching prices before being bamboozled by these "sales"? If only we could give these people something "purdy" and shiny, they might stare at it for hours and not feel the need to worsen their credit by buying crap that is over-priced and they most of all, probably don't need.
@tankertodd: In Wisconsin, it's illegal to post a closing sign for more than a certain time frame... (90 days I think.)
Is it wrong of me to tell anyone I hear proclaiming the "deal" they got at Circuit City, that they're an idiot?
Reminds me of my grandma, that will buy anything and everything as long as it is "on sale". Actually my wife is the same way. Go to the mall, and see something for "50% off". I tell her "Well, it is already marked up 300% because we are at the mall, and I guarantee I can find you the same item online for 80% off of that price", but she still thinks it is a bargain.
@Oranges w/ Cheese: Partially...but I think some of their stupidity may help us get out of it so long as they're not using bad credit to buy overpriced items.
Sounds like another ripoff from "You Don't Mess with the Zohan!"
I'll open up my electronics shop and call it "Going Out of Business."
@techstar25: Who is making a killing? I can tell you who isn't...here's a hint it's first name is Circuit. It's last name is City.
@silver-bolt: That would be better for us, but not for any Circuit City stakeholder as evidenced by the troves of idiots trying to buy overpriced goods...Thinking with my fingers, however, if they actually liquidated themselves and sold stuff below MSRP, they probably would have made about the same as they did by selling out to a crappy liquidator.
@snowburnt: Allowing liquidators to be successful hurts the economy. It means liquidators will be willing to pay more and more for closing chains. Remember liquidators are bidding against those than want to purchase the stores to keep them open. Helping liquidators means more store closings and more liquidations.
Consumer Reports took a look
I don't want to be rude, but when you refer to a story written by a company that you are organizationally attached to, isn't there an expectation that, somewhere in the text, will appear a disclaimer like "Consumer Reports is published by Consumers Union, who owns Consumerist.com" ?
I'm tired of seeing the "I found it online cheaper so somehow the retailer is scamming me" rationale. Go to slick deals dot com and see how many great deals are listed. Then click on the link and see how they are all sold out, or it's not really available. People please. Sure, there may be some items online that are cheaper. Amazon (if it's really being sold by THEM) is pretty good, but many of the online search results end up costing the same.
To be fair, it was ignorant, ill-informed consumers without the proper knowledge on how to open a CD, let alone apply for a mortgage, that believed the lies of loan sharks as they over-inflated property values.
But, yes. In essence it was people's ignorance, sense of entitlement, and continuation of the "American Dream" that allowed this to happen.
A fool and their money were lucky to get together in the first place...
@Mooshie: A lot of people are simply trained to look for sale signs and close in. They see the sale signs, the notice of closure, and the attention it gets online. For those with short attention spans it pretty much boils down to this:
Quick, there is a sale at Circuit City! They are closing, lets go!
They only reach that point of regret after they take their purchase home, attempt to show off to friends and family, and realize they didn't save any more than someone walking across the street to Best Buy would. And if they did do 'research', shopping online would have yielded much better results.
I can't wait for all the listings on Craig's List to appear.
Up until recently, I never thought I would ever shop at Circuit City. But then on Black Friday they had a great deal on Xbox 360 Arcades with a free additional wireless controller and 20GB hard drive.
Just last week they had the same, cheap Guitar Hero III + wireless guitar bundle that everyone has, but with cheaper prices on stand-alone guitars. I was going to pick up the package from the post office today... (damn you FedEx and your hand-offs! I would have just done in-store pickup had I known!) But now I might have to swing by CC in the *slim* chance they actually have a cheaper price in-store.
To be fair, I dropped by my nearby Circuit City last night before heading over to Trader Joe's, and at least, from what I saw, the "list" prices hadn't been raised. But nothing was available at it's typical "sale" price, and the flimsy 10% off for most items just isn't much of a deal. That said, they stock the specific home theater system that I want, a mid- to high-end system that's far from a common, everyday purchase for most, especially these days (and one that has a "sale" price typi9cally only $50 or $100 off), and if it's still there when the store discounts hit 30%, I'm grabbing one.
@festivusfreeforallguy: Lulz. You clearly have no clue. Half the stuff that I own is off of slickdeals. If I go to the SD frontpage, everything is available except for the first thing posted today. Do you just have a short attention span? Clearly you have to check it regularly or the deals sell out
@snowburnt: Circuit City is no longer owned by Circuit City. A liquidator owns it and will make all the money.
@techstar25: Reminds me of a furniture store back in my home town that used to have a "Going out of Business" sale at least twice a yearn.
@snowburnt: No, since the liquidators are selling at profit. CC could have liquidated to a child/sister company, and done exactly what they did here.
I honestly dont understand why people are buying so frantically. I recall when Computer City was bought out by CompUSA, they came in with their liquidation signs and were trying to unload merchandise for like 2 months without success. Ended up firing the liquidation company and shipping most of the remaining product to CompUSA stores. Back then I thought to myself "See, people arent COMPLETELY stupid..."
My local CC has Rock Band 2 for PS3 on "sale" for $171 - just slightly lower than Walmart but as-is with no returns possible. Do I have a "stupid" sign on my forehead? I wouldn't buy any electronics that had a no return policy.
@Oranges w/ Cheese: It's applied psychology. Being a good consumerist means not allowing practitioners of such to play you for a sap.
I went our CC, and was going to buy a couple of CDs, but then I saw the line to get out and how slowly it was moving. Given that the CDs weren't such a great deal anyway, I left without them. They were greatest hits compilations from classic rock bands, selling for nine bucks apiece. I can probably get the same deal from Wal-Mart, and not have to stand in line.
Suckers.
@Rectilinear Propagation: We have one of them in Herkimer, NY- furniture place by the Wal Mart. I swear, they have only 3 signs that they rotate-
"Going out of business sale!"
"Under new management sale!"
"Moving sale!"
It's got electrolytes!!
@festivusfreeforallguy: I can't wait until brick and mortar stores disappear, and yes, most of them will (See you in Hell, Circuit City!). Consumer's have the power in this market now. Why? The Internet. We can read customer reviews (if they haven't been tainted), and also check the prices at 5 different stores in under 5 minutes while sitting in our underwear. The ONLY benefit to shopping in store is immediate gratification. People that need this are typically blue collar, waste their paycheck at the bar, and live paycheck to paycheck. They also fall victim to paying for $300.00 in MonsterCable cables for their new tv.
@rbf2000: I'm not sure of that. Weren't they UNABLE to find a liquidator willing to buy the remaining stores? I think they're liquidating themselves.
@Sam Wille: Liquidation merchandise tends to show up at yard sales en masse around here in the summer, strange phenomenon I know. Since we have KB liquidating and CC now liquidating that should make things interesting. So I am waiting for this. Yard sales here mean actual rock bottom prices, and you can haggle, and if you say the right things and show people the cash you can usually get a much lower price than what is on the tag. If the people won't budge on the price then oh well, thats what you get for buying stuff you don't need from a liquidation sale just because it was a liquidation sale and I can walk off laughing.
@Saboth: This is why you have to learn to take the item in question, figure out what you will be paying for it after % off and then ask yourself, is this item worth x dollars or maybe I can find it elsewhere cheaper. Do I really want it? You have to ignore the percentage off sign and do this.
@Davan: You have to be careful with Slickdeals as well, it works better if your searching for a product that you are in the market for and you actually do need rather than looking through the deals and just picking out the best ones and buying them because that item was so cheap I couldn't resist. Its not fun if your constantly buying things you don't need or won't even use, just because its cheap. They do provide actual good deals though, in the right situation.
If you are looking for a specific product, and you are going to go to the store to buy it anyways and you find it for 50$ less on slickdeals, then its definitely a good deal!
@MrsLopsided: Definitely wouldn't buy this, rock band has a notorious failure rate, I know you can't return it to the store even if you bought it at Walmart however you will have better luck getting a replacement from the manufacturer if you have a receipt that is not from a liquidation sale.
I am not even sure about buying video games and cd's from one of these sales, if employees are going and gutting the cases and then resealing them and you buy a game and find an empty case you have absolutely no recourse in that situation since there are absolutely no returns. Just wait until one of these stories shows up on Consumerist, I bought a game at the CC liquidation sale but it turned out to be an empty case! Better just to buy it somewhere else, it will be close enough to the liquidation price to offset the risk anyways.
Isn't it stupid consumers that got us into this whole economy mess?