That HDGuru article is from November, when CC closed some selected stores. It's not talking about the current liquidation.

Say I wonder, are the Canadian "The Source by Circuit City" stores dead too? I know they're having sales right now, but the website is still alive and such.

@Gawd Dammit: Well, the current CircuitCity.com page states:
Are you also shutting down your operations in Canada?

* No, our Canadian operations will continue. They are not affected by the liquidation of Circuit City's U.S. operations. The Canadian operations employ approximately 3,000 associates.

@mantene: That's too bad, "The Source by Circuit City" aka Radio Shack is awful.

@mantene: Oh I see. I guess it's because they are less abysimal in Canada....I guess.

Most of the announcements of the liquidation I heard last week said that the website was being shut down, along with their call center.

And if the article this post is based on is from November, then it looks like there's really no story.

@Gawd Dammit:
It's still operating. It's a shell of it's former Radio Shack glory... although the staff is a lot less goofy nerdy than before (I'd overhear in the past conversations about how waaaaay better one set of transistor radio part thingies were better than another).

Still I can't be bothered going inside the one near me. I'm attacked the moment I step inside with a sales rep holding cell phone pamphlets or digital tv offers. Batteries are cheaper at the liquidation stores downtown so I can't be bothered.

Raise the prices 30%, lower them 20%, perceived value goes up 30% and even more when you slap liquidation sale on it; hoards then crash your doors in a buying frenzy. It's depressing how easily manipulated some people are, though I doubt most people on this site are like that.

The sad thing is that its an abuse of trust, people trust that they are getting what the seller is presenting and that's not necessarily a bad human trait. #1 sellers need to not be deceptive and abuse that trust and #2 people need to do their due diligance when buying things.

I bought a 50 inch tv over boxing day and while I was asking questions another customer just came and and basically just bought a very expensive tv that wasn't on sale and this is boxing day were talking about here (like Black Friday here in Canada). When I was asking questions the guy actually got annoyed that he had to work to get the sale after that last customer. Yeah, why can't we just all be dumb consumers and just throw our money away, it's a lot more profitable that way.

My brother said his friend was thinking of buying a tv from Circuit City. It was going for $1100.00 on the website and was "marked down" to $1300.00 at the store.

Knowing that CC is not the only going-out-of-business retailer that has done this, what does happen to all this unsold inventory? Clearly there isn't a strong need to "liquidate"... are products returned to manufacturer at a set rate, or sold in bulk to other stores? Something must happen because they are so unwilling to break on the prices.

@philmin: I worked at a ShopKo that closed years ago and when they liquidated, EVERYTHING was to be sold. Nothing got sent back. Nothing got sent to other ShopKo stores (except registers, shopping carts, etc...fixtures were sold off). Why would the manufacturers offer to buy back the unsold merchandise? The liquidation is to pay back the creditors who have already paid the manufacturer for the goods.

What if they had a liquidation sale and nobody came?

A guy I know "paid" $50 for a 42" LCD TV at the local CC via the back door and a guy he knew who works there.

@cunninglinguine: Why pay $50 to steal a television? *roll-eyes*

"... you are not allowed to check to see that your merchandise works before you buy it."

I can totally see CC employees stuffing HDTV boxes with bricks and claiming all sales are final.

@jp7570: Future liquidators won't bid as much on other stores that fail, leaving the door open for someone willing to reorganize and keep the store open to buy it.

I went to CC yesterday to look at TV's for my Dad's office. The prices on Amazon were cheaper than the liquidation "sale" prices at CC.

@ludwigk: Have you ever tried to carry a 42" TV by yourself? The $50 was for help to the car.

There is not a single good deal at Circuit city right now. People bought EVERY LAPTOP WE HAD because 10% off, when they would be $200 cheaper in a normal paper's sale. People bought DISPLAYS with no battery for 10% off, because they thought they were getting a deal. Ignorance fucks you.

It's hilarious, because Saturday, the day we announced liquidation, the store was completely packed. We did about 5x our normal budget we would do on a Saturday. People are such idiots.

@TheFuzz53: and did you factor in shipping?

Our store as of yesterday had all everything at the store at their 'normal' non-sale price, as evidenced by price tags on the shelves that showed print dates mostly pre-Christmas, some as far back as October. Then they were taking 10-30% off from there, depending on what it was. Half of the display TVs were gone. All iPods and PS3s had been pulled, and I think most large-screen boxed/unopened TVs had been returned as well too. Perhaps their contracts with Apple/Sony/etc. don't allow them to liquidate them.

There were a couple decent deals, but really nothing better than what you'd find in a weekly ad so far. I'll definitely swing by at 50 percent or so, I'm sure I'll find something by then.

@howie_in_az: Does it really matter? If it's defective, the warranty comes from the manufacturer. When was the last time you checked a TV before you left a store?

@howie_in_az: TVGenius has a point...you really shouldn't worry, since your box of bricks isn't going to fail anyway.

the reason the sales were better on line is because that was the sale for that week!!! it funny that the weekly sale was better then the liq sale. people are just to stupid to see that. so because people think they are getting a better deal now then befor 30,000 people are going to lose their jobs.

It's no secret that liquidation sales are bogus. CCity had a 30% off on cds a few weeks ago, now they're being sold at 20% during liquidation. The point of the liquidation sale is to make as much money as possible NOW. As interest in the initial going out of business frenzy dies, the discounts will increase. The sale is NOT there to bring you in to build your loyalty as a customer to maintain a sustainable business. If anyone here bought anything at a CCity liquidation sale, I would be very surprised. Consumers that know enough to follow consumer news won't fall for prey to the phrase "Going out of business sale!" But back to what I was going to say originally: Circuit City does NOT exist anymore. That's why you can't browse offerings at circuitcity.com anymore. It does not belong to shareholders or a private company!

@Cyclokitty: I disagree with that assessment: the Source store experiences I've had have all been positive. I actually appreciate it when a salesperson tries their speil on me. For one, it's good to know that people at least are trying (if I owned a store, I'd like to know my salespeople were working rather than goofing off) and secondly once I tell them "I'm just looking, thanks" they back off nicely.

@kjherron:
Even still everyone knew that this was going to happen that the liquidator would raise prices. This seems almost like a pointless article.

I was at my local (Toledo, OH) CC store yesterday. The "deals" were absolutely craptacular. They were offering a "generous" 10% discount on everything but DVD's, which were 20% off. That being said, the discount would be taken off MSRP pricing. I figured I might snag a cheapie iPod case for the fiancee... they wanted 29.99 (less 10%) for a protective sleeve. I did think it was funny that they had "Zombie Strippers" on sale, for 24.99 less 20% off. Sad to say, I had to pass on that bargain too...

I went into the Bellevue, Washington Circuit store on Saturday Jan.17th 2009 after they had been running going out of business ads all week over Seattle radio and TV stations. I really didn't need a new TV but my son talked me into going in to look at HD TV's I'm not the person to buy big ticket items at the spur of the moment. The Panasonic TH-50PZ85U was on sale for $1599. I came home and my son researched the price for that model on the internet and that was a great price. I stewed over it Saturday night and decided Sunday morning to go get it. I called the store to make sure they still had some in stock and they said they had 5 left so we went to fight the crowd. I immediately went up to a salesman and told him what I wanted without even going back and looking at the same display model. He went into his computed and said it would be $1999. I said BULL! it was $1599 yesterday. He said "that was yesterday's price"--I went back to look at the display I saw on Saturday and the price was jacked up to $2199--and the $1999 price was with only 10% off they were offering Sunday. I'm sure many people who did get good deals on Saturday told all their friends about it and the store on Sunday was twice as crowed on Saturday, but they changed all the prices in the store on Saturday night. SCAM???????? obviously!!!! I went to Best Buy right after that and bought the same thing for $1650 with free delivery. No wonder Circuit went bankrupt---I'll bet they were full of deceptive sales practices! --even before filing for Chapter 11.