Circuit City Liquidation Prices Still More Expensive Than Wal-Mart
from the liquidate-that dept
With Circuit City finally giving up the ghost last week and deciding to liquidate and close down its remaining stores, you might think there would be some decent bargains on electronics. Not necessarily. Consumerist points out that a local TV station checked out some of the prices and found that, in many cases, the liquidation prices were actually higher than buying the same items at Wal-Mart online. Apparently, the liquidation experts running the sales figure that as long as people think they're getting a steal of a bargain, they'll really believe they are.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: liquidation
Companies: circuit city, wal-mart
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Funniest thing ????
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If you do your research, you'll find that while the liquidations may hurt Best Buy and Wal-mart in the SHORT TERM, they actually come out better in the LONG TERM because the market is much less crowded.
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Re: Funniest thing ????
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Die, Circuit City, Die!
Commander: "Very good. Continue dying."
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Re: Die, Circuit City, Die!
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Perhaps if they cared about the people more, the staff would manage to educate themselves they business would have not disappeared.
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Re: ..why anyone would think that they could find great deals at a liquidation sale..
I'm sorry, but isn't ROI what you're supposed to be doing when you're IN BUSINESS? .. as opposed to GOING OUT OF? Clearance means you're not going to be around anymore and you're trying to get rid of things as fast as possible, not make as much money as you can from every piece of stock or make what's known as a "Profit" which is, again, what you when you're IN BUSINESS.
However if you think it makes sense to pay more for something that you can't return, soley for the privilage of a nice shiny "NO RETURN" sticker on it, then maybe these agents of darwin are doing the human race a service.
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Re: I am!!!
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circuit city
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Re: circuit city
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Re: circuit city
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Re: circuit city
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Also Circuit City has no one else to blame but themselves. As far back as I can remember they have sucked, a lot. I don't like Best Buy but at least I can recognize them as being much better at business than Circuit City. Good bye CC I can barely feel bad for even your employees because even most of their computer experts could tell a hole in the ground from their rear quarters when it came to anything beyond today's hype words and sale slogans.
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I just hope that the employees filled up their cars parked out back.
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Wal-Mart's electronics aren't the same
http://www.highdefforum.com/flat-panel-tvs/82529-walmart-electronics-lesser-quality.html
h ttp://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=25456799
http://www.businessweek.com/inn ovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2007/02/can_this_be_tru.html
It's not that Wal-Mart's electronics are bad necessarily, it's that you can almost never compare like-for-like with them. They're cheaper many times because they leave out features that you'd get from the models at Circuit City and so on.
That said, I was just at Circuit City, and most of their prices are still above what you can get online. But for big things like speakers and TV's where you have to add in shipping, it can be a reasonable deal now, whereas before you were just getting ripped off shopping there.
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Re: Wal-Mart's electronics aren't the same
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Yes, people should do their homework. But Wal-Mart still sells similar models that are cut-down versions of the "real" ones, often with much shoddier construction and materials in them to make them cheaper. People don't realize that, and part of a free market is information. Welcome to capitalism.
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Pricing
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I also heard them mention there was a 40% markup before the 10% discount.
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That obviously cant be true. Most of the associates at a CC store dont even have the authority to override the price at the register, they certainly cant change SKU value, etc. Also this would largely be considered stealing (or more technically maybe conversion) so I am farily certain its not and never was an official policy at Circuit City.
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Hudson Cap
Contracts are based on recovery - Hudson gets paid based on hitting a certain recovery target, generally 5-8% beyond what the company would be likely to get if they ran the liquidation themselves. Unlike other recovery companies, say Gordon Brothers, these folks are very focused on daily and weekly targets, and are likely to be compensating management that way, so it's in their interest to control the flow out the door. Unless you need something in their "draw" categories, these sales won't be good deals for anyone.
I actually have nothing against CC or Hudson - Hudson treated Tweeter employees far better than Tweeter did. But I do have an intimate and recent knowledge of how these folks liquidate an electronics retailer.
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Yeah, buy their shrimp - here's some info on where it comes from!!
Report alleges abuse in Asia shrimp industry
Workers told Thai police who raided one factory in September 2006 "that if they made a mistake on the shrimp peeling line, asked for sick leave, or tried to escape, they could expect to be beaten, sexually molested, or publicly tortured," according to the report.
hehe, my daughter tells me that it won't make any difference if just I refuse to buy shrimp from that area because of that...
So maybe some other person with a hint of humanity will go along.
But that's not really just Wal-Mart. Other than the pricey stuff at the Fish Counter, almost all of that junk is from Thailand.
Nothing against the people there in fact, I don't buy it for quite the opposite reason.
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On the human exploitation subject I would rather trust walmart than any other "small" shop as they have more control and most probably implement more humane conditions (Not because they want to, but as a PR measure and compliance to the law).
Anyways, I oppose use of exotic food sourced from faraway countries and oceans because of hygienic and environmental reasons.
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ex CC employee
I'll have to agree with John Doe's comment that the problems really became an issue after that big layoff. That was just a cover to inflate the companies balance sheet by trimming payroll so the CEO could get a bigger bonus that year. That idiot was a corporate raider, and left the last 2 companies he was CEO at in ruins. When I found out what that moron actually did; I left CC which was about 1 month later. Corporate CEO's & their upper cronies will be the death of America if they are allowed to continue raping the company payrolls for in some cases up to 70% of the payroll cash. CC's CEO, and 30 of the top executives comprised 65% of the company's payroll, but yet the chose to layoff 3500 actual workers to save their sorry butts! They chose to layoff the workers that were actually in the stores every day making money while the corporate kiss-butts sat in their offices finding new ways to wipe their back-sides with it.
Amazing the greed!
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Circuit Shitty
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Liquidation Goes On Through MARCH
Even better, the same model at Circuit City (40" 1080p LCD Samsung) was 1599.99 while its normally 1199.99 at Best Buy!
I also found out what a rip off Video Only is as their TV prices were closer to Circuit City's than Best Buy's.
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Makes you wonder...
I tried to visit the local CC this weekend just to check it out and to see what the deals were. I couldn't even get in the parking lot. It was *far* busier than I've ever seen it before. Way more than any 'Black Friday' sale, ever.
I've read different blogs/posts by many different CC employees stating that they simply can't believe how much business they've had since the started their liquidation sales. Lots of stuff flying off the shelves. And an understandable amount of frustration from those soon-to-be-unemployed employees as to where all these customers suddenly came from.
And as we're discussing here, for anyone that actually comparison shops it's pretty easy to figure out that CC's liquidation prices are still higher than what you'll pay online. And often still higher than what you'll pay at the Best Buy that's inevitably just down the road.
Seems like they could have just dumped the 'we compete with Best Buy' model years ago and become a 'bargain outlet' for electronics. Think like 'TJ Maxx' but for TV's and cameras. Even if the prices weren't any lower, it's pretty clear that loud & large promises of '30% Off!' are enough to get people in the store and buying.
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I worked at both Circuit and Best Buy during my college years. That kind of description wouldn't surprise me at all of the latter. Some line level employees did have the ability to manage prices. When I worked in customer service, I could bring a computer down to $1 in price without the system questioning me. There was no checks and balances in place at all. At Best Buy, anyone can do a price adjustment, but it must be backed by a ton of paperwork (signed forms, coupons, advertisements being matched, etc.)
Circuit City was disorganized and any good idea they had was adopting Best Buy's practices. It was too little, too late, though.
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I wrote about this Saturday
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Lame Pricing
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But what you can't get any other place but Circuit City....
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Mon, Tue - Everything 50% off marked price.
Wed, Thu - Everything 75% off (50% off from Mon & Tue).
Fri, Sat - Everything 87.5% off (50% off from Wed & Thu).
Sun - Whatever is left is free.
Go early and you don't get much of a bargain, but your selections are better. Go late and there is nothing worth getting, unless you are a junk dealer.
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What I purchased:
Guitar Hero World tour for the Wii (With one guitar) (Usually $99)
Les Paul Guitar for the Wii (usually $40)
Western Digital My Book World Edition 1 TB Network Storage System - WDG1NC10000N (Usually $278.00)
A Jeff Dunham DVD (marked at $10)
2 CD's marked at $4 each
My total? $312.47
The My Book World Edition is priced at $278.00 at walmart.... I think I got myself a good deal....
Link to the My Book World Edition at walmart
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5717110
Link to the Les Paul guitar
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7811168
Where they are screwing people is mostly on their TV's and their Computers. The prices there I felt were high, but then again I couldn't cross compare while in the store.
I recommend going down there and looking anyway.. saving about $125 on things you are going to purchase anyway... well... I can't complain...
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Not in Liquidation yet
Every one will just have to wait.
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Re: Not in Liquidation yet
And for the idiot that thinks the liquidators are not there, I know a CC employee that has had to close two stores underneath these people and all the CC employees can do is stay or go home without even unemployment. But I guess 35000 families not knowing when or how they will ever get back on their feet considering even Microsoft is laying off thousands today. Have a good laugh you jerks , it will come back to haunt you.
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Seen it first hand
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Total Rip off
Line was huge though, I opted to just leave. I'm not saying it is right for people to wait for a store to go bankrupt before buying, but there was no incentive to pick up any of their inventory.
KB Toys on the other hand had some excellent going out of business sales, we picked up some things we didn't need yet just because it probably wouldn't be that cheap again.
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Been there, done that
We put everything back and left.
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Circuit City $ 264 After discount.
Newegg $ 109.99
Are they freakin serious?
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I'll wait till 20% off or better ....
Alan (in LV)
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CC Tried To Rip Me Off
I found an open box, Sony 5-carousel disk player, but it had no box, no manual, and just the unit and the remote. I asked what the price was, and they looked it up and told me $170. That didn't sound too great for a floor demo model with no packaging, and no return policy. On my way out, I looked at it again to see if it had the ports I need, and realized only then that it was a CD player! No sale!
When I got home, I looked on Amazon, and found many models of new-in-box Sony 5-disk carousel DVD players for $120. Deal done.
Wow, those crooks were trying to "liquidate" me a beat up CD player for $170!!! What a scam.
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I have made exactly TWO purchases from them, both in 1988 when I was a lot more naive, and BOTH times the item I decided to purchase was "out of stock" and I ended up purchasing a more expensive modelsystem that turned out to be an inferior brand with fewer features. Both items were christmas presents I purchased while I was home on leave from the navy for a few weeks and didn't have a lot of time to shop around. After that I swore I'd never shop there again and I never did, and I made sure everybody I ever met knew not to shop there. F**k them.
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Bad Deals
What a rip off, and people were in there buying these "bargins" like it was going out of style....
Glad to see them go under...
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Bad Deals
When I went back in there this past weekend for their new sale, I was really just bored, I saw they had the same bag I bought two weeks ago for $99 with 10% off... Talk about ripping off people..
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SImple Understanding
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best buys
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A Great Company Ruined by Management
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Re: A Great Company Ruined by Management
one day, someone out there will realize that customers will pay for good service and be loyal to a company that provides it. too bad it took 35000 people out of work for them to figure out the "new" plan aint makin' it.
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True, and Walmart isn't always the least expensive one.
Still, liquidation sales don't necessarily mean great deals as far as I am concerned. CompUSA did not have any good deals when they went out of business.
It's probably time to make sure that if there are outstanding rebates in process, they are still valid.
Personally, I have been avoiding Circuit City rebates for quite some time based on the advice at: http:/www.uberi.com
They also have a quick note about liquidation sales in general. They have saved me from a lot of headaches through deals and shopping advices from time to time. Maybe someone will find it helpful.
By the way, it was nice when Best Buy decided to eliminate all rebates about two years ago. That was a nice touch.
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Girls Gone Wild
Go Liquidation!
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Sony LCD KDL40S4100
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I usually got good deals...
I agree with everyone that the liquidators jacked up prices. They're doing their jobs and it works. People don't have to buy.
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Re: circuit city
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Here's the thing...
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no change today
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two minutes in CC
But I have mixed feelings about them leaving the scene.
Bestbuy has that much less competition and you know what that means.
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CC Liquidation a Rip Off
You can get better buys elsewhere, to be sure. It's a total rip off so don't bother.
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Circuit City Selling Inventory Overseas
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I ask her if that's with the 20% off. I could hear the salesperson in the background say "Yes, that's 20% off the MSRP." I told her to wait, we'll go together some day, it's hard over the phone. So I look up the TV at bestbuy.com, Best Buy is cheaper, and they're not even going out of business. IT'S A SHAM, SCAM!!
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Circuit City..
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circut city
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cc
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Circuit City
I parked in the Best Buy lot, and sat in my car a few minutes, with a full view of the Circuit City and its lot. Even though were many people coming out of the store, not a single person appeared to have any merchandise in their hands. What's more, most seemed to head right across the parking lot to shop at Best Buy.
I have not set foot in a Circuit City store since the announcement. Quite frankly, I would feel too bad for the employees, most of whom have been hosed before by this company, either by working for rock-bottom wages, or being some of the previous employees unceremoniously let go and then "invited" back for half the pay.
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Obviously the 25% is off MSRP. Saw some speakers I was interested in that were actually a good buy, but I think they'll go down more.
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Only US stores will close. Canadian stores will remain open.
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found a few decent deals BUT the people are right.. beware!
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Denon 889
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