With all of the stores that have announced they are going out of business – such as Circuit City, Linens N’ Things, and more, you might be wondering how you can make sure you get the best prices. The second that a store announces that it’s going out of sale, you start seeing signs like “everything 20% off”…and then as time goes on, that percent goes higher and higher, until right before the store closes when everything is 75% – 90% off.
The question is, are you always getting a good deal when you go to one of these “Going out of business” sales? Well, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts such as my recent post on Circuit City going out of business, you aren’t always getting a great deal. To further prove this, here is a YouTube video where ABC News is at a Linens N’ Things showing how prices have gone HIGHER since the store announced that it’s going out of business. The video is a little under 5 min. long, but I think really goes to show you have to be careful:
Am I saying that you should stay far away from “Going out of business” sales? Of course not. Eventually these stores will lower prices enough that you can get some great bargains. You just need to remember that just because a store says something is “on sale” that it doesn’t mean it’s a great price. Have fun hunting for great bargains though, which can be found!
As many of you know, Circuit City announced on Friday that they will be going out of business, and closing all of their remaining stores. While I do not normally run to a store that just announces that they are going out of business, I realized I had better go soon since I had gotten a gift card from them back in September when I ordered something online, and Circuit City took more than 24 min to give me my item. I didn’t want to take the chance of losing “free money” by waiting for Circuit City to have great prices, so I went on Saturday, hoping to get something for free.
First off, I was surprised at how crowded the stores were! The liquidators hadn’t even gotten there yet, as the prices were about “normal” for them. They weren’t marked over with higher prices yet. (What normally happens when a store goes out of business is a liquidator takes over, and all prices get marked up, and from that point they say everything in the store is x% off, and mark it down from that higher price.)
What was even better news for me, was that certain sections were already at a discount. All CD’s and DVDs were at 20% off. While many of their DVDs are higher than other stores, a good portion are at the same price, such as Disney DVDs. I had planned on getting 2 DVDs before the end of January – The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition, and the Peter Pan Platinum Edition, since both go back “in the vault” at the end of the month. The regular price of these DVDs at most stores is $19.99, so I had been waiting hoping to find them on sale somewhere. Well, I was lucky that Circuit City had them for $19.99 each, meaning that after the 20% off, they were only $16.00 each. Since I had a $24 gift card, that made the deal even better for me.
Other then that, nothing had been changed, although I’m sure if I go back in the store this week (which I won’t) the prices will be higher, not lower. Going out of Business sales end up working better for the stores than for the customer in my opinion. Everyone knows that by the time the items is 75% off, there is nothing left in the store…so people buy everything up when the items are only discounted a little.
I’m just sad that Circuit City is leaving, because there goes almost all of the competition in our area. First CompUSA left, and now Circuit City. Why would Best Buy try to compete now? If you want electronics – and a good selection, you’ll probably go there since in many places you don’t have another option.
