Circuit City Liquidation Madness

Business Deals — 18 January 2009

I was cruising around Santa Monica today running a few errands when I crossed paths with the now defunct Circuit City. As you can see they’re making people stand outside even though the store itself isn’t very busy. I didn’t bother to ‘ninja’ my way in and see what kind of discounts they had, but based on the line I’d assume it’s worth it.

Update: Our reader Xavier hit up the Hollywood store and after standing in line for an hour discovered that the promised 30% off was only on ‘cables’. Where as Mask667 noticed that the “people [at his store] who were younger walked in and walked out”, because the deals were so bad.

About Author

Christen Costa

Grew up back East, got sick of the cold and headed West. Since I was small I have been pushing buttons - both electronic and human. With an insatiable need for tech I thought "why not start a blog focusing on technology, and use my dislikes and likes to post on gadgets."

Richard D

In VA the sale was 10% off most everything in the store, I believe 20% off games and music, and 30% off furniture.
http://www.brian-lowell.com Brian

Well, some people got what they wished for and some got exactly the opposite.
http://www.youtube.com/xkenny97x Kenny Winkleman

Change is on the way! Yes we can!
Yeahhh

Complete utter failure.

Same people who sold the bowels of Linens-N-Things, Compusa, KB Toys and the others are the ones managing this fiasco.

Recommended to stay away and order from the actual cheap stores online. You'll find a better deal through the honest retailers.
xavier

the bargain is a joke: I waited in line for over an hour at the Hollywood location to discover…a 10% discount!!!!! And not on everything. The universal remote I was dreaming of was still $250.
The 30% Circuit CIty was attracting people with was only on …..cables!
Another good reason why companies like this should go out of business. Sorry for the employees…
Mask667

Its not worth it: only 10% off TVs, computer related items, camera/photo stuff, games. 20% off DVDs and music, 5% off consoles, i didn't check the audio section but i would guess that it was 10%. You can get yourself much better deals online. The people who were younger walked in and walked out, but the middle-aged and older people were the people buying stuff. I felt the need to stop them, but I didn't. 8GB sandisk cruzer (the black one with the sliding usb) was tagged 49.99 take 10% off that you have NO DEAL. I have saw the same usb drive for $15 on one of the legit shopping websites. Its pretty sad. Don't get into the hype, but try checking every week but on a weekday!
kwik

suckers, walked in and realized they we're bambozoled for 10%
Nicko05152

I was reading another article about them closing saying to watch out for the % off being taken off msrp not what circuit city was normally selling it for like blu-rays normally the msrp is $34.99 and $39.99 when both best buy and circuit city only $29.99 and $34..99 a CC sales associate also told me this and to look at prices else where to make sure your getting a good deal.
ramon

it's not worth it at all, I went to a store last night and I found a 10% discount on everything and 20% on cd's and dvd's, that's it!
Sal Salerno

Circuit City's "sale" is bogus. They raised all their previous prices to list price and now take a measly 10% off. It is liquidation not a true sale. They are probably trying to sell a majority of stock to other retailers like Best Buy and are trying to get the most money from consumers as possible. A Samsung LCD HDTV that went for $1899 at Christmas, that my friend got for $1799 is now $2299. Only cables are a bargain at 30% off. Even DVD's are raised to full list price of $19.99 and $24.99. No bargains here.
Aaron

I would hardly call 10% a deal. I went on friday to look at the Onkyo 606 A/V Receiver. The price was 449. I went back last night to find the price at 499 with a 10% discount. I wouldnt call that a good deal at all.
jardaan

In Oregon the sales were 10% off most items in the store and 20-30% off on very select items, like cables and furniture.
stars

Funny … give people 30% off and suddenly the place is packed… too bad circuit city has been dead for years and they just figured it out now.
http://www.andyfox.net andy fox

people are such idiots, arent they?
ken

What are you gonna do? Sue them for false advertising? That's why liquidation sales are always such a scam.
Bofus

Everything stated here is right on. Until they triple/quadruple the current discount you can do better online.
CRC

Why are people surprised to find crappy deals??? This is how liquidation sales work…To the people that think CC is to blame and are the ones doing this, think again. Once they go liquidation they lose control of pricing. The liquidation companies handle that. People are so stupid, I CAN'T HANDLE IT!!!!!
IllusivelyHopeful

Circuit City no longer has control over the prices of merchandise in the stores. The final word on pricing is decided by the liquidation company that is now in charge. For everyone complaining about the measly 10% discount should probably realize that the liquidators use whatever advertising and marketing to get you to walk into the store and buy out everything. Their purpose is to close down the stores and make profit. I feel bad for all the employees who are going to eventually lose their jobs and still have to deal with vultures badgering them about their measly discounts that they obviously have no control over.
TV-CC

We we're looking for a smaller LCD HDTV. Walked into CC, saw the crap prices. Got in the car and went to Sam's Club. We totally saved 30% off of CC's normal prices today. Thanks Mr. Walton.
Kyle Foley

I don't understand why people are so surprised about this. This is how liquidations work. You start off at a low percent off, like 10%, and then as time goes on the selection of products gets worse and the percent off goes up. My local Mervyns started of at 10% and eventually made its way to 70%+ off, but the store was empty by then.

And even with the discounts, its still worse than Newegg. I saw 1GB of Kingston ram at Circuit City yesterday for $99.99 and I almost threw up
ciper

I am not joking when I say many of the items currently on "sale" at Circuit City liquidations are MORE EXPENSIVE than other brick and mortar stores in the area. I called other stores (like Best Buy and Frys) while browsing to confirm this.

I then compared the priced to Amazon and my head nearly asploded. People are stupid.
Mickey

We went to the Holyoke MA store yesterday. My wife noticed that they'd jacked the prices up to MSRP. I spotted a "Kill A Watt EZ P4460" (it measures electricity use) for $49.99. I Googled it in my iPhone and saw it averages for around $30.00! I offered to pay $30 for it. The cashier, Charlie, said they can't make any deals beyond what's already offered (10%). And said, technically, they're not even Ciruit City anymore, but now work for the liquidators. That explained why all the workers were wearing sweat jackets and in some way hiding the CC logo on their shirts.
DVDs that I was buying 2 weeks ago for $6.99 on sale were back up to $19.99 with a 20% off tag. They can keep'em.
Ineresting note: Three weeks ago I bought a WD 1TB MyBook external hard drive for $139.00. NOW, they have it marked for "clearance" at $229.00 minus 10%, haha!
DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME
I hate Best Buy

I got 40% off a new set of speakers for my car, double-checked the price vs. online and CC was only $10 more so I saved……….
cg

of course — the liquidation comp is not here to give you good deals they are there to raise as much money as they can with the remaining inventory that they have and the more money they get people to buy things for the more money they make — this is the stupidest thread ever — do u think they r required to give the stupid american public/consumer a good deal???
pcw-pdx

not worth it. Here in Portland, TVs are 30% off MSRP. Costco and Amazon still cheaper and you can return them! Cables 50% off a ridiculous price. I bought a pair of returned Energy Take Classics right before the announcement for $380 ($599 MSRP). Returned it, came back a week later to find it priced at $539 (final liquidation price… what a joke!!!). Those looking for DVD Recorders… you might be able to save about $25-$30 off legit retail prices so that might be worth it. Overall, it’s for suckers so far.
pcw-pdx

and remember… it’s not Circuit City anymore… inventory is controlled by a liquidator… tried to find out who but wasn’t able to find out so far…