f13.net

Here's a list:

Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine's to close 150 stores nationwide
Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
Cache will close all stores
Talbots closing down specialty stores
J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots)
Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)
GAP closing 85 stores
Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January
Wickes Furniture closing down
Levitz closing down remaining stores
Bombay closing remaining stores
Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
Whitehall closing all stores
Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.
Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
Macys to close 9 stores after January
Linens and Things closing all stores
Movie Galley Closing all stores
Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.
Wilson Leather closing down all stores
Sharper Image closing down all stores
K B Toys closing 356 stores
Loews to close down some stores
Dillard's to close some stores

I guess you can check to see if they're closing in your area.  (http://www.democraticwarrior.com/forum/images/smilies/shopper.gif)

Piercing Pagoda?

I kind of giggled at that one, too.  They have little stands set up in malls.  They've been around since I was a kid.  I think they only do ears.  Maybe noses, dunno.   Everyone in the mall gets to watch while your ears bleed.  Kinda cool, actually.

If any of those stores sold something of value, I would be worried.

There's some furniture storres, Home Depots, Macy's, all sorts of stores on that list that sell things most people might want or need.

Kitchen stuff, clothes (always need more clothes), and I have been thinking about getting more piercings.  Probably some great white elephant gifts in all that.

I didn't know there was a Home Depot in my hometown.  Weird.

Not sure you really want getting piercings from a stand in the mall.   :ye_gods:

They only do ears anyway, iirc.  Not that you'd want to get anything else pierced in a mall kiosk.  :-o

I'm kidding, Signe.  Not like they're expensive from a tattoo and piercing studio.  We've only got a dozen that are closer than any mall is to me.

The thing keeping me from doing it is I know I'll get fixated on wanting a tattoo if I walk into one.

Fake edit to add: I want more ear piercings.  Other areas don't interest me.  On me.

Of course, you nearly sawed off your fingers cutting up dead polar bears.  Obviously, you are immune to disease! (http://www.yessaid.com/forum/images/smilies/bb.gif)

Bombay and Ethan Allen sell low quality but high priced crap being passed off as furniture.

Home Depot requires homes, I am guessing these stores are closing in areas of high foreclosures.

Macy's has gone down hill for so long, and it is certainly not up to par with Nieman Marcus or Nordstroms.

It sounds to me like these stores are closing due to their inability to compete.

I'm sure that's true much of the time, but probably not all of the time.  The recession just seems to be culling the weak and stupid, but there will be innocents along the way.

Oh, and I know there is a whole thread dedicated to it, but Circuit City deserves as much ire as they can get.  WEEKS after they begin closing stores, and how much of that shit is really on sale?  Practically none of it.  Yeah, I know some of this shit is marked up to 30% off, but it isn't.  The only stuff I can tell that is noticeably cheaper are all the things that people know the cost of (like games, dvds, etc...everyone knows a dvd costs about 15 bucks, so you cannot fool them)...and then the discount is pretty small.  I deliberately found several items and compared prices at the Best Buy right next door, and the CC stuff was either the same price or more expensive.  Fucking crazy.  I wanted to scream out "this is why you are going bankrupt, you stupid bitches!"

Macys can't even do bags properly. And their clothing lines have gone to shit. Also, they can't figure out their target demographic. They carry stuff like Avirex and other notably "hip hop giant clothing bullshit gear" next to Polo and Ralph Lauren (two other brands that haven't advanced in 30 years). They also carry the ghetto lines of Mark Ecko next to the impressively fashion forward Cut & Sew designs.

Anyway, they're a fucking mess. They have a nice leather section for coats and such in areas populated with upper middle-class folks.

Circuit City has sucked for years. It's not shocking they can't even liquidate properly. Though I suspect they're just biding their time until Black Friday, hoping for a rush and will start liquidating for realz shortly after.

For most of those stores, odds are they're not even running their own liquidations. (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6326174&page=1)

Spending money to liquidate. That sounds stupider than Mark Jacobs tip-toeing towards the inevitable.

They are. All the stores named are rubbish, and few people are going to miss them.

I will miss Home Depot because they carry more construction & large project materials, whereas Lowe's focuses on finishes.

I am guessing that the areas in which the closing Home Depot stores are located are not currently experiencing a significant amount of construction or large scale project activity.

The Home Depot near my house in Toronto is always crowded.

Also, picked up a few items at the Linens and Things clearance sale, including a new Roomba. 

Agreed.  Culling of the weak.  Note that some of those listed are of the "closing a few stores" variety while others are of the "our business model shit itself" variety.

Not like Home Depot is closing more than a tiny fraction of their stores. They've overexpanded into some areas, there's places I go where there are 3 Home Depot stores in near placement. Hell, even where I live there are 2 Home Depots about 7 miles apart. With a Menards within a mile of each, and a Lowes across the street from one.

I saw that story on Good Morning America today. Just confirmed what I already knew, that many of these stores are marking up things before the liquidation "sale" prices are ever applied.

I read somewhere sometime that Best Buy employees made money based on commission and Circuit City got rid of that?  This turned into a lazier and less motivated staff of salesmen which turned off customers.  Not sure if this is true or not.

That would explain why Best Buy employees really want to sell me a TV but don't give two shits if I need batteries.

Uhhhhh no.

Best Buy hasn't had commission since before they were Best Buy. Circuit City followed suit when they got their ass stomped to them in their home turf on the east coast. Shortly thereafter, CompUSA dropped it as well - but a little more slowly, first digital cameras didn't get commission and then computers and finally laptops.

The only folks who get anything close to sales-based compensation in Best Buy are section managers (like appliance manager, TV manager, etc.) and store managers, and that's only if their department or store goes over their projections for the month/quarter/year.

Even then, it's really not very good. >_>

Let's break this down:

Circuit City - Shit
Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherines - Shit shit shit and shit.
Eddie Bauer - Expensive shit
Cache - who?
Talbots - Shit
J. Jill - who?
Pacific Sunwear - Shit
GAP - Didn't they actually see their profits go up despite this?
Footlocker - Shit
Wickes Furniture - Never been
Levitz - Shit
Bombay - Shit
Zales - Shit
Whitehall - Never been
Piercing Pagoda - Don't care
Disney - Shit, glad ours is gone.
Home Depot - Out of HOW many stores?
Macys - Shit
Linens and Things - Shit
Movie Gallery - Hahahahah die you fucks. I worked there for a bit over 2 years and it's the shittiest rental chain in existence despite renting porn. Movie rental stores are DEAD.
Pep Boys - Out of a billion jillion stores.
Sprint/Nextel - Another outfit with a shitload of stores.
JC Penney - Hasn't been any good for years.
Ethan Allen - Ditto.
Wilson Leather - I'll kinda miss these guys actually.
Sharper Image - I thought this happened like 4 years ago? We're in the future already, we don't need shit from airplane sales catalogs.
K B Toys - Again, I thought they were dead already.
Lowes - Another place with a shitload of stores everywhere.
Dillard's - Don't know.

The economy sucks and it's depressing to see a lot of people lose their jobs but most of these stores have been doing poorly for years. The economy just delivered the coup de grace.

Dillard's was Nordstroms for low and lower middle class folk. Decent clothes at a decent price with some second run name brand stuff like Ecko, Ed Hardy, Affliction, Buffalo, etc. Though Buffalo may have been exclusive to it. Anyway, point being, it's not bad, it's just VERY BADLY RUN and designed by morons.

The stores you said "Who?" to are for middle class white women.

I work in an office filled with women who run from college grads to nearly senile and no one goes to the fucking fashion bug, or Talbots. Lane Bryant maybe, Macys/JC Penny definitely, Nordstrom's definitely (not on the list, but just saying), but all of talbots/fashion bugs around here made me kinda sad driving past them since I never saw any cars or people around them ever. It confused me how they even stayed in business. I mean, how do you work at a rung of stores that gets strip mall locations that look inaccessible driving by, if you can even see them at all? I seriously have a kind of awful feeling in my stomach imagining working a register at Talbots, jumping up excitedly whenever the 3rd customer of the day walks in to look at stuff and not buy anything.

Maybe they're just one of those store chains that's super popular in really specific regions?

Meanwhile, stores I hadn't heard of until they came to my city (Gordman's, Famous Footwear, etc) are doing really well here.

Dillards is where JC Penny isn't.

We used to have two Dillards and a Penny's here. One dillards was leveled and a sams club rose from the ashes.

The linen's and things here closed down years ago.  I did get a twenty dollar robosapien from it though.

Isn't talbots a fat chick store?  I swear I remember that about them from working in the mall days.

Nope, just an overpriced unstylish store for women.

I'm only sad to be seeing thousands of people losing their jobs....and where will they go?

Welfare lines. And to your job for less money. And maybe some will join the military.

Walmart.

Wish I was joking.

http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=wmt (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=wmt)

I honestly don't feel bad for the large companies, the economy has changed and so have the customers, adapt or go extinct I suppose.  The people I do feel bad for are the small independent operations, the family run businesses that are just floundering.  Every time I drive by one of those "main street" type of areas near me, it's now half made up of "For Lease" signs everywhere, just like my local mall.

I really think we've seen about the worst of the residential real estate collapse, but the commercial crash is still on it's way.  Companies like WalMart, who have made their name based on "cheap" are the only ones who are really in any position to thrive.  Those middle of the road retailers who used things like customer service and better quality as their selling points are really just destined for failure.  You're either WalMart, or your not.

I work in the grocery business, and my company is known for it's prices.  That's what we do.  But we're a co-op with independently owned stores (Albeit 1million/week size stores), but we're experiencing a 10-15% upswing over the previous year, and though 5% is from flat pricing increases, the rest is from people who really care about saving money.

So while these mismanaged retailers are falling on their face, our company is actually expanding and thriving in this environment, but only because we were in the position to take advantage of the economic situation.

I really believe that in January/February we will see the majority of it.  A lot of retailers depend on the holiday sales to carry them through the slow months in the beginning of the year, and I just don't think the money is going to be there.  My family isn't going to exchange gifts at all this year, nobody really has the extra cash for it, and I used to spend $300-400 every Christmas on just my family.

One thing I'd add to that is that the cheap end of the market has become a very crowded sector in recent years, at least in the UK. The competition for selling shoddy crap is intense. As an example, here in the UK, Woolworths has just gone into receivership. Woolworths is a very old chain of stores that were always very much in the "cheap & cheerful" mold but increasingly they've faced competition from supermarkets.

WalMart are a great example - they own ASDA here and supermarkets like that have increasingly diversified over the last decade or so. Where they used to sell groceries and not much else they now sell pretty much everything from clothes and furniture to TVs and DVDs and even insurance and banking products.

I think you're spot on about the small businesses - they're increasingly going to be swallowed up by larger ones (as is the case in any crisis of overproduction, i.e. recession) and we're going to see a further large shift towards monopolisation. So much for competition breeding choice eh?

Uncle Obama's welfare lines.  :grin:

Heh, yeah, how many times now has the phrase "share the sacrifice" been aired in recent weeks? I'll shut up there or run the risk of dragging this into politics...  :uhrr:

god i wonder why sharper image went out of business

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpDZ3WotLXY

Oh god. WHO BUYS THAT SHIT?!

I would play that.  It's better than what I'm playing right now which is the washing machine. 

The best thing Sharper Image had was the electrostatic air filter.

That thing was a useless piece of shit actually. Unless you already knew that.

Yeah.  Mine works fine for what it is and where it is.  I would not use it in any serious application.  My last house had a mold problem that this thing would not even come close to handling, and we put in a decent filtration system in the HVAC unit.  It didn't have an electrostatic filter, rather it relied on sticky intake filters and a UV light.  Electrostatic filtration is a good idea but pretty easy to half-ass, apparently.

It's not even really a good idea and it doesn't really work. You'd have to blow a fan through the back of it to make it remotely worthwhile. Consumer Reports did a writeup on what a piece of shit it was, particularly for the cost.

This is the biggest problem I have with it.  Overpriced and underpowered, better to invest in some HVAC filtration.  It is still the best thing SI had, unless you start considering things like that full-size xenomorph replica I saw in a store somewhere.

Apparently, nobody. The amount of doucheface in that video was truly  :ye_gods:

I had to change the title. I just couldn't take it anymore.

/ocd.

More Circuit City fun.  I saw in their Black Friday ad that they had two 12" Kicker subwoofers for the price of one, so 100 bucks gets you two.  I went down to the local one that is on their third week of Store Closing Big Savings and noticed that they had the same speakers there.  Marked all the way down to 89 dollars apiece.  Um.  The only thing dumber than that is that people are lapping that shit up.  As stupid as CC is, their customers are worse, it seems.

I'll kind of miss Wilson's Leather. I used to go in there when they had their stuff on sale. I thought KB Toys was already dead? It was the shittiest toy store in existence mostly because its selection sucked.

What worries me is a lot of these are stores in my local malls. I shudder to think of either mall with half their spots empty because stores are closing.

If it's only half, then your mall is doing better than most.  The mall mall near me that ISN'T directly targeted at the $100k+ income crowd has Victoria's Secret, Aunt Anne's, Spencer's Gifts, Hot Topic and B. Dalton as its sole reason for exsistence now.  The other major stores are Talbot's, Gamestop, Footlocker, Abercrombie, and the three "Gap" flavors.   Oh, and the usual mall jewelers, but nothing will ever put tacky overpriced crap like that out of business.

When Spencer Gifts is one of your anchors stores, it's time to just shut down the mall.

Can we please add Ikea and Pier 1 to the list?  I hate the overpriced crap both of those places sell. 

What in the 9-hells is Ikea overpriced compared to? Walmart? Because it's not.

Pier 1, well, yes, agreed.

Ikea is reallllllllly cheap. Seriously, go to to a regular furniture store, you will weep.

BTW this list appears to be from a spam email thing that went around recently:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/storeclosings.asp

My comment on Ikea was more one of value than price.  I'm not impressed by the quality of 99% of the items they sell.  I just can't see paying that much for throw-away furniture unless it were for a dorm. 

Or a bachelor pad. Or bachelorette pad. Or ANYTHING that isn't a home for a family. And even then, some of it isn't so bad. Heh.

I've gotten a bunch of good things from Ikea and a few lemons.  The trick seems to be to not go for the absolute cheapest line of any particular item.  And even then it's usually fine as long as you don't plan on moving it around.

I would not, however, ever buy something from the catalog.  Seeing it in the showroom and kicking it a few times to see if it breaks is essential.

...or if you have kids and realize that you can not have nice things in the house until they turn 18.

Or even after 18 if they still act like kids...or you yourself or your friends still act like kids.

Or if your kids steal all your money and move to the Yukon, so you can no longer afford furniture that isn't from IKEA.

There are some weird threads going around this morning, and I'm proud to be a part of them.

Ikea bookshelves are fantastic - I've had a few sets of them for years and they seem pretty much indestructible.  Their dressers and drawers however fucking suck.  One sock too many and the bottom will fall out of drawer and basically you'll spend a few hours with a hot glue gun and shims trying to get it to fucking hold well enough until you can afford to replace the entire damn set.

I think Samwise has got the overall right idea though. 

Wrong. Most of it is made of composite or fiber board. Its shit. If you think composite is okay for furniture you are doing it wrong.

Composite and veneer are two words I avoid when buying any furniture unless I accept that I'm going to throw it away in a couple years.  They do make a good point... on a budget it's reasonable in the short term.  Personally I prefer to just wait until I can afford solid wood stuff.  I've never regretted it. 

That's nice for you, Captain Moneybags (I jest), but most people cannot afford solid furniture.  Also, having worked in a furniture store for several years in my younger days, I promise you that well over 90% of the human population doesn't even know the fucking difference between solid wood and some form of fiberboard, at least on a higher quality fiberboard.  I know you are a bright guy, so this question is directed at the general You:  are you really sure that shit is solid?

Two words: Estate Sales. 

I've picked up some WONDERFUL bargains.  Handmade furniture for pennies on the dollar.  You just have to do a little research. 

My bedroom furniture was made by the Amish, so I'm pretty confident it's Solid.  That shit will last until long after my grandkids are dust.

Fuck the Amish and their rolling heat fireplace (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QxN86xxg5s).

(edit: there's another one that advertises the mantel is assembled by amish folk)

Don't knock veneers, either. Though I tend to think more of the older style, when it was veneer of expensive wood over solid cheap wood.

Nebu, good idea on estate sales, didn't occur to me for some reason. Because I'm fairly poor and have amazingly rich tastes. My fiancee laughs because she's seen it so often. When I shop, I don't look at price until I'm trying to narrow down my last few choices. And it's usually the most expensive stuff in the store.

Though I just put together a nice suit for 70% off...all the parts were the most expensive in their categories :| 70% off clothes is the only reason I don't look like a bum.

I think we should officially add the letter b to the word bum. Bumb.

Isnt that how the English spell butt though?

Bum= dirty homeless guy
Bumb= your butt

I think in England your butt is a dirty homeless guy. Or I guess it's houmeless guy.

It's still bum.

I imagine that America uses 'ass' because they keep accidentally dropping the 'u' from words. One slip and you're saying 'bm' like Inspector Clouseau.

Game over man, game over. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090116/ap_on_bi_ge/circuit_city_bankruptcy;_ylt=Aia2OxK5QwU1ERAJ7PWQ8FlH2ocA)

Man, I hate gloating with the economy the way it is, but these fuckers really deserved it.

I wonder if this means they'll actually mark stuff down or just mark it up and then down to make it seem like it's marked down. 

I might be babbling.   :uhrr:

They'll sell it to a liquidation company who will then mark shit up before marking it down.

Fuck CC. Poor layout of stores, employees that make BestBuy drones seem knowledgeable and helpful, shitty, shitty prices and selection for music/movies. They deserve to go under.

Do these stores not understand the concept of "find something, and do it better than anyone else"?  It's like they want to be all things to all people and just wind up as shitty palaces to mediocrity.  Newegg does one thing really, really well.  Same with Amazon.  I understand that they don't have as much overhead, but on the other hand they really don't provide customer service either, and you've got to wait for your stuff to get delivered.  Even with those problems I'd still rather go through them.

Definately buyer beware.  That said, all the CC stores are starting their liquidation sale tomorrow.  Might find some decent buys, maybe not.  Going to hit the local one when the doors open and see what I can find.  Mostly just looking for some cheap RAM for the wifes laptop and a couple other low end items I've been putting off for no real reason.

Actually Gulp, Newegg provides great CS when the need arises. They were always helpful, understanding, and prompt the few times I had bad video cards.

Oh sure, I've had to return something before and they didn't give me any problems, but it's still a hassle printing off the RMD mailing label, going to the UPS store, and waiting (again) for the replacement.  That's where brick & mortar has a lot going for it.  It says volumes that I still don't consider this enough to go through them.  Instead I'd rather pay shipping and handling, wait the 3 business days to get my stuff, and if it doesn't work RMD it than simply drive 3 miles down the road and spend my money in their shitty store.

There's a CC within a mile of me here...pretty sure I'm not even going to bother to poke around.

EDIT: I do have to take something back...I bought my Vizio from CC last winter. I suppose I may have done better online, but I'm not sure I want to take that kind of risk with a TV that might have to get returned.

Of course, they're still retarded and can't keep their website up for at least a few more days so potential customers can check their offerings.

So. Farewell then
Circuit City

It seems that
You have sold
Your last
Extended warranty

It's just what I needed

Too bad you didn't buy one
For your business

-- EJ Thribb (17½)

Why do electronics stores sell appliances?  I can understand the luxury-grade powered recliners to go with the home-theater stuff.  And even the refrigerator/end table for storing the munchies for your viewing/gaming process without having to get up to fetch.  But who in their right mind buys their washer/dryer/dishwasher from an electronics store?

--Dave

If it's a reputable brand and not damaged when you get it, what difference does it make? Honest question, no snark.

The same folks who buy books or clothes at a supermarket.  Folks just like the convenience of one store shopping and hang your arguments about limited choice and selection. It's one reason Wal*Mart is so fucking successful.

I bought my last major appliance (upright full size freezer) from BestBuy. They had the model I wanted, at a lower price than anywhere else. Previous appliance was a new stove, which I purchased from Lowes, again, model I wanted, at the lowest price.

Err, slight difference in buying habits between books and refrigerators ;-) See how far selling a Kenmore Elite would get you on Aisle 11  :awesome_for_real:

Brand awareness/loyalty, store faith, and price drive people to retailers. And price can come from volume in ways a Kenmore or Whirlpool-only store can't match. Plus side things like 0% financing where you can buy a few big ticket electronics.

There's a shorter distance between a TV and a stove than there is a couch and a stove.

Why oh why, does no one read, Private Eye?

Earlier tonite I went to CC, thinking of grabbing some PC games cheap.  I didn't go in, it was a storm of bargain-hunters.  I hate long lines. :)

Was odd seeing so many folks at CC, lol.

I went through to see what the "Bargins" were.   

"20% off all CDs and DVDs!*"

*20% off of standard price ($15.99 for CDs, 19.99 for dvds). Does not apply to CDs sale priced at $9.99

40" Samsung 1080p  HDTV for $1500!

7.1 surround sound system for $379


Most amusing was seeing boxes for Tabula Rasa, Fury and Hellgate: London on the shelves for $39.99, $24.99 and $29.99 respectively.

When your competitors normal retail prices undercut your bankruptcy liquidation prices I think we can pinpoint where your business model went wrong.

Every time I've gone shopping for major appliances, stops at Best Buy, Circuit City, and such were very short as I established that their prices started at 25% over the Lowes/Home Depot/Sears baseline, and went up fast from there.  Once I was sure they didn't have a closeout or floor model for sale with the features I was looking for, there was zero chance they were going to be competitive.  Selection was crap, and jumped straight from stripped-down cheapo models to high-end stuff (why would I want a network-capable washer-dryer?).

Quite frankly, the edges of a Best Buy don't exist for me anymore.  I've never seen them be competitive on anything but the games, movie, and minor electronics that occupies the center of the floor.  Circuit City I liked just because if you knew their stocking schedule, you could come in right before they'd be bringing in new stock for outrageously good deals on the discontinued stuff (like an HDTV that was still going for $1600 minimum, that I got out of them for under $600 right before Black Friday a year and a half ago because they were ditching all their 720P sets that weren't plasma).  But I figured they weren't going to last long once things turned bad economically, and when their suppliers started demanding COD for all new shipments last year, the clock started ticking.

In about another few weeks, they'll be dumping everything for whatever they can get, and there will be some outrageous deals to be had on high-end stuff from asst. managers who no longer give a shit what their numbers are, as long as they don't have to do the paperwork to ship stuff out.

--Dave

I read Private Eye and I got Righ's E.J. Thribb reference.

You're a star, Iain.  We might have to adopt you.

I'm confused, upset and alarmed by Dave's avatard!  Is it a giant chicken-man penis thing? 

Who won the pool, Schild?

--Dave

We had a contest for a pool?   :ye_gods:  Where was I?!?

The standard way to liquidate is FIRST you mark up everything between 20% and 40%. Then, once they're labeled, you mark them back down by the same (or even less) an amount.

Then you wait for all the people who didn't bother pricing it first to come get their "20% off on a new TV" sale. It gets rid of a good chunk of your inventory at a very profitable price.

You don't actually discount to cost or below unless it's too bulky or odd to sell in lots to, say, Best Buy or Amazon or on fucking Ebay for all I know. You'll only find good prices the last few days the store is open, on whatever they actually can't sell to ANYONE.

They have until sometime in March, don't they?  I guess they even get more merchandise in to sell during this time.  Evidently, people will buy big pricey items for 10 or 20 percent off if they were in the market for that sort of item anyway, even if they weren't planning to get it quite so soon.  All the fancy shmancy tvs and wide-screen monitors will probably be long gone by March.  I guess picking over CDs and DVDs might get you some stuff at the end of it all.  I'll probably need more printer paper by then!

The answer for Best Buy was pretty easy to understand.

Where do your grandparents go to find an appliance? Sears. (or Jesus gives them one since they are dead)
Where do your parents go to find an appliance? Sears.
Where do you go to find an appliance? Where is the thing that I want with the best price? Oh hey! Let's look while we are at Best Buy getting this weeks movies!!!

Buying habits.

Older generations bought from department stores. Those departments existed to provide convenience.

Generation X and younger are Best Buy customers. We get their core product (all that stuff in the middle). We get their fringe products (TV, car audio, computers), because we like technology and technical toys.

Why stick a washer and dryer in there next to a stove and refrigerator? When they did this, and moved the appliances into the stores the reasoning was simple. Generation X was already comfortable shopping there, and was starting to buy homes and need more than movies, pot, and a video game system. Generation X needed a fridge to keep the beer cold, and something to heat up the hot pockets.

It was a market opportunity and an easy one to win with. They stock them because we already shop there and need them. Why not take the profits?

=)

If only they would stock adult diapers or portable toilets, their stock would go through the roof!

And seriously, when I thought in my mind "Where would I go if I had to buy a major appliance?" my first thought was Sears.  I may be in my 20s but I grew up on a farm- the old ways die hard out there  :awesome_for_real:

Went to Circuit City today.  10% off computer shit.   sucked. left.

Went to Circuit City.  I had already researched the new home phone system that I wanted.  I took it to the register where it was scanned at one price.  Then, the cashier pulled out the tiny calculator and manually calculated my "discount."  It turns out that the product was $2 cheaper at Circuit City's liquidation sale than it was at Best Buy. 

I told them to keep the phone.  Drove over to Best Buy and bought it.  Why would I buy something at a store going out of business for the same price that I can buy it at a store that will be here in April? 

Then, I remembered why I had never been to Circuit City since I moved here.  Fuckers.

When my wife and I bought our home and we were looking for appliances, we comparison shopped between Sears, Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, and some other places. We found the washer/dryer we liked best at the best price at BB. Add in 6 months no financing and some other bonus stuff they threw in for free (extended warranty, bonus rewards points) and it was a no-brainer to buy from them.

Although I get angry over their dirty tactics, it's not hard to understand why Circuit City liquidates in this way - people show up in droves and buy this not-really-discounted shit.  People, you'll recall, are immensely stupid.  The last week or two is where you may get lucky and get a good bargain (I actually did during the closeout of my local store late last year), but that is only assuming the aforementioned idiots have left anything worth a crap. 

It's like furniture shopping, to be honest.  It's marked up in the thousands of percents in some cases.  They'll raise the prices the week before, then discount it to normal prices and issue a big advertisement screaming 30-50 percent off and such.

What boggles me, though, is that with things like consumer electronics, games, movies, PCs, etc., it is really, REALLY easy to compare prices.  Unlike with things like furniture.  Hell, it's ridiculously easy if you have a modern cell phone with internet connectivity.  That people can go in and drop a 1500 bucks on a tv without checking the prices somewhere else, also taking a major gamble in knowing that the store is going tits up, that's fucking inexcusable.  This is the reason CC can get away with it.

Since they're going out of business, I'd say they didn't really get away with it.  They're just catering to the same people who kept them limping along all these years in one final, compact, last gasp.

As I was driving past the local CC this morning, I decided to stop in just for amusement. They were trying to get the cops to come throw someone out who had a iphone and was offering to price compare for people. I was amused. And yes, prices were up 20-30% on everything, then marked down 10-20%. Some stuff still had the old shelf tags at the pre-raised prices, which made it painfully obvious. Xbox360/PS3 games were all priced at $69.99, then 20% off.  Fuckers deserve bankruptcy.

Needless to say, I didn't buy anything. The local World Market (Cost Plus) is also going out of business, but there was a line to get in, so I skipped it.

On impulse a few months back(waiting for the wife to finish at the store next door) I walked into a small computer shop and started looking at their used laptops and video cards.  The clerk, having nothing better to do, was very helpful and chatty, until I pulled out the Blackberry.  Two minutes later I looked up and the clerk just kind of shrugged at me (they were 25-50% over market on the video cards, and nearly 100% on the used laptops).

There's no excuse for getting gouged on significant purchases anymore.  There's no information asymmetry unless you're lazy.

--Dave

I'm honestly surprised CC lasted this long, as I had expected them to go out of business long ago.


I will say this though, I'm not happy about Wilson's Leather going out of business. I liked them. Sure they were a bit overpriced when the item you want wasn't on sale, but their shit wasn't on sale for what, 2 out of 12 months? I own a jacket from them and everyone I know who has a leather jacket is from there, and so far I've never heard any complaints from anyone. Mine is over 5 years old (Wilson's price $350 or so, I paid ~$150) and still is in amazing condition,, in fact it still gets complimented at times. Also, I'm a larger fellow who wears a 3x, and anywhere else I tried on a jacket at was just shit. So that was another reason I really liked them. Oh well, guess it's time to stock up on leather treatment from them and maybe a second jacket if I can find a nice 3/4 length one that I like, and maybe new gloves and a new hat.

You guys are getting pissed at the wrong people. Circuit City isn't raising the prices then lowering them. They aren't going to get shit out of the sales that are running now. They've sold all their inventory to liquidation companies, and used that money to pay off their creditors. The liquidation companies are the ones who make the money off the gouging, not Circuit City.

Now, that doesn't change the fact that CC was a gaggle of cockgobbling titmice when in business.

Your local Sears buying experience probably helped out there.  When I was growing up, Sears always talked to my mom (who handled the warranty repairs and had to arrange time for them to come repair our appliances) like she was a drooling idiot and then never bothered to show up to their service appointments on time or at all, without so much as a phone call or explanation (but they'd be glad to re-schedule for another 2 weeks down the road!).  Add in that their refrigerators, washers, and dryers we bought always seemed to stop working after 9-12 months for some odd reason or another and we finally stopped buying at Sears.  The last time I went there for tools the guy there looked at me like I was dumb for asking about a certain socket set and basically said "I dunno, why would I?"

As far as CC, good riddance.  Any company that poorly run deserves to go under.  The liquidation people are just doing what they know they can get away with.

Cub Foods is closing a bunch of stores. The one by my house will be totally closed by the end of the month.

When Compusa started going under, they had their sales... they had Vanguard SOH for $30, I didn't want to pay $30 for it just to see what I knew would suck... but then they had a 30% off going out of buisness sale... so I went in... they had jacked the price of the game up to $50, then stuck a sales sticker on it for 30% off... so now it was $35... Wow, I have to pay $5 EXTRA because you're going out of business?

There isn't a single store on that list that I have wondered for years how they stay open. Circuit City? Really? Who the hell shops there? The only reason I EVER go to best buy is to check out the stuff I'm going to order on newegg later on that day. Circuit City doesn't even cross my mind. Home Depot is a joke... being a woodworker, I can tell you they have crap for sellection, their prices are REALLY high, the employees are clueless. Go in there sometime and ask them where the Cherry is... no cherry? How about Mahogony? Not that either? Alder? Maple? No? Oh! You have oak... sweet... $6 a board foot?!?! This plank will cost me $48!!!

Selby, I am having some similar experience with Sears. I watched my grandfather have good experiences there, and we really want to support them because of Extreme Home Makeover.

So when I had a cable melt on my new snowblower the first time I used it, I figured it would be no big deal to get it fixed. I check online to see if our local outlet is a repair center, it is (it's not a full store). I go there and they say it isn't, and hey I could take it to this local guy (a friend of mine, but the machine is UNDER WARRANTY). I drive to the next city over, where I bought the machine, and the first guy has no clue, hands me off to the second guy who hands me a card with an 800 number and web address. Website says take it into a store, as if everyone has a pickup or can tow a trailer (I can, but don't own a trailer).

Fuckin' A.

I go to Home Depot to buy a hammer.  I go to a lumber yard to buy lumber. Im suprised you dont do that.

Anyway has anyone been to Circuit City in the last couple days or so? What % off are they giving now?

The best deals that they had in CC over this weekend was 30% off all digital cameras and video cameras, and 40% off lenses. Needless to say, they had taken all the moderately useful lenses out - some other store probably bought them before that price reduction. But if you need one of the normal kit lenses or a DSLR, its worth checking out your local store. Car audio was decently discounted, TVs were not. Laptops and most other computer stuff is less discounted (typically 10%) than you could manage mail order, so don't even bother with that part of the store.

Went to circuit city yesterday to check out the "50-70% off" (was in a mall next to Bed, Bath, & Beyond which I needed to hit).   

Don't bother.  It's all crap.   

It's time for a new retail paradigm, on multiple fronts. Everybody chased Wal-Mart, most of them off the cliff, into the following formula:

1) Clueless, hostile minimum wage employees who have little motivation to sell anything. So you get customers who know what they're looking for, more or less, and get pissed off because they can't find it in the store and no one can or will help them. You get customers who don't know what they're looking for, and no one can really help them, either.

2) Lots of shelf space in megastores, but the space is actually much emptier than it at first appears, because you've got all sorts of fucked-up arrangements with manufacturers to have multiple versions of their products clogging up the shelves rather than offering a real range of products from different sources. Your only advantage over online sales is that people can see that variety in the flesh, so to speak, and talk directly with someone about it and that there is instant gratification (e.g., as soon as I want something, I can buy it and take it home with me rather than wait a week for it to come to the house).  Well, because of 1) you've fucked up the talking part and because of 2) people often can't see what they're looking for, because you don't have it (or even worse, you have a shelf version of the product but you don't have it in stock). 3) you fuck up again with your shelving policies, especially when you don't keep any kind of back catalog worth talking about. If I go in a megastore for books, and all they've got is stuff published in the last two months, what's the point? If I go in a megastore with games or music, and it's literally just the last two weeks of stuff, what's the point? If I go to buy shoes in a megastore, and they never have size 11 shoes in stock of the hundreds of shoes I can look at on the shelf, what's the point?

3) Lots of bullshit price manipulation that doesn't fool anyone who has five seconds and minimal search skills for doing online searches. Plus you train your retail drones to try and trick people into a zillion dumb extra charges: warranties, or loyalty cards that you have to PAY an annual fee for.

4) Shit quality on many items. You can get away with that for a while, but even the dumbest consumer figures out after a while that if they have to buy three pairs of tennis shoes at $20 in six months because they fall apart, it's smarter to pay $60 for shoes that will last nine months. When we get into domains like food (say, peanut butter), the gutting out of any production standards becomes even more disastrous in its consequences *and* ends up hurting sales across the board. *Anybody* making peanut butter is hurting now even if they have high standards because one major producer basically churned the stuff out with rat poop and mold leaking onto the product and ended up offloading salmonella onto a ton of people. Wal-Mart can maybe keep going in this direction, but most other retail has got to make an about-face and counterprogram by building solid relationships with reliable manufacturers.

I went shopping at a Nordstrom store for clothes for my daughter, all the clothes were made in Asia.

I went shopping for a leather jacket for my wife and settled on one from a Barneys New York CO-OP, the jacket was made in China.

The only places to buy things that are not made in Asia seem to be the ultra-high-end European single brand stores and Brooks Brothers. 

But I have yet to find a department ( which means multiple brands to me) store that stocks things that are made in the USA.

Yeah just bought my wife 3 suits and about 4 dress shirts a couple weeks ago from Brooks Brothers. They are having some really good sales going on.

To buy American it would require we hadn't scuttled at home or shipped all manufacturing overseas.

Lumber yards sell hammers to... and a LOT cheaper than home depot. There is absolutely no reason to go to Home Depot... other than I live next door to it. So if I want to pay double so I don't have to drive 3 miles, then yea...

Hush, you. If the secret gets out then more people will go to the builder supply stores and that way lies madness.

Went to circuit city yesteday.  Their 30% off prices are still higher than what's on the internet.

they suck.

Depends what was there. In my local, Nikon D40 kits were flying off the shelf at $350. You can match that on the 'net but the dealers aren't exactly the sort of people I'd want to do business with.

If I had money, I'd go for exactly that product (the D40).

I bought my D40 last summer. Love it, really easy to learn to use.

I have a meeting tonight after work or that might be worth stopping by for.

I went by Circuit City on the way to the grocery store today. 4 days until this one closes and the real desperation pricing was out. They had most of nothing other than some printers, CD's, DVD's and PC games. The PC games, CD's and DVD's were all 60% off, so I picked up the Medieval 2 Total War Kingdoms expansion ($10) and the Mines of Moria edition for LOTRO ($16). I figured that when I'm ready to try out LOTRO again, I can have the whole thing for about a buck more than a paid month's sub.

Hm.. we're only down to 40% here at the one I drove by yesterday. I laughed because the parking lot was packed.

I went into circuit city and they had copies of Tabula Rosa and Hellgate: London for sale.

Seemed fitting.

What about warhammer and age of conan?

snap.

What about EVERYTHING EXCEPT WOW!!??!?

Double snap!

I said that weeks ago.

They still had Fury, too.   I can't see if they still have them, since mine's finally closed.

Hey, I walked past a CC on my way into Sears yesterday.

No thought of actually walking in.

Wasn't yesterday the final day for any CC anywhere ever?  Or did the news lie to me again?

yes it was, judging by the  folks hauling furniture away from the local store.

Circuit City had some poor bastards dressed up like cartoon characters holding "Going out of Business" signs over the weekend. It was a combination of Sleet, Snow, and about 30 degree temperatures with wind gusts...

I wonder what chain is next?  I wonder if a chain store dead pool wouldn't be more fun than the people sort?  Maybe we could work out the numbers for adding in human casualties for a financial institution dead pool?  In this economy there are tons of dead pool possibilities.  Someone please make a dead pool browser game for this?  I would play it.

Am I babbling?   :ye_gods:

Only just the usual amount.  I find it endearing.

I'm sorry, but this whole financial crisis seems like a boondoggle to me.
I have yet to see a single store go out of business that I hadn't already thought should have gone out of business years ago. Circuit City's parking lot is always a Ghost town. Same with CompUSA. High prices + Small selection = Profit?
Next the news will be lamenting the failure of the consumer electronics giant: Radio Shack
Oh the humanity, how could the American icon Radio Shack ever fail?
More like, how the hell have they stayed in business so long? They should have been bankrupt in what? 1985?

Same with people losing their houses. Yea I know people that are losing their houses... but every single one of them was someone that, when they bought their house, they said things like "Well it was appraised for $210k, but that's an old appraisal, the markets booming, so the $250k we paid makes sense. What? Oh no, we couldn't afford to have it inspected, that's like $500! We got an awesome interest rate... 6.5% Well yea, it's an ARM... so what?"

We also had a GM plant shut down here... EVERYONE saw it coming about 20 years ago. (besides the people that worked there) I knew, personally, people who's only Job was to sit in a cafeteria like room with several dozen other people and wait for someone to go home sick. They got paid $25/hr to do this, and if they actually had to fill in, their rate shot up to whatever the rate was for the job they had to do. The 2 people I knew that did this "Job" spent most of their day reading books, and rarely ever got called out to the line. Both were shocked that the plant was shut down. lol

I'd guess Radio Shack stays in business because they're a hell of a place to find little electronic do-dads like splitters, antennae and switches.  Where else are you going to get that stuff when you need it RIGHT NOW and don't want to pay out the nose for Best Buy or have to deal with the small selection of ridiculously low-quality shit at Wal*Mart?

I won't go to Walmart.  My main reason is not because it's a horrible place, treats it's employees like shit and has literally ruined local small businesses - although those things are all true.  It's because they always stick their stores in really strange lonely areas with huge parking lots that go on forever.  Those sorts of places are notorious for being full of scary serial killers and I have a fear of being serial killed. 

Just stay away from the serial isle.

We only go to walmart for a handful of things nobody else stocks. And fucking hate it. It's like a circus freakshow (or the TLC network, for a modern reference) of shitty genetics. The sheer amount of retardation and low class is almost enough to make me a republican.

Yep. I think the GOP is using Walmart as a recruitment tool.
"You already have to shop with those people. Do you want them in your schools or country clubs too!?!?!"

I know everyone hates Walmart and thinks they treat their employees terribly, but really, my experience has been entirely different. My aunt work as a checker for Walmart until retirement about 5 years ago. She supported her entire family on her wage (4 kids and a deadbeat jobless husband she recently divorced) She owns her own home, that's rather nice... Walmart even provided a full scholarship to one of her daughters. Paid for her college in full.

I don't know.  Maybe it's all those wage and hour, employee abuse and discrimination violations and lawsuits that I keep hearing about?  Of course, the news has lied to me before.

Well, the TV news is always shilling for some company or another, so I suppose an anti-corporate piece could simply be the product of a competitor. It's probably those evil mudslingers at K-Mart or Target who are impugning Walmart's noble reputation.  :grin:

I've boycotted Wal-mart since 1996, when they tried to build a store on George Washington's birthplace (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01EFD81639F930A25750C0A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all). That motion was defeated by public protest.

Sadly, their disrespectful behavior continues. Now they're trying to build a store on the site of the Civil War Battle of the Wilderness (http://fredericksburg.com/blogs/view?blogger_id=48&p=1228847433).

I try to avoid going to WM when I can. Everytime I do, Obi-Wan's words always come to me: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."

I've only been in a Wal-Mart a handful of times ever since a trip, where I spent 20-30 minutes in line due to the lady a few spots ahead of me getting her credit card declined, wailing uncontrollably while her husband threatened the cashier, and then both were dragged off the premises by security.  On the same trip I saw a mom threaten her kid with a beating, and a wife-beater wearing dad smack his young son upside the head for picking up something off an endcap.

But on a few occasions, I've had to go there for cat litter or contact solution. I make it a short trip.

Seriously, I think it's a volume thing. They just have so many employees that it's bound to happen. I'm sure if you searched for it, you'd find a walmart store manager that killed someone or something to. There's just so many employees it's inevitable. What store or similar size is their to compare them to? Most of the cases I've heard of revolve around some idiot Store manager that they promptly fired.

As far as the wage issues, they mostly related to cashiers being stuck in line because of a rule Walmart had that you couldn't leave your post while a customer was there. Well, when your line doesn't empty for 8hrs strait that's a problem. And then your jerk boss says "NO OVERTIME!" but you've been there 20min past the end of your shift. Since all that hub-bub walmarts changed their cash registers. The cashiers log in, when it's time for break, the damned thing will not allow the employee to continue. It's really annoying, I've been in line when it's happened and had to wait 5min for someone else to show up because the checker literally couldn't finish checking me out.

Now, the whole china import thing... that's another story. But that's a USA problem, not a walmart problem.

You know, Amazon sells cat litter and contact lens solution.