Circuit City closing all stores -- watch for bargains coming soon (1 Viewer)

[Will_B]

I went to one. They were letting people in in groups, as other people exited, in order to keep the capacity legal. Fortunately the mood was light, and the air temperature was good thanks to the winter air.

There were no signs indicating what percentage off anything might be, so no way to know if you were getting a good deal until you got to the counter.

Plenty of BluRay movies left, because they were all priced $25 and up. It will take a lot to make those prices even comparable to online.

The only real deals appeared to be some items that were already on sale. If they were allowing the sale prices that had been set before they knew they were being liquidated PLUS the discount on top of that, then there were some good deals. I saw a Western Digital 1 Terabyte harddrive for about $130! My housemate had just bought it last week for $200. I didn't need one though, and it was gone a minute later. Small portable hard drives were not priced well.

I saw some Sony 8GB Micro Vault thumb drives for $24 -- probably $22 assuming 10% off.

I think there may be some good deals on digital SLR cameras worth exploring, but I'm not familiar enough with professional cameras to say definitively if that is the case.

 

[Todd Stout]

Fry's has a 1TB Maxtor on sale this week for $99. I'd be really tempted to get one if I didn't have a 500GB Western Digital sitting here waiting for me to install it.

 

[Brandon_T]

My wife and I went in yesterday to look at TV stands for our 42in Sony LCD. They had a black antique stand that was 329 for 30% off. The Denon receiver I had been looking at was 10% off, but not sure if I can do better online.

 

[Malcolm R]

I agree, Circuit City hasn't been a serious competitor for a couple years now. Best Buy's competition is really Walmart/Target/Amazon.

Circuit City was a very poorly managed company over the past 10 years. Their demise is kind of sad, as they were the first major electronics chain to come to my area, but in recent years I've seldom found anything there that I wanted to buy. Most of the time, I'd browse CC for a few minutes, get frustrated, then leave to spend my money elsewhere. I won't really miss them.

I'm always amazed how people will swarm a liquidating retailer and buy armloads of merchandise at only 10 or 20% discount off MSRP. In general, the regular everyday prices were probably lower than that and no one was buying then.

 

[Shawn.F]

I wish I could feel worse for Circuit City closing in my area, but the stores near my house, one in Saugus and one in Danvers, had some of the worst employees on their payroll. On more than a few occasions did I go in to purchase a piece of electronic equipment and each time I circled around said department without anyone coming up to ask if I needed help. And if they weren't standing around twiddling their thumbs or talking to other employees, they were off playing Rock Band.

 

[Harpozep]

Yeah, their Hanover store was a real piece of work as well.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Seattle (Lynnwood) WA store had 10% off Cameras, video games and video game accessories, 20% off movies (BD & DVD), I don't know about TVs and audio gear. All discounts were off MSRP. Other than Death Race they didn't really have any newer releases on BD.

 

[SeanC]

I got a flyer for Circuit City in today's newspaper, advertising this weeks new releases. Do you think if I brought it to Best Buy, they'd match their prices? I figure they'd have to since techinically, Circuit City isn't closed yet.

 

[Albert_M]

Exactly. When the Atlanta stores had their closign "sales" they were a joke. They were nothing more than same deals that could be had somewhere at any given time, but because they had big signs (everywhere) they were packed with people paying new full price.

CC was a disaster, but there needs to be competition.

 

[Brian^K]

Remember, the price match policy requires a published advertisement that shows the actual price. (They will not match a percent-off.) And remember that the policy requires that the retailer (Circuit City) has to be willing to answer a telephone call from Best Buy, confirming the price, and availability of the item for sale in your local store.

The price match policy does not turn competitors' ads in the newspaper into anything like "coupons" at Best Buy.

 

[hondaclf]

The CC website does say that all extended warranties are still in effect since they are from a third party so that won't be affected, they are even accepting returns for 14 days from the announcement for items purchased before the announcement. 20% off CD's and DVD's locally today but they don't have much signage up yet.

 

[Shawn.F]

I think the only one I ever went in that even had the slightest bit of a decent sales help was one in Framingham on Rte. 9. That was about it.

 

[David Norman]

I did find a few really good deals the last weekend on a handful of BluRay's that were left -- most were 70-80% off MRSP though only about 10 titles were left. Nothing super exciting, but I did get 16 Blocks, The Invasion, Space Cowboys, Good Night and Good Luck plus a couple others for what amounted to about $8 a piece after tax. 4th Season of Lost was available for $25 though I didn't need it.

Other than that it was a picked over mess -- a few DVD and CD, some AV furniture, a couple pieces of audio equipment that appeared to have been dropkicked a few times.

I went by a couple other times in December but absolutely nothing appeared to be on sale. Similar to CompUSA, the very last weekend I did find a few odds and ends (some USB and AV cables, Refilled ink cartridges), but nothing useful.

 

[SeanC]

Good call, I didn't think about them calling. I might try anyways; a lot of the staff at my Best Buy are kinda lazy, most barely even look at the ads. I was considering going to Circuit City to see if they had any good deals, but after reading what everybody said, I'm glad I didn't bother!

 

[EricSchulz]

There were signs along the street near where CC is located in Racine with the "Store Closing up to 30% off" (my emphasis)...the parking lot looked like they were giving the stuff away! Their lot was PACKED as was the outer lots for CC's neighbors: Barnes & Nobel, Dick's Sporting Goods and (drum roll, please) Best Buy!

 

[Shad R]

Yea, everytime I see a Circuit City it is right next to a Best Buy or Ultimate Electronics. I wonder it anyone that wanted a TV moseyed on over the nearest electronics store to check and make sure they were getting a deal?
Sucks that all those people will lose their jobs though.
It's alright, I prefer to shop at Ultimate Electronics anyway. They seem to always have the best prices and most helpful staff.
I will miss 14 dollar new releases though.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I just bought a Kingston 8GB thumb drive for $16 on Amazon.

 

[Michael Harris]

One thing to note about liquidation sales - prices are set by the liquidators, not neccessarily the company going out of business. Those 30% off signs are meant to generate traffic and give the illusion of a bargain. Based on some of the posts above about crowded parking lots and stores, it seems to work.

 

[sestamuch]

Right, it gets a bit misleading at times, but it seems to work.

 

[Eric Peterson]

This blows my mind too. By the time it gets to 30% or higher (comparable to online prices) everything is already gone. It's a real shame, how clueless people are.