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View Full Version : The Power of Perception



Lewis Ehrhardt
02-18-2013, 10:35 AM
Our local Sears is closing its doors. With that comes the "Store Closing" banners. The store closing sale, which I didn't make, started this past Saturday. I did, however, make it for a few minutes on Sunday. First observation: A security guard service had been contracted, apparently to handle the large, unruly buyers fighting over the good deals.

Entering the store, I found shoppers loaded with goods, buying away. As I passed one guy in Tool World, he had his arms filled with tools and he made the comment, "I've got to get out of here before I go broke."

Here's the deal. Everything in the store was on average 10 to 20 percent off. No sales ads apply. Most of what was being purchased during this closing could have been bought two weeks before for 50% off due to their regular sales. For instance, I bought my granddaughter a dress outfit that was on sale for $22.00. But had I waited until the closing sale, I could have gotten it for $52.80. WHAT was I thinking? Had I only known :)

Marketing is everything and the power of perception, well, enough said. I'm done, Lewis

David G Baker
02-18-2013, 12:03 PM
Lewis, Many times when a store goes out of business they have a sale and after the sale the remaining inventory is purchased. The company that buys the inventory then prices the items left at a price that they think people will pay. The 50% off sale was still the Sears employees sale. Items that are still in the store after the final sale probably ends up at flea markets or discount stores.

David Weaver
02-18-2013, 12:46 PM
I haven't seen a store closing sale in a while that was worth going to.

The last one I went to was circuit city, and they had 10% off anything that you'd actually want (which means you could look around and generally find a better deal than that, anyway). It was, as far as I know, another one of the sales that is engineered by an outside group that specializes in store closing sales. The desirable merchandise that doesn't sell at a reasonable price is just taken elsewhere rather than sold at a loss.

The garbage high margin items like specialized little bags that hold specific devices or little organizers or any of that kind of stuff, that was more than 10% off, but because nobody really wants it and you can't just take it somewhere else or sell it online without taking a loss.

Stuff that wasn't in the store was being brought in from outside to sell as part of the "liquidation". I guess if you have all of that foot traffic, you might as well try to sell some things that were never in the store to begin with, right?

John McClanahan
02-18-2013, 1:00 PM
Another common practice is for stores to raise prices before announcing the liquidation sale. Then when everything is marked 20-30% off, its really only more like 10% or less.

John

Brian Elfert
02-18-2013, 1:32 PM
I don't bother with traditional going out of business sales because they are not typically a bargain at all. Store operations get taken over by a liquidator and all of the store's policies go out the window. By the time discounts get to a reasonable level anything good is already gone.

There was an oak furniture store locally that went out of business at least three times. One store would go out of business and then another with a slightly different name would open and go out of business repeated multiple times. State law only allows 120 days for a going out of business sale thus the multiple store names.

David G Baker
02-19-2013, 11:56 AM
Market Street is one of the major tourist streets in San Francisco that has numerous stores dedicated to the tourist trade. There was a store that sold cameras, electronics and many other items that would attract the tourists. That store had a going out of business sale for well over 20 years. The store finally got busted by some city ordinance office. Not sure what the penalty was but the signs disappeared.

Darius Ferlas
02-19-2013, 12:07 PM
Market Street is one of the major tourist streets in San Francisco that has numerous stores dedicated to the tourist trade. There was a store that sold cameras, electronics and many other items that would attract the tourists. That store had a going out of business sale for well over 20 years. The store finally got busted by some city ordinance office. Not sure what the penalty was but the signs disappeared.

I know of one like that in NYC. I was going out of business for the five years I lived in the area in 1980/90's. I was in Manhattan a couple of years ago and their sign is still there. A newer and nicer though.

Larry Whitlow
02-20-2013, 12:19 AM
From what I read, the inventory liquidations from store closings may be some of the best revenue sears is seeing these days.