TCooper

Pretty much the same with most places going out of business. Seem like now, when we drive around and see a store that has small signs taped to the window we immediately think it is another store going out rather than their regular sale ad taped to the window. Quite a few gone out here lately. Whitehall Jewelers, Linens & Thinks, KB Toys, Circuit City and I think one or two more. All seemed to start with that 20 to 30 percent range although I think Circuit is the only one I've seen that is doing 10 percent. Still gets people in a frenzy and they sell stuff. The 30 percent discounts seemed to be on stuff that would not have been too easy to move like the dash install kits etc. Flat panel TV and other stuff like that were only 10 percent. I didn't see any bargains. As you say, can buy new online cheaper and some of the closeout pricing there is higher than when they were running regular business and just put it in a sale ad. Sad that any business has to close for whatever reason, but I'm sure they will blow out of anything that is popular as there are enough people who get taken in by whatever numbers they put on the tag for a supposed discount. Reminds me of two places I used to work at really. One was Sears many years ago. They had this real cheap watery paint that never sold. Was $11.99 for flat and $13.99 for semi gloss. Two days before the sale ad broke they had me change the price stickers out and make the price $23.99 and $27.99. Night before the sale we were putting the sale signs up and the paint was on "sale" for $11.99 and $13.99. People flocked in like the world was ending. We sold all, but maybe three or four gallons of it that weekend and we had pallets of the stuff to start with! Next one was working for an auto parts chain. Our commerical customers complained that they wanted to see the regular price on the invoice and then their cost so they could see what discount they got. Rather than go into dealing with the programming required, corporate just had the IT guys make it so that whatever price we charged the shop for their parts was multiplied by 2 and listed as the retail. As such it looked like they were getting half off regardless of whatever discount they got if any! The commercial customers were happy as could be with this and we even had an account chase off a competitor commercial account rep because he could not give the 50 percent discount that he was already getting with us. What is that they say......One born every minute and a fool and his money are soon parted. I might troll through Circuit City again when the signs say they are at the 50 to 70 range and just see what sort of junk is left.