Buyer Beware at CC

[My_Two_Cents]

Just a heads-up to those looking for "bargains" at the Circuit City stores that are "liquidating" inventories. I saw this report on the news this morning, and thought I would pass it along to anyone interested.

Bottom line: Know the retail price of what it is you want to buy, and be real careful before you buy anything from a liquidator.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=6326174&page=1

So how do the liquidation prices compare overall? Because only part of the Circuit City chain is going out of business, it was a rare opportunity to compare prices at regular stores run by the company with those at closing stores run by the liquidators. The two are not connected.

One example: We saw a Samsung HDTV that was only available as an open box item at the liquidation store and cost $1,799 with all sales final. But at Circuit City's regular stores it was available for $1,599 brand new — $200 less, plus we could return it.

The clerk in the liquidation sale TV department gave us some advice.

"To be honest, I would go to a normal Circuit City for bigger TVs," she said. "But you didn't hear it from me."

Of the 60 electronics products we compared, a third were the same price or less at regular Circuit City stores. And the majority of those that were cheaper at the liquidation sale were only 5 percent to 15 percent less.

When we told consumers outside of a going-out-of-business sale about our findings they were amazed, but not surprised.

"What does going out of business mean if you are jacking up the price rather than lowering the price?" said one woman.

"I think anything that they put a 'sale' sign on, people are going to be more inclined to buy," another said.