Circuit City may be bringing in liquidators to help clear out the remaining merchandise, but watch out for the first couple rounds of deals. You may find the prices, while bedazzled with huge sale signs, are not that great. Shoppers found this out during the first wave of store closings back in November. Eventually, most items should go cheap but beware the perceived sale. So here are couple of tips.
- Know what you want before you start shopping. Bargain hunters are notoriously impulse shoppers that are conned into purchasing overpriced items just ’cause they say sale sign. Have a plan and a shopping list beforehand.
- Do not trust the previous price. Liquidators are notoriously shady and will do anything to concoct a sale. Do your price shopping before you go searching for that great deal.
- Price shop at Best Buy before and after. Some Best Buy stores may have sales to compete with certain liquidated items at Circuit City. Even if the big ticket item costs a few buck more across the street from Best Buy, that store will be there when something happens. If the price is lower at Best Buy and you don’t care about serivce, ask to see the head scammer now running the Circuit City Store; he will probably beat Best Buy’s price.
- Consider the warranty. If you are warranty-type person, Circuit City doesn’t own their warranties and therefore they *should* still be good after the company is gone. The service plans might even be on sale too but read the fine print. Most of the time the warranty is a replacement plan based on purchase price. So if you bought a $1000 LCD at 75% off and you claim the warranty, you would get a check for only $250.
- Trust the Circuit City employees. You need to remember that most Circuit City employees at this point have removed their kool-aid IV and are on the customers side 100%. What do they have to lose at this point. Ask them about the price. Is it too high? Will it come down in a few days? How units many are left? You should find that most will bend over backwards to help you the customer and screw over the company that is laying ’em off in a few days.
- Gift Cards. Spend ’em before you lose ’em. They will be worthless when Circuit City is closed and are not redeemable for cash. Remember, you can spend ’em on the official website too.
There should be great deals out there but watch out for the scams.