The liquidators are out to make money as well. It's not their fault that advertising "Lidquidating", "Going out of Business", even just "On Sale" causes apparently many people to start shopping at a store, even if they really aren't getting any bargains. The CC website says that liquidation runs thru Mar 31, so it makes sense for the company to try to sell whatever then can at regular (even marked up) prices (especially with all sales final, and no price matching in place). I'm sure they measure either the number of buyers, or the amount purchased, and after it gets to some threshold value, increase the discount to get those numbers back up. There's some stuff that people will buy with no discount; other items a 50%-70% savings wouldn't get it into people's carts (I'm not going to spend $30 on a Monster Cable HDMI cable just because it says it's 70% off).
As far as Circuit City going out of business, I'll miss them. To me, like most stores, they're a store to shop at, which many times had competative prices (certainly during sales they did). To me CC, Best Buy, Sears, Target, you name it, isn't really that much different from one another. Like timeshares, you REALLY need to do your own research on items. Do people here walk into CC or BB and ask a salesperson, "What's the best digital camera, or 42" LCD tv?" and expect to get accurate advice?
The executives at Best Buy must be pretty happy now. There was some talk a few months ago about buying CC out, but they didn't do that. Now, they've basically eliminated their biggest competition without spending a dime.
I don't know all the details, but I'm not sure what caused CC to get to this point. I know one posted said their store always seemed empty, but I've never noticed CC to be any worse / less crowded that BB.
I would encourage people to look at the
www.circuitcity.com website. It talked about their warranty plans (still in effect), gift cards still being useable, and I think severance for I thought most of their employees. Reading it, I certainly left with the feeling that their trying to be a pretty decent company.
Jeff