[drgoodword]

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and best wishes to all for the New Year!

[evilgenius]

I whizzed round a Circuit City last night. I was amazed to see many of their offers pertaining to guarantees over time, such as price match guarantees on big screen TV's. I found that amazing for a company that will enter restructuring with the new year. Also, only a few bargain bins had what I would call closeout prices on items. Otherwise it looked like they were trying it on, no real reductions on anything of substance. No wonder they are about to go under.

In contrast I went through an Office Depot earlier in the day and found lots of get rid of that dead weight merchandise pricing. They had severely slashed many of the usual office products and some tech gear. For example I saw a 320 gig external hard drive for $50. Circuit City wanted $100 for the very same drive.

Anybody else go out just to see what the situation looks like in your area? What did you see?

[Snowrunner]

I went out boxing day and took a look around in downtown Vancouver. Robson street et. al. were hopping despite the really crappy sidewalk conditions. I went through HMV and didn't see anything "promotional" going beyond what was already advertised before.

Chapters (book store) had a huge lineup which surprised me a bit and I didn't see anything that would mean a lot of "savings", maybe people were just using their gift cards?

London Drugs (grocery/electronics/drugstore) was pretty full, but I don't think a lot of buying was happening for bigger ticket items, I just needed a battery for my camera and there were three guys ready to help me find the right one.

Reports up here were that "sales were good", but i am guessing that was based on the same "estimates" that happened on black friday in the US, meaning, they looked at the foot traffic and used some fancy math to "extrapolate".

the Brits, meanwhile, seem to be getting concerned: link

[Sys1]

Three words : "Business as usual"

Don't misunderstand me, I'm a doomer, but I think that many people shut down TV and radio a bit in order to enjoy Christmas. I think we have to wait for january's end to get a better glimpse at the shape of our collapsing economy.
Merry Christmas by the way.

[Lanthanide]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GASMON', 'W')ould you beleive it but the vacuum cleaner packed in yesterday. A quick check on the big local store prices via the net got me a new model dyson at less than half price.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lanthanide', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GASMON', 'W')ould you beleive it but the vacuum cleaner packed in yesterday. A quick check on the big local store prices via the net got me a new model dyson at less than half price.

[Ludi]

Learn to repair stuff yourself, maybe?

[blukatzen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', 'W')hen was the last time you've met a repairman? Not just a vacuum repairman but ANY type?

[evilgenius]

I went to Kmart and Office Max just a few hours ago. Kmart had little on sale and no visible indication of anything upcoming. Office Max had some stuff going for low prices. Neither store was looking like it needed to clear the inventory they had in, and there was a lot of it, too soon. I don't think management realizes that in a deflationary environment prices come down continuously. I think they plan on trying to sell their stuff down the line, over the course of the year or during what they plan as a clearance sale, for a profit. They don't see this time as a last opportunity to get rid of what they have had to pay so much for as cost of goods sold. I wonder what kind of impact that attitude will have as far as who survives and who doesn't?

[nobodypanic]

vacuum cleaners and electronics.

and iam shopping for sharpening stones and hatches.

i feel like a paranoid nut.

[eastbay]

A friend of ours gave us a few Target $$ cards which at 2pm this afternoon we tried to spend. Plenty of close-in parking. No wait at the cashier. Strangely few shopping today. Thin selection and the great deals must have been hidden because we decided to wait a week or so and try again then.

[heroineworshipper]

No discounts on anything except XMas decorations. Electronics had the most traffic as always, but for full price.

[BlueGhostNo2]

I went and had a look through the sales in Woking (UK)

However there is basically not that much highly reduced, there were ALOT of people in Game (console game retailer) the queue was round the store and blocked the entry

It seems to me the things which are getting marked down alot are the things which do not have a high intrinsic value and where the margins were previously HUGE. So consoles are expensive, but games (particularly unpopular ones) are marked down vastly. Same with DVD's and Music.

Seem to be alot of good reductions on big TV's the price on those was always dropping but its dropped /fast/.

I was deeply amazed that woolies and Zavvi (two retailers who are in administration). Are NOT really reducing prices to give-away levels. As a result I'm investigating the repo and liquidator auctions in London early next month, bet thats where crap is getting sold off. Seen a 13 Ton JCB type thing on one of em. Could come in handy if I need to run down some zombies heh

[evilgenius]

Yeah, after looking around I am thinking the liquidators must be where the right prices can be found. I'm in no hurry to buy what I need. If the going bust retailers can't get their heads round selling to clear I can wait.

I have to say, though, I didn't expect not to find much in the way of discounts. From everything in the press I thought bargains would be falling off of trees for somebody that actually has a job and cash in hand.

[evilgenius]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'A') friend of ours gave us a few Target $$ cards which at 2pm this afternoon we tried to spend. Plenty of close-in parking. No wait at the cashier. Strangely few shopping today. Thin selection and the great deals must have been hidden because we decided to wait a week or so and try again then.

[Jester]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', 'W')hen was the last time you've met a repairman? Not just a vacuum repairman but ANY type?
Exactly
They don't exist in this economy save for perhaps an auto repairman.
Christmas.

[TreebeardsUncle]

Ok.
Bought some Halloween supplies in the offseason a few weeks ago at Mervyn's going-out-of-business sale that were marked down from 70% from $120 to $36 or so. They, Linens and Things, Shoe Pavilions,
Sharper Image, and possibly Circuit City are going into liquidation. However, the economy is not collapsing. Deleveraging is leading to a moderate resetting of prices coupled with a shakeout leading to the same activities being conducted in the same locations under different names at somewhat lower prices. The economy will have settled and ascended moderately within 2 years.

g

[Ferretlover]

Better shop now. This morning on CNN, a reporter appearing in the 'Retail Detail' segment, stated that "it was projected that another 73,000 stores were expected to go out of business the first six months of 2009." (I did not hear her source for this data.)

[blukatzen]

I read a story online not that long ago..2 maybe 3 weeks ago, that said that many stores were gonig to unload their excess merchandise not at places like "Big-Lots" and other resale places of that kind, but there are places offshore that will resell them to Europe, Asia, etc. and the less expensive stuff (I guess) will go to Africa and South America.

It's not even meant for us anymore..nope straight to other countries, round and round this stuff goes. We just got to look at it at Yuletime, if we didn't buy any of it.

Me, I did NO shopping for Christmas anymore. Just myself and hubby, and we frankly, don't need to "buy" anything other than food for the house for the holidays. If we want or need something, we can buy it anytime during the year. If we had kids or grandkids, it would be another story, but we don't.

I don't *need* to get into the consumer mindtrap...

Blu