I went to a Kmart today and was shocked! The store was packed and busy. People were buying all sorts of stuff. What made me confused was why anyone would buy clothes at 20% or 30% off when they could’ve bought them for 60% off two weeks ago before the closing sale started. Even things like household items aren’t that good of a deal at only 10% off. My local grocery store is running significantly better sales on things like Tide and paper towels. I guess some people like the hype of “store closing”. At least the employees will be able to work a lot of hours, there were five registers open compared to the normal one register. It makes a lot more sense how the liquidators make money now. In some ways it must be exciting for employees to see their store busy one last time.
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This is standard in all liquidations not just Sears and Kmart. The prices don't really drop until 3 1/2 to 4 weeks into the liquidation. If the merchandise is still there and not already purchased it can get really cheap and you can get some excellent deals.
Every Kmart and Sears liquidation has been like this. The mo–ns who aren't used to shopping in these stores show up and start filling up their carts for a mere 20% off.
A store employee once joked: "So that was our problem. We needed to RAISE our prices to get more customers!"
The way liquidation works is they buy the inventory for pennies on the dollar, then raise it above the usual price (using the "it's MSRP, not sale" excuse they're raising it to), and frontload their profits. This is how liquidation companies make money, it's mostly at the beginning.
The liquidator's job, is to make people think that they are getting a good deal because it's a store closing sale. The prices are raised before the sale, then they can say 20% off of the whole store and customers will think wow what a great deal.
Bargains for no one. Prices inflated over a period of years so that it wouldn't be so obvious what the company is doing.
The regular price for a family sized box of Kelloggs cereal is $6.99... Four pack of 1000-sheet toilet paper is $5.99... and so on. But hey it's a doorbusting deal at 10 percent off during liquidation.
I went to my closing local Kmart today and yes, quite bustling. Loved the multiple registers open. Didn't wait long in line although much busier than usual.
I paid about the same, maybe a little less than I normally pay there for clothes. Got some deals on some bath items that previously never went on sale. Shopping there for nostalgia sake really. Worked at Sears but grew up going to Kmart.
I’d rather get 20-30% off the tag price for an item rather than 60% of the tag price back in those useless SYW points.
I'm not a regular K-Mart shopper, but I was looking for a cooler to take on a trip. I decided to check prices at K-Mart, and walked out without buying anything.
Someone who doesn't shop a K-Mart often could have easily missed the 60% off sale.
This proves that most customers are id–ts. Just before my last Kmart began its liquidation many of us employees who had been through this before warned people to buy anything on ad before the liquidation began but most decided to wait. Once liquidation began the store was the busiest it had been all year.
Well if you want to play SYW games you can get plenty for free.
Even more confusing.. why would anyone bother to shop at Kmart at all?