I went into a local Circuit City store today after watching the “store closing” everything must go sign they were hanging on the building.  Signs plastered everywhere said “10 – 30% Off Everything in the Store!”  Not great deal, but worth considering if the right items were at 30%.  So I went in – the store was packed compared to normal and seemed very dirty by today’s big-box retail standards.  Imagine my surprise to see that even with discounts their prices were quite a bit higher than most of their competition and yet people were still buying stuff at what I would consider a feverish pace.

For example, and I would never buy it, but they had a gazillion of them, all DVDs, including the Incredible Hulk were on sale for 20% off.  Not too bad a discount, but it was off the retail price of $24.99 bringing the price to about $20.00.  That same disc, through Amazon.com is in stock for $15.99 plus shipping charges for people spending less than $25, and you have to wait.  Target across the street – $16.99, no wait, regular price.  That’s a pretty big difference for a relatively insignificant product – other items were equally over-priced and in some cases the higher the price the greater the gouging.  And yet people were still buying.

I don’t understand it – probably never will – but it would seem that the thought of a store going out of business and passing on big savings is enough for consumers to set their fear of a faltering economy and getting screwed aside.  So many of these over-pricings seemed contrary to conventional wisdom, and some of the discounted prices were even greater than recently advertised prices (noted for one camera that I had recently considered), and because these stores are closing they cannot honor the advertised pricing offered by stores that will remain open.  Nice… that makes no sense at all.

Do I blame Circuit City – no – they have to make an effort to return shareholder value, but the consumer.  The consumer has no excuse for this stupidity.  Open your eyes.  Don’t run blindly to the big signs – whatever you “need” today will be there tomorrow.  Circuit City isn’t giving this stuff away – they can always truck it off to another one of their stores and continuing trying to gouge the average consumer.  They are still a business and consumers need to remain educated consumers.

Ranter