Borders Liquidation Update

A few weeks ago I posted about how Borders Liquidatoin was really not such a great deal. After all book stores typically run 40-50% coupons and this sale was starting at 20-30%.

This week I decided to check out some Borders. I went to one in NJ and one in NY by Columbus Circle. I was still not impressed. Things had now gotten to 50-60% on some items but in gerneral the deals were not great. Instead, it was a lesson in the genius of liquidation sellers and how few people are truly educated consumers.

The store was designed to make you feel like you were getting a bargain. There were signs everywhere proclaiming "everything must go" and "nothng held back". The books were jumbled onto the shelves, and the shelves were all labelled "for sale". Various pieces of furniture were staked up for you to peruse and purchase. The books were actually laid out pretty well but somehow an aura of clutter and rush still pervailed. Shppers ate it up.

People were running around with carts grabbing books. They felt that this was a liquidation - the company is just trying to make back whatever they can. It must be a great deal. Here's where they went wrong: the company all ready sold off the inventory - to a liquidator. That liquidator got the rock bottom price you are hoping for, they just had to buy the entire inventory ot do it. The liquidator wants to get as much out of you as possible. So they start markdowns low. They are not stupid. They know popular categories - like cooking and children's books - will fly off shelves and they barely marked those down. Yet people were scopping them up. Because they did not know what they ought to be paying.

An example I randomly selected from the shelf: The tech section was 40% off. The Book "Creating Websites Bible" third edition came out to $23.99 after all the discounts. It is currently listed on Amazon for $21.99 with free shipping. Some sale huh?

I'm still waiting to see if things get better. The percentages have slowly been creeping up, but who knows. Stock is moving, so why bother?

The best deals I found - the furniture. Some of it was nice, especially the small display desks, and reasonably priced.