Ultimate Electronics Goes Out of Business

Image from source, OregonLive

We're really going to be down to like two or three of every kind of retailer, aren't we? If you want hardware, it's Lowe's or Home Depot. Books? Borders or Barnes & Noble. Big club store? Sam's Club or Costco. I know that these can be regional, but it seems most categories boil down to a "big two," and sometimes even just one major retailer. Electronics (or specialty electronics, like just computers) used to be a little more diversified. And you can still walk into a Wal-mart or Kmart if you don't mind a Somy or a Yamaham instead of the real thing. But I'll bet wherever you live in the US of A, you've got just a couple of chains devoted to electronics.

We now have one less. In what has become a very familiar scenario, Ultimate Electronics is in the process of being liquidated. It's where a liquidation company comes in, slaps signs up all over that says "up to 30% OFF EVERYTHING IN THE STORE!" And yes, the "up to" is supposed to be that small, because they don't want you to notice it. As the days or weeks go by, and the store inventory dwindles, the signs change to 40%, 50% and so on until everything is gone. Over the last several years, this has happened at Computer City, Comp USA and Circuit City, and I'm certain many others. It's always very exciting for a shopper, making you weigh today's deal against what it might be in a few days if you just wait (and they don't sell it while you're dithering). Of course, there are no returns, so you'd better be sure!

It's kind of like an estate sale though, with a layer of bitter under the sweet.  At an estate sale, you're picking through the remnants of a person's entire life.  They're selling things that the person had for most of their lives for a couple of bucks, and you're trying to talk them down. It always makes me a little sad. In the case of a liquidation, usually nobody has died. But you're being waited on by people who have been abruptly laid off. Except they've got to keep working, selling not only a progressively sadder collection of things, but also the shelves, the displays, the office furniture. . . See? Sad. I commiserated with the handsome young man who sold me a stereo at Ultimate Electronics today. He'd been told only in the last day or so, and here he is losing his job, but still nice as could be, carrying the stereo to my car. I told him I was sorry, even felt like giving him a tip. I got a great deal on the stereo (which will compliment and complete my other recent purchases nicely). But I felt sad at the same time.

And think of the poor guy, Mark Wattles, who started the company. He also lost Hollywood Video not long ago. Sad for him too.
[Excerpt]

Ultimate Electronics begins liquidating



As a bankruptcy court in Delaware officially approved Ultimate Electronics' request to clear out and shut down Friday, customers were streaming into the nearly 3-month-old Tigard store scouting out its going-out-of-business sale. . .
 
Read more at: OregonLive