3-On Your Side: Liquidation Sales
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- When is a sale too good to pass up? When it's a bankruptcy sale of course!
Or is it? 3 On Your Side consumer reporter Jim Donovan finds that as one book seller begins a new chapter, that doesn't mean the deals being offered can't be beat.
Last month Borders announced it was filing for bankruptcy and shutting down almost a third of its stores.
Among them, the Langhorne store where they're advertising that everything must go! Offering 25% or more off the retail price!
Freedom, the Jonathan Franzen best seller is normally $28 dollars, during the liquidation sale it's $21.
"Pricing is psychological when you say a low price, people say oh wow it must be a good deal so I think I'll go take a look at it'. And when you sensationalize it, use something like final sale or liquidator or sensational, people say wow I'm going to really save a lot of money," said Professor Richard Lancioni, with Temple University's Fox School of Business
But will you always? 3 On Your Side went shopping to check out prices.
Steve Harvey's Straight talk, no chaser is priced at $24.99.
On sale for 25% off brings it down to $18.74.
But we found it even cheaper at the Borders in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. And that store isn't even closing!
The price in Mount Laurel? $17.49!
Head to Borders online and you can knock the price down even more. To $12.74!
"You're certainly not going to save more than you could probably by buying it on the internet because the low cost of selling on the internet, it's much much lower," said Lancioni.
That was the case with the Barefoot Contessa. This cookbook retails for $35. The 25% off sale brings it down to $26.25.
But again the Mount Laurel store that's staying open, had a better deal.
The Mount Laurel price? $24.50.
And online still can't be beat, $20.67.
How can this be?
"Who ever is conducting the close out sale for Borders or others may be a separate company who may have bought the inventory and is trying to make as much money as they possibly can on it," said Lancioni.
Borders confirmed that closeout store prices are set by the liquidators. Often those prices get better as the sale drags on. If you do buy online, be sure to look for free shipping deals to maximize your savings.
Reported by Jim Donovan, CBS 3
