… this could be a good time to stock up on things like wiper blades, oil, filters, and brake pads at Advance Auto. Supposedly, they are closing their West coast stores, and the discounts range from 40% to 90%. Brake pads and calipers are claimed to be 90% off.
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This has been going on for some time now on the West coast, and the Advance near my house is plastered with signs saying up to 90% off, everything must go. I’ll stop by tomorrow and see if they have anything left worth stocking up on.
I’m somewhat sad to see them go, I was a fan of CarQuest for many years and used many of their parts when I was running a shop. But then again, service is what builds relationships and it seemed that that took a little tumble when they became Advanced. Anyway, it’s one less option for parts and accessories around here.
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I stopped by an Advance auto parts yesterday
Bare shelves
The prices were still bad, even with the discounts
They were always significantly overpriced, imo
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There are three Advance Auto Parts stores here, and all of them are closing. One used to be CarQuest for many years, one used to be Pep Boys, and one was newly opened less than a year ago. I used to shop at CarQuest before Advance Auto Parts took over, but the last time I was there, the people were too inept to find what I was looking for (a Dayco molded hose with a 90 degree elbow). I do need brake pads and rotors for my 2004 Corolla, I will have to see if they have any at a decent price.
I’m always leery of these so-called going-out-of-business sales. I know each state has different laws on it. But many states this is how it works.
Company A decides to go out of business. Company B buys up all the inventory at drastic discounted price to do the liquidation. Because company B just bought the inventory they can set their own prices - which is usually significantly higher (sometimes as much as 500% higher) and then advertise their GOOB sale with drastic discounts. Only the discounts are NOT based on what Company A was selling the product for. The discounts are based on the arbitrary price Company B placed on them when they bought the inventory.
Here’s a real case scenario I saw in NH some 30 years ago. I was eying this new Delta compound Mitre saw at Hammer Hardware. Their price was decent, but sometimes they run sales and drop the price down that beats everyone around. At the time it was selling for $299 (probably over $500 today). Then Hammer Hardware announced they were going out of business and closed the store down for a week to remark the prices. Sale said everything was at least 30% off and some items even 90% off. The Mitre saw (exact same model as I was looking at a month earlier) was marked down 50%. But the company that bought the inventory and was running the sale decided that this saw standard price was $800 and their sale price was $400. That was more than $100 OVER the regular price was just a month earlier. And people get suckered into it all the time. That same day I saw 2 different people buy the saw at that price. Amazing how ignorant people can be. It was on sale so it must be a good price.
The only time I ever had one of these sales work out for me was when Twitter (audio company in NH and MA) went out of business. I was able to buy a couple of outdoor speakers for our patio at real good discount (70% lower than their normal price and 40% lower than anywhere else).
Moral of the story - know your prices so you don’t get hosed by the so-called Going-Out-Of-Business sales.
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+1
Like you, I am very leery of those GOOB sales, for the reasons that you listed. Unless I know what the real price was, prior to that “sale”, I won’t buy one of their fake bargains.
Big advantage of a smart phone, look up prices while at the store.
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Not GOOB sale but Black Friday sales, I had ordered a seat belt thingy for my puppy before all the sales and I was going to order another one for the other puppy, well it just happened to be during the BF sale and it was showing 1/2 off (Amazon) but I remembered it only being a couple $$ higher without the sale, so I looked back and I had got it for $15.99 and now this time being “1/2” off was showing $13.99… 
I still got it cause $2.00 saved is still $2.00 saved and I am cheap like that… sometimes… BTW, It is back to the normal $15.99…
So yeah, you have to really pay attention to stuff like this…
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I do that now. Back then Blackberrys weren’t even invented. Some stores there’s so much interference I have to walk out of the store to get a good signal.
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It’s the word SALE that suckers the uninformed in. Anyone remember about 10 (maybe more) years ago when JC Penny decided to no longer run sales, but just lowered their prices across the board. They were saving a lot of money by NOT running all these sales ads and passing a lot of the sales back down to the customer. Their lowered prices were LOWER than the prices during the JC Penny sales days. HOWEVER - Because it wasn’t a “SALE” - consumer sales dropped significantly (something like 70%). They almost went out of business. So, they raised their prices and started advertising sales again at higher prices. Amazing how dumb people can be.
Back around 30 years ago, there were camera & electronics stores near NYC’s Times Square that perpetually had “Going out for business” signs posted in their windows. At the time, there was nothing illegal about that choice of wording–which was designed to snare tourists, many of whom didn’t speak English, and who didn’t realize that those intentionally misleading signs had been posted for several years.
Finally, the city passed an ordinance making that particular phrasing verboten, and also requiring businesses that were holding GOOB sales to register with the Dept of Consumer Affairs, so that the legitimacy of the sale could be examined.
About 30 years ago a local electronics store went out of business and I got some good deals. Since then I found, as you did, that that the GOOB prices were way too high. I went in looking for specific items and knew the prevailing prices. GOOBs were higher.
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I would think that the good stuff, behind the counter stuff, would be sent back to a distribution center to be sent out to stores still in operation, like pads, rotors, vehicle specific stuff, not the parts cleaner, car wash stuff out on the floor… I know the end has to justify the means, but there has to be a PL margin somewhere in all this…
Same thing in Boston. There was a small electronics store near “The Commons” that was “Going Out Of Business” for at least 4 years. It was a very touristy area. The city/state finally put at stop to it. I forget the name of the Adam Sandler movie, but same situation in that movie. He had a friend that owned a business that was going for of business for years. They passed a law to forbid it, so he changed the name of the store to GOOB.
LA busted Wilson’s House of Suede and Leather for its multi-year GOOB sale.
Last month I went shopping three days before Thanksgiving for several items I needed. Found what I needed (work related) at 75% off the full price that the items have been priced at for months. Two days after Thanksgiving those same items were boldly marked as a “Black Friday” weekend sale but now were only at a 25% markdown from full price. And, of course, the closer it got to Christmas the higher the prices went back up.
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The prices could go up or down as you get closer to Christmas depending on how the store is doing. Prices going back up just before Christmas is a sign of a good economy. Do the same analysis during a recession and you will probably see the opposite - Prices will drop closer they get to Christmas.
I stopped by my local Advance yesterday afternoon. There was a sign on the door saying card only, and there were half a dozen people waiting outside because they were limiting the number of people in the store.
I’m not waiting in line in the rain to save a few bucks on brakes or wiper blades.
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