Ultimate Electronics Going Out Of Business 30% Off Everything

I went to the store by me last Friday, the good stuff was already pretty picked over. I was looking for a receiver but they were only doing 15% off on audio gear, nothing cheap enough for an impulse buy for me.
 
UE is just another name for Circuit City, AFAIK. The one we had in town disappeared real fast.
 
I'm surprised they didn't go out of business three years ago.
 
They had the most annoying staff I have ever experienced in a big box store. I went there one time, got harrassed by four (yes, four) employees before I could even get to the item I wanted (which was only halfway into the store), bought a Blu Ray player, paid for it, and was waiting by the front doors for someone with my jacket on and with a big Ultimate Electronics bag in my hand... clearly checked-out and LEAVING.... and a FIFTH guy comes by and asks me if he can help me find anything.

I haven't been back since.
 
Kenworth said:
I didn't know UE was such a pos. My posting credentials must be revoked!
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They're a mid to upper end A/V store. The last time I saw one was around 2000-2002 when they closed shop in Dallas. Prices, as I recall, were about the same as any other store carrying similar items. They typically carry better equipment than Best Buy (unless your BBY has a Magnolia, and most don't, IME) or late Circuit City.

Were they expensive? Sure, but so were the vast majority of smaller shops carrying this type of equipment. Now maybe that's changed, since stores like 6th Ave sell a lot of this stuff online (as does One Call) with a full warranty. 30% off is decent if they have anything, but it's still at least a 15-20% markup. If you're looking at speakers, they're marked up about 40%.

Speakers ASP is almost always 100% over clost.
Receivers and other audio is generally marked up roughly 65-70%. (ASP * .6 = dealer cost)
 
I honestly thought they went out of business years ago when they left town here.
 
yet another lame going out of business sale

same thing we saw with circuit city and comp usa
 
Ultimate electronics went out of business by me about 10 years ago. I didn't know they had any left.
 
J-Will said:
Best Buy claims another store?
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I suppose that was their most direct competitor, but I wouldn't give them all the credit. Amazon and other online retailers, and even Wal-Mart to some extent put them out.
 
Here in MN UE was a really nice store and sold better lines than most BB stores at similar or lower prices. The stores here also had really nice demo rooms.

Still more than buy.ing online though and a lot of why they were nice here is they were audio king before.
 
lol, gotta love those going out of business sales. they discard the current discount prices, throw a fake retail price on there and then subtract x% from the total. suckers think they are getting a deal but they are only getting screwed.
 
Last time I went into a UE was in 2003 and I think the one I went into closed up a few years ago.

They offered me a cup of coffee when I was looking around. I thought to myself they should offer alcohol to get people purchase their items at those prices...
 
jiminator said:
lol, gotta love those going out of business sales. they discard the current discount prices, throw a fake retail price on there and then subtract x% from the total. suckers think they are getting a deal but they are only getting screwed.
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Sometimes. I made out like a bandit during the CompUSA going out of business sales.

Studiophile AV 40s for $100, CM Cosmos for $160, Corsair HX620 for $80, Xfi fatal1ty champion edition for $80, 2GB corsair DDR2 for $20. I got a few other things i cant remember but especially towards the end they had some great deals and a TON of stuff i had never seen in store before.

Keep in mind when this stuff was bought it was all very current high end shit.
 
As usual, the ignorance can be fairly astonishing at times:

When a company like Ultimate Electronics goes "out of business" from the moment they make that declaration public, it basically means they've sold their entire store inventories - to the fucking bare walls, including the tile on the floors even - to outside companies who are then responsible for all the sales inside those stores. So UE ain't the one setting the prices 'cause all that "stuff" doesn't even belong to them anymore.

Happens all the time, and the really good deals at most any such sale are very few and very far between. Sometimes you get lucky but, more often than not you don't - the company that owns everything jacks the price up typically at least 20% before they ever get around to putting the "30% off everything!!!" stickers and signs up, so they're ahead of the game before the next round of discounts even kicks in...

Gotta pay for all that shit somehow since it's all on them to make the money past that point.

We've got one here in Las Vegas I might have to take a trip to this week, should be good for a few laughs at the "massive discounts" they profess. :D
 
They are not having any "fire sale". Their inventories are already low. They will be transferring inventory from smaller, slower market stores to keep bigger ones open longer.

Once that is done, they will sell remaining inventory to other industry chains.

This is the process set up by the bankruptcy trustee.
 
I bet anything you find is cheaper on net. Hence going out of business.
 
Regardless of who sets the prices its kind of funny.

I went yesterday and the Blu Ray players were a whopping 10% off, not sure how or why but they were sold out of 90% of them. Bear in mind this was players that you could easily get cheaper at walmart or amazon.

I ended up finding a like-new open box Sony da5400es receiver for about $520 after tax, which I felt was a decent enough deal. Used ebay prices seem to be around $600 or so.
 
Joe Average said:
As usual, the ignorance can be fairly astonishing at times:

When a company like Ultimate Electronics goes "out of business" from the moment they make that declaration public, it basically means they've sold their entire store inventories - to the fucking bare walls, including the tile on the floors even - to outside companies who are then responsible for all the sales inside those stores. So UE ain't the one setting the prices 'cause all that "stuff" doesn't even belong to them anymore.

Happens all the time, and the really good deals at most any such sale are very few and very far between. Sometimes you get lucky but, more often than not you don't - the company that owns everything jacks the price up typically at least 20% before they ever get around to putting the "30% off everything!!!" stickers and signs up, so they're ahead of the game before the next round of discounts even kicks in...

Gotta pay for all that shit somehow since it's all on them to make the money past that point.

We've got one here in Las Vegas I might have to take a trip to this week, should be good for a few laughs at the "massive discounts" they profess. :D
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This is accurate. Was the same with CompUSA and Target: all the inventory was marked up 40%, then slapped with "30% off!!!" stickers. By the time prices were actually below market price all that was left were old CD cases and aerosol air cleaners.

I did, however, get two manniquins at a blow out price (manniquins are normally and surprisingly very expensive) when Virgin Records was closing in Times Square, so there are deals to be had if you're looking for odd stuff.
 
I had a UE open up by me 2 months ago.

Grand Opening...
Grand Closing....

Just like that.
 
harmattan said:
This is accurate. Was the same with CompUSA and Target: all the inventory was marked up 40%, then slapped with "30% off!!!" stickers. By the time prices were actually below market price all that was left were old CD cases and aerosol air cleaners.

I did, however, get two manniquins at a blow out price (manniquins are normally and surprisingly very expensive) when Virgin Records was closing in Times Square, so there are deals to be had if you're looking for odd stuff.
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Compusa had some seriously amazing deals towards the end. Just because you missed them don't mean they didn't exist. Search the old threads here and look at the deals. Hell i even gave a few examples.

The only ignorance i see in this thread is quite a few people making assumptions without actually looking. Wait until the last minute, whatever they don't sell to third party retailers will get cheap.
 
Already went to the Ultimate in Las Vegas. Sadly, they were picked through pretty well 3 days ago. I was amazed. Prices were aweful. BB and Frys had cheaper prices than UE did (infact, up to $200 cheaper on certain TVs).
 
I went last week. Prices sucked ass. Asked them if they would price match best buy still and they told me no. No way in hell I was going to buy anything when I could drive 6 blocks to BB and get it for less. Way to price match u a-holes.
 
I'd take UE over BB anyday of the week and twice on sunday.

How Best Buy is practically the last one standing is beyond me.

Worst company ever.
 
when they went out of business in KS, a liquidator came in to manage the sale. they marked all of the prices UP, then discounted everything to about what the original price was, and called it a sale. it was a HUGE fiasco ... used goods repackaged and sold as new, no returns on products sold as new that had been damaged in the warehouse, no returns under any circumstances, etc. WORST sale ever. store was retarded to start with because it was called "ultimate electronics" but yet wasn't "ultimate" enough to sell computers. they also refused to stock/sell Apple products.
 
To some extent I will always appreciate their displays set up and nice furniture (I would even buy it if I weren't cheap). They had good reference materials like Kung Fu Panda and Monsters and Aliens, not stupid ads and TV previews.

That said, no bargains and they swarm around all customers.
 
doz said:
Already went to the Ultimate in Las Vegas. Sadly, they were picked through pretty well 3 days ago. I was amazed. Prices were aweful. BB and Frys had cheaper prices than UE did (infact, up to $200 cheaper on certain TVs).
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Thanks, you just saved me a trip. ;)

Kenworth said:
Who exactly is that directed at?
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Ignorance simply means a lack of knowledge, hence my comment was directed at the thread and anyone participating in it that didn't or doesn't understand how "going out of business" sales operate once they're publicly announced at the retail level.

Once they start posting signs that they're going out of business, they've technically already gone out of business because the store inventory from top to bottom doesn't belong to the company who's name is on the door anymore - it belongs to the liquidators that are actually in charge of the sale(s).

That's it...
 
There was a UE that went out of business by me about 5 years ago. I went up on the day before closing and it looked to me like a real fire sale- all the stock was gone, and it was just them selling off floor models. They were even selling off the furniture in the listening rooms and such. The place was shambles. People were walking out with stuff, no boxes, like the place was being looted.

I got a Yamaha powered home theater subwoofer for $90 that was a show model. It was selling on amazon at the time for around $250, so I didn't quite lose out. Still got it, still going strong.
 
When Comp USA had their going out of business sale I picked up Starcraft battlechest for 99cents! Oh and a free bag of 100x zipties.

Too bad no UE by me.
 
Drexl said:
I suppose that was their most direct competitor, but I wouldn't give them all the credit. Amazon and other online retailers, and even Wal-Mart to some extent put them out.
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Unless Ultimate Electronics took a huge step down in product, BBY was not really their competition. 10 years ago, UE had the good Denon, Yamaha, Adcom, and so on, receivers, Pioneer Elite audio and video equipment, B&W speakers and so on.
There's nothing at BBY (outside of those that happen to have a Magnolia in the back corner) that's in the same league as that type of equipment.
However, there are far more Internet retailers that can sell a lot of those product lines online and they often do it at much lower prices than your local AV store can.
My recollection was that UE had a lot more quality large screen TVs than BBY has today and they were displayed away from bright Fluorescent lights (i.e it was closer to what your living room light).
 
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