Our local Office Max is closing down and everything was 20% - 50% off

[Guest inoubliable]

.... of inflated prices!

 

The bestie and I went by there yesterday hoping to grab some good stuff. Me, for my kiddos and our homeschool. Her, for her graphic design hubby who is always sketching and drawing. So we head straight to pens, pencils, folders, etc. They had the original price tags still on the shelves. And they had a TON of employees walking around letting everyone know that the percentage off was counted from the STICKER price. So we walked by Post-its and saw rows and rows of them on a shelf marked $1.79 and they were supposed to be 30% off. Except that the sticker price was $3.86. Uh... we asked a few of the employees and a cashier and they all confirmed. It's off of the sticker price. The sticker price would ring up at the register not the shelf price. Oookay. 

I did purchase a couple of pens. :( Disappointed, though. We saw a lot of people standing around price comparison shopping with Amazon on their smartphones. Most people were walking out empty handed. How did they think they'd sell much when people have such access to comparing prices, or even a general idea of what a single Post-it note pad should cost?  :laugh:

[Jean in Newcastle]

With business practices like that, no wonder they are closing down.

[Jean in Newcastle]

With business practices like that, no wonder they are closing down.

[TechWife]

They probably have a liquidation company running the closing. It is standard procedure for those companies to raise all of the prices to MSRP before marking down. 

[Arcadia]

When stores close down, the store tend to revert to sticker price. It is usually liquidators handling the closing down sale.  Office Max is merging with Office Depot.

[Guest inoubliable]

They probably have a liquidation company running the closing. It is standard procedure for those companies to raise all of the prices to MSRP before marking down. 

 

Oh aye. I'm sure those "employees" weren't actual Office Max employees. No one was in uniform, no one had a name tag on. They were walking around with lanyards and notecards clipped to them that said "Customer Service". I once worked in a store that closed down. We had to take all the price tags off of everything - produce and shelf - before our last day. I'm guessing some of those things stuck around to be marked up and then sold. Most things, though, we were responsible for boxing and putting on pallets to be shipped to a closer store that wasn't shutting down.

[Guest inoubliable]

Office Max is merging with Office Depot.

 

Oh, I didn't know that had gone through! Well that makes perfect sense. Our Office Depot is right across the street from Office Max. LOL.

[Arcadia]

Oh, I didn't know that had gone through! Well that makes perfect sense. Our Office Depot is right across the street from Office Max. LOL.

 

"On February 20, 2013, OfficeMax and Office Depot announced their entry into an agreement to combine their companies in a merger of equals. On July 10, 2013, stockholders of both companies approved the merger. The transaction is expected to close by the end of calendar year 2013, subject to regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. " (link)

New CEO for post merger has not been appointed yet according to the news.