Stopped by the one in Baileys Crossroads, VA... the TVs weren't that discounted, but I found the following were decent deals for those looking:

50% off all Panamax A/V Surge Suppressors (I bought the last Panamax 5100-PM for $200, their original prices were the same as Crutchfield... they also have plenty of NIB 4300-PM units and a display 5300-PM)
50% off all Audioquest cables (not too many remaining)
Martin Logan Vantage speakers (display) for $3177 ($5295 retail)
Martin Logan Vista speakers (display) for $2399 ($3999 retail)

Alpine CDA-9884 head unit for $144
Alpine CDA-9886 head unit for $240
Pioneer AVIC-D3 DVD/NAV head unit for $478 (display only I think)
Kenwood DNX-7100 DVD/Nav head unit for $518 (display only I think)
Alpine IVAW205 DVD head unit for $479 (display only I think)

LOL! I had no idea that Tweeter was closing, there are like 5 stores within the Houston region.

That explains why my Tweeter credit card was closed this month, with no reason (I had zero balance and zero activity on it since August, but figured it would require longer than 3 months for them to close the account).

peas said:"Edit by Moderator: Thank you for your participation. Please note that there is also discussion about this topic Here."

WTF the link the mod put in points to a dead thread which says the same and points back to here. Moderators getting sloppy >

Equal opportunity threads.

I decided to paruse my local Tweeter tonight. Even at 25% off the TV's were more expensive than most places. Cables were like 50% off but most weren't even marked so I'm afraid to even guess what the prices were. They had plenty of $500 speakers at %20 off though............

This is not target clearance folks. Other than car stereos there wasn't a single thing in the store that joe shmo was gonna buy.

Woodchuck312 said:
They sell Polk and Klipsch speakers... that ain't high end folks. These guys are a snob chain and they don't even sell high end equipment. If they were selling B&W and Paradigm then I would be excited.

They did have one sucker in there, middle aged guy and his wife. Buying a TV for like $3000 when they could get it at bestbuy for $1500. I guess they wanted the prestige of telling there friends it was bought at Tweeter. lol

If I could afford high-end, I wouldn't be on FW. I own Polk LSi Speakers which aren't high end, but they are expensive and do what I need them to. You cannot get them at best buy, not even in the goofy Magnolia store. Now I will grant you, the only things I ever buy at Tweeter are floor models which are insanely clearanced and I am hopeful for this store closing discount.

Also - I do not believe your story about the sucker. Sounds like hot air, like the rest of your post.

Tweeter had a place in this market. They were overpriced and sometimes the salesman were pushy, but they had a great selection that bridged the gap between Big Box stores (best buy/ Circuit City) and high end theatre stores. Their price included a nice warranty you don't get with Craigslist/eBay purchases. Now Tweeter is gone because of this failing economy.

This store isn't suffering - like Circuit City, it's essentially dead. Competition is dying and it's the consumer that suffers. Get ready for price increases...

Tweeter is the father store of a chain we have here in South Florida called Sound Advice.

I guess they're closing too.

The mighty Best Buy is sweeping the floor with all of them!

mcaslan said:5 months ago I went in to a Tweeter to buy a car stereo was greeted and sent to the mobile specialist. I was interested in a car stereo with either Bluetooth or HD and explained to the sales staff that I wanted something around $300 and had either Bluetooth or HD built but was not interested in any extra modules to add the functions.

He took me over to the 4 models he had and explained that the Apline was just what I needed. When I asked if it had HD or Bluetooth built in he said yes with the extra Add on module. And what was the price...

$1200 - Ha Ha Ha...

I asked him and his manager if he understood my requirements - and that if they hadn't noticed we were in a recession. Nope.

When I was at their web page I filled in a customer service notice and the District Manager called me and we spoke about the issues and offered my prediction that without a radical shakeup in their corporate buyers lack of reality in the current ecconomic climate and a serious revamp in their sales force being able to listen and meet customer requirements that the store would go out of business.

The store buyers were clueless about the financial marketplace, the sales staff not interested to listen to the customer, and management lacking in a vision to change the comapny mantra.

$1200 for a car stereo in a recession - get real Tweeter.

Actually, the high end products are better able to weather a recession, in some cases, than the lower end -- the people who could afford the high end before the recession are still able to afford it, just a little less so. The lower end products are now out of reach of people on the low end, who are now spending all of their money on food, gas, and housing with nothing left over to replace a car stereo.

That being said, it's pathetic that you would give very specific requirements to the sales staff and are then completely ignored. If my realtor had taken us to see homes priced over $1 million when we said our price range was under $300k, I would have dumped her (nice rack and all).

Their inventory is probably being liquidated by Gordon Bros. This is the same outfit that liquidated CompUSA stores. You will not find any bargains and if you do, it will be a fluke. In fact, I think one of the Gordon Bros. sits on Tweeter's Board. No conflict to be sure

They will eventually sell the fixtures and racking as well.

cnIsfg said:
FYI Frys is in just as bad financial shape as CC. Plus they are already on the East Coast in the Atlanta GA area. Well at least for now.

Please explain a little more about this. It would be a real shame for Fry's to go out. I thought Fry's was a privately held company. Hard to find out info for a company like that.

imthebest said:Their inventory is probably being liquidated by Gordon Bros. This is the same outfit that liquidated CompUSA stores. You will not find any bargains and if you do, it will be a fluke. In fact, I think one of the Gordon Bros. sits on Tweeter's Board. No conflict to be sure

They will eventually sell the fixtures and racking as well.

FYI Goron Bros did not liquidate CompUSA. It was Hilco. Gordon Bros simply negotiated the deal with the private Mexican owner to buy US assets and managed CompUSA's US operations until they contracted with Hilco to liquidate the remaining CompUSA assets Gordon Bros did not sell of to other interests (ie the .com business and select B&Ms to TigerDirect). Hilco officially took over the entire CompUSA liquidation on 12/30/2007.

1reeves said:cnIsfg said:1reeves said:cnIsfg said:
FYI Frys is in just as bad financial shape as CC. Plus they are already on the East Coast in the Atlanta GA area. Well at least for now.

Please explain a little more about this. I thought Fry's was a privately held company. Hard to find info out for a company like that.

Because as posted many times we are in the savage /liquidation business on a national level and that business is made up of a small group of big players who talk and provide overflow business to each other. Frys has been making unsolicited inquires to sell store/distribution inventories for months now. In addition their credit lines with the now defunct WAMU are basically non-existent. Though they MAY have secured new lines of credit since the recent infusion it still does not look good for them. Unlike Best Buy and other publically traded companies who can raise quick money by selling stock, credit lines ARE the life line of Frys and even before the current financial crisis they were already on life support.

Thank you for your answer.

I do understand about lines of credit and the "cashflow nature" of privately held companies.
Owning my SMALL business has had its lessons in finance and banking.
Back in the early 90's the Regional bank I was with tightened their lending and it was a bite dealing with them. Turned to a Local small bank and haven't had a problem since with loans when needed.

One of Fry's reasons to look to sell store/distribution inventories could be their deal with DHL as well. With DHL basically leaving the shipping business, it puts Fry's East coast distribution center in a world of hurt.

Well without revealing any proprietary info on Frys I would say you are about 90% correct in your assumptions. Hint: Include their TX locations and you are right on the money.

Anyway back on topic Tweeter's expansion business model was flawed from the start. When they were a small chain in the Northeast that had a dedicated customer base they did ok. It was not until they got greedy in the mid-90s and decided to gobble up many local independent high end electronic retailers similar to themselves that also were doing well on their own did Tweeter get into trouble. Tweeter’s thinking was that customers who were already paying more for customized local service would continue to do so if they took over and the new much larger Tweeter could bring national buying clout under the Tweeter name. While that original business philosophy may have been good but Tweeter’s execution was absolutely horrible. The first thing they did after buying out these already established high end retailers was to fire all the high paid experienced sales staff and skill installers who had established those customer bases and replace them with low paid commission based sales people and contract installers often with little or no experience in high end equipment. Well when this happened many of the existing loyal customers to the original stores felt no obligation to spend more money for the same items at Tweeter vs a big box retailer like Best Buy and Tweeter was doomed.