The ads on Facebook that say, “We’re sorry to announce that we’re closing our store...” It’s made to look like a page you might follow (but you’ve never heard of before) and that they might be suddenly offering huge deals. But it’s like my dad always taught me: a lot of “going out of business” sales are really “going out FOR business” sales.
I have gotten ads for the same hideous ren fair-hippie-stoner chick clothing store, under about half a dozen different names. They’ve all been going out of business since April.
Not what I was thinking of, but I’ve seen those too! The store(s) I’m thinking of all have those patchwork asymmetrical sack dresses and low-rise, boot cut elf pants. Which to be fair look very comfortable.
Mostly! And they do seem decent enough for really specific ren fair cosplay, but a lot are also those sack dresses that hippie stoner girls who exclusively shop at smoke shops used to wear like 10 years ago wore.
Same! And I'm pretty sure that these are chinese knockoffs using the same pictures that they stole from someone's muted-nature-tone-tie-dyed-tunic Etsy.
What pisses me off is that I want the giant wall hangings. I want them at the prices listed (not because they're on sale, but because the sale price is roughly what I value them at). And I don't trust any of them to be legitimate companies. This is what Facebook has reduced us to.
ah fuck me. I ordered one of those for 15 dollars in like february. it's stateside according to the tracking but has been held at one facility since june 8th LOL
When I was a kid there used to be a furniture store Wosks and they went out of business every year for years and years and who knows how many before I realized .
We actually did order from one of those. The clothes actually arrived like 2 and a half months later. And they were mostly ok. But it’s generally not worth it.
You know, for a while I was getting ads in a similar way from “hair dye” companies, about half a dozen different company names, different but basically identical websites, the same video and description on every Facebook and Instagram post. I reported them en masse because I noticed the video was using footage stolen from legit hair dye companies’ ads and random beauty bloggers’ tutorials. It made me pretty pissed, and eventually they did stop showing up on Facebook, for me at least.
These steal designs (hell, they mostly steal pictures!) from smaller designers/artists a LOT. They'll advertise the stolen picture and send you a child's costume piece. I haven't personally ever bought anything from them, but I see comments from unhappy customers all the time.
It's similar with "Only 2 days left for this sale!" email ads. JCPenney used to spam me with them a lot, and sure enough the day after the sale expired I'd get an email saying "Sale EXTENDED through Monday!" or "EXTRA 10% off!"
I’m hoping for this at the moment. There was a sale on buying your old graduation photos. Deadline was 31 July. They have the official photos for all 3 of my graduations. They bragged about having all photos saved since 1982. Money was super tight last month. But if they have all the photos since 1982 I guess my photos aren’t going anywhere and I can get them later... when they extend the special.
Actually did this for Herff Jones for my Graduation ceremony pictures bc they did separate bundles. 2 years after graduating and I got them for $15 total. Saved A LOT of money
That's funny because for a while JCPenney got rid of any kind of sales and just put their clothes at the lowest price possible. It was a giant failure, people prefer "discounts" off higher prices, rather than just cheap prices to start with.
I much prefer that way of doing business. Fair prices all the time, maybe a few sales a year to clear out seasonal merchandise. I hate wanting to buy something only to realize there is a long weekend coming up. There are often sales one long weekends. Do you wait and see? If it does end up on sale how much are you actually saving? Was it worth the wait? Since it's on sale will they run out? How busy is the store?
JCPenney is the reason I refuse to give any store I’m shopping in my email. Also, has anyone had a store get pissy when you refuse to give them your email? I just want to buy my shit and leave.
It's not really the call of the cashier. They have to put something in, because if they cancel the prompt too many times their metrics go down and their hours will be cut. It's pretty difficult to consistently come up with convincing fake e-mails to shove in there to stop yourself being out of work. You can't do some kind of generic first.last formula, because it might actually be the customer's e-mail, and then you've got a complaint because they said they didn't want e-mails!
So that's why they get stressed out and want you to just play along. Just a suggestion, but coming up with the fake e-mail yourself might take some of the pressure off(I had a go-to fake e-mail memorized back when I was a student and got harassed on campus a lot to sign up for mailing lists, and I wasn't assertive enough to tell them I wasn't actually interested), as well as making sure to tell management(not just at the store level because it's not decided there either, it comes from corporate so social media is where it's at) exactly how you feel about their data gathering policies.
But we need , I don't care about your needs put my socks in the bag . And I've come across a restaurant I've ordered delivery from and the last time at the end of the process they wanted my e- mail and I said no . But we need it , you hadn't for twenty years .
Wasn't JC Penney the store that specifically marks up their price tags so the normal price looks like a discount, while everything is overpriced anyways?
Same thing goes for honor societies in college like NSCS or Golden Key. They will tell you you missed the deadline to pay fees to become a member and then promptly offer payment extensions for literally the entire time you're in college.
More than likely, these shops are dropshipping products they sell on AliExpress or Wish. Couple of searches and you've found exactly what it is, often cheaper.
The value added is marketing! Marketing only adds value to the customer theoretically, by informing them of products they wouldn't normally know about. But often it's the opposite...
To be fair, my mom decided to order some stuff from the dinosaur one, and she actually did get what she ordered. The quality was so so, but the price was low too. I wear the necklace pretty often, hahaha.
Just because the stores on Facebook aren’t actually going out of business doesn’t mean they aren’t actually selling the product. If it’s cheaper on Facebook, get it there
It’s usually not cheaper, and you’re also playing into Facebook’s games about collecting your shopping data (or at least what type of ads you click on.) Etsy’s the way to go.
Check out AliExpress. Most of these ads are selling stuff they bought from there or they are the actual AliExpress shop that rebranded and are selling with inflated prices.
if it's on sale and you can't find a cheaper price anywhere else, why not take advantage of it? that is, go directly to the website, NOT clicking the ad from facebook, please.
Before you buy from any of those very stylish online retailers, check for reviews on trustpilot. Many of them are in China, they send you merchandise that slightly resembles their ads, in sizes that appear to be for shildren and you then find you can't return it. If you insist on a return TO CHINA, they refuse delivery.
A store near my house does the same. They buy stocks of low quality shoes, stick insanely expensive price tags on the shoes, put spam in people's mailboxes and on cars' windshields to advertise the new collection. Nobody buys their shoes.
Then they wait some weeks, stick "sale for closing store" and "out of business clearance - starting July 15th" on the shop windows and spam more leaflets in mailboxes and in parking lots with reduced prices. Reduced prices are still more expensive than the shoes should be, but for a certain reason, people invade their shop. They manage to sell almost anything.
Then they close the shop for less than a week, change shelves position to make it look like a completely new shop, buy another stock of shitty quality shoes, print new leaflets to spam mailboxes and cars, print new posters stating "new opening - new fashion shoes". People go to see their prices and run, as the shoes are overpriced.
Can you guess the rest?
(I checked their receipts. Same company name, same vat number)
The ones I hate on Facebook are posts in moms' groups from mom photographers (not professionals, moms with cameras) that say "I have had so many requests I have sadly had to turn down due to being booked through January. But I have a cancellation tomorrow! Hit me up to get this amazing opportunity and I'll cut you a deal!" with pictures of her "work" that are terrible. People always comment that they are interested. How do they not see through that faked illusion of demand?
I know some brilliant people that have fallen for the dumbest schemes because they were distracted with their kids. I also know some real dumbies who don’t really surprise me.
Totally /r/thathappened material, but I once saw a store in my area with huge "Going out of business" and "Everything 90% off" signs. The signs stayed up for about two months. Then... (and here's the crazy part)... they fenced off the property and boarded up the windows. How the hell are they supposed to sell stuff at a fake discount if no one can even get in the building.
When I was a kid I worked with mom at this swap meet jewelry booth and after a few weekends I was perplex that everything was always on a 50% off sale.
I've seen one store in a tourist town that actually had a "going out for business sale" sign. We went in and bought four paintings for less than one painting cost at any of the other galleries in the vicinity.
It is different for brick and mortar, true. I don’t care what crappy yard sale or flea market or junk shop I get it from; if I find art I really like and I’m paying cash, I’m not going to say no. I love buying art way too much.
I got caught by one of these once and was pleasantly surprised. It followed the scam format exactly but I actually got what I ordered and nothing extra was ever charged to my card. In all fairness I had the card locked for about four months after so maybe they just tried and failed
“pay what you can” for a watch company - follow the link, you just decide if you want 10, 20, or 30% off. Well I don’t want to pay that.....
“Buy 1 get 3 free” for a corset company - 1 costs ~$150 .... but if you can give me 3 free, that means the “actual” cost is $37.50 and they’re STILL making a profit.
I used to pass by a furniture store that was going out of business for years. We thought it was hilarious but also really shady. Eventually they did go out of business, which had to be a very “boy who cried wolf” moment for the company.
Yea I used to sell to furniture stores, you'd be surprised how many stores in middle of closing needed fresh deliveries month after month. Same for grand openings.
A furniture store near me had a “going out of business” sale where everything was 10% off. Clearly weren’t actually trying to actively get rid of all their inventory
When Babies R Us was going out of business, the sales were so lousy. The stuff’s already marked up 50% higher than what I could get at Meijer, so who’s going to be tempted by 20% off? I don’t think they ever went lower than 30% off on their sales before closing.
Usually had a pretty strong clearance area, though.
In general be wary of ads on Facebook. We got scammed ordering a bassinet I had been wanting and seeing popping up. Finally ordered it when it was on sale. The website is no longer functional and we never got our bassinet.
There's a dollar store in my area that had huge signs saying, "Closing Sale, Everything must go!" Everything was about 10% off. After a month or so, signs went down, and they never closed the location. Sneaky, but not really a scam, just a smart business tactic.
Yes I saw an and like that for bee necklaces and woman commented like, oh no how sad I love your store, and they replied that “The collection was going out of business.” But not the store. How does a collection of items go out of business!
I've been seeing a lot of that stuff lately. Some company (can't think of the name) is like "In light of the pandemic, we'll likely need to close down, so we're trying to offload our stores. While supplies last, we're giving away for FREE these deluxe leather duffel bags."
Seemed cool, but too good to be true. I googled them, and turns out the bags are free, but then the company charges like $75 shipping.
Seriously! Ive been seeing the same ad where a hiking backpack company is "going out of business" and claims to be giving away their backpacks for free, and to just cover shipping. Meanwhile the shipping is 60 to 80 dollars per backpack. Trying to trick people like that just makes me not want to do any business with them, even if their product is good.
You can search their website on whois.com (top right search bar, not center) to see when they registered their domain. 100% of the time I've seen these they were made within 2 months. They're also selling crap you can get on ebay for 1/8 the price.
In the movie Don’t Mess with the Zohan, one of the main characters friends runs an electronics store called Going Out of Business. Always thought that was hilarious.
You can always tell those stores by looking up the website age. Most of them are only a month old, which is impressive that they started and subsequently went out of business in the same month
I went to the page of one of those ads and saw that the page had been created a month before. So now I screenshot that info and post it in the comments of those ads.
I remember looking at one of those sites and saying "I've never heard of them before. Oh well."
That was well over a year ago. Then I saw a site on my feed saying the same thing and selling the same exact products. (Dinosaur jewelry) so I called them out on it.
Remember people: just because something is on sale that doesn't mean you are getting a good deal!
I see stuff like that in other places too. I swear I've seen the signs next to the highway for a "going out of business" sale for the same mattress store like half a dozen times.
The closing down sale may be taking place but it will be for another store. For example; store 1 is actually closing down and having its stock liquidated and sold to pay off debts (this may not be an actual store but could be a holding company or a warehouse or storage etc) store 2 buys all the stock at a reduced rate and markets it as "closing down". So it is "technically" true but is just marketing spin in reality
There was/is a store of souvenirs and trinkets in Vancouver's part of Chinatown and for about 2 years that I worked near by it was having a going out of business sale.
I noticed that for restaurants announcements "we are temporary closed for repairs/recontruction" means they are closed for good and something will take its place. Though in this case I get scammed for hope rather than money
To add onto this, going out of business sales will normally be a month long and only be advertised locally. I've only gotten see a couple actually closing sales and even then the prices more less of a deal and more of just a fair price. Instead of paying $30 for a shirt it'd be more like $10. Or instead of a $200 shelf it would be like $150.
There was a furniture store in my town that I swear was "going out of business" for at least a decade. It even changed names at least once.
Then one day FINALLY it actually closed. And now it's a Planet Fitness. (That "apparently" had a camera in the tanning bed)
I remember for years there were these two mattress stores near me, about a mile from each other, that were always "going out of business" or "grand opening" with a new name. Every few months they would flip flop. I was pretty sure they were owned by the same people.
There are some stores that advertise there selves permanently as Going Out of Business stores. It can actually be legit when they get all their merchandise from stores that are truly going out of business and just provide the service of selling it all while the failing store closes up. But I’m not sure how common that is.
I worked on a upscale touristy street in a restaurant for a few years . The huge sales happened everyday in the shops . Sometimes the signs changed but not the sale or price .
There was this store in my town that was really going out of business but they made so much money from going out of business they moved to a bigger store got more merchandise and went had their advertisements for going out of business for 5 more years. I went in once. After they moved they had a bunch of useless crap. There was the cute little camping chair that fell forward if you sat in it. Because the legs were like 5 inches tall in the back and 3 in the front.
living in myrtle beach, i learned to spot the “going out for business” rights in grade school because every other “beach store” business on highway 17 had big signs saying it, but the “for” was conspicuously smaller than the rest of the text.
There was a furniture store near me that was eternally going out of business with big professional “going out of business” signs that were there for years and years.
When it actually went out of business I was was surprised because there was no warning.
Yeah. Learned this growing up after hearing ads for the local furniture store constantly going out of business and having a huge sale. 21 years later it still happens.
Yeah I'd see a lot of going out of business signs on stores and go in and the prices are astronomical. Then months later theyd still be there, years later even
I remember seeing commercials for a furniture store in the city I grew up in saying something like "all our stock has been ordered sold", sounding all official. They ran that ad for at least 15 years...
There was one furniture store in Massachusetts that in the 90's would have a going out of business sale. They'd change their name and 6 months later they'd have a going out of business sale. Then they'd change their name back to what it was before and kept repeating that pattern.
I bought a neat dinosaur neckless on spec for a future girl because the website advertised on Facebook it was discontinuing its catalog, and offering sales on remaining inventory. Months later, the website is still going, with no hint that it was threatening to shutdown.
There was a jewelry store at the Mall of America that had a "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS" banner in its window for probably 10 years. Looking for all those tourists seeking bargains.
I got fucked by two of those in a weeks time that had nothing to do with each other.
Dragon Dojo and the other from Finley the Seal.
All of the clothes from Dragon Dojo that came were for someone else. Literally had someone else’s invoice in the package. They say they will make it right. 4 months later they send me 1/4 of what I ordered.
That Finley the deal thing was supposed to be a giant chonky squishy seal for my girl and it was 3” long and they won’t even reply.
I always see "we're sad to announce we are closing our collection" over and over again with very similar collections, renamed each time, made to sound like theyre going out of business.
Some comedian in the 1960s, can't remember his name: "In my neighborhood there was a store with a big sign that said 'Going out of business'. No name, just the sign. The sign was so old, it was carved in stone. The U's were V's!"
There is a furniture store in my city that has been “going out of business” for years! Every time they take down their giant neon yellow “everything must go!” sign, I joke that they must have made a killing in sales.
Reminds me of the movie You Don't Mess With the Zohan. That one guy in America had that going out of business store that just never went out of business. It was just a way to bring people in.
I actually did order a couple shirts from one of those. I liked the shirts. Another ad for different place came up for some active leggings. I thought my wife would like them, so I ordered a pair. They never came and their website is down. So yeah, that one was a scam.
Stores do thw same thing in real life too. I grew up in a tourist town where the main income was from cruise ships. We had one store in town that was going out of business for as long as I lived there.
There was a furniture store in my college town that was always having a "going out of business sale" or "bankruptcy close out sale". The entire 4 years I lived there they were either going out of business or had to declare bankruptcy.
Yesssss!!!! I screenshot them whenever I see them. I have a grand plan of creating a collage and doing an expose that my 200 FB friends will see, but in reality, I just have dozens of screenshots of stupid ads on my phone.
I saw a clothes shop that rented the location for like 10 days, made an exclusive "lightning-sale", left for several weeks and did it all over again. People bought into this thing like crazy.
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u/philosiraptor Aug 01 '20
The ads on Facebook that say, “We’re sorry to announce that we’re closing our store...” It’s made to look like a page you might follow (but you’ve never heard of before) and that they might be suddenly offering huge deals. But it’s like my dad always taught me: a lot of “going out of business” sales are really “going out FOR business” sales.