In Adam Sandler’s 2008 masterpiece, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, the actor is offered a job at an electronics store called “Going Out of Business.” This is a shady operation that constantly makes false claims about products and rips people off. Sandler was mocking a real phenomenon–the liquidation companies named “going out of business” or “total liquidation sale.” The Journal has a fun article on the issue today, focusing on a rug salesman who has settled down in Texas for a permanent going out of business sale. Barry Newman reports:
Many localities do have rules against such claims. New York City asks stores to get licenses for angst-inspired specials, from “fire sale” to “lost our lease.” Texas asks the same. But with blowouts on every corner, there’s been no burst in enforcement. Texas has issued 49 such licenses since 2001 — and prosecuted one used-car dealer in Austin.
Comments
4 responses to “Making A Business of Going Out of Business”
It’s good! Sony guts.
A long time ago one of our major Canadian department store retailers (The Bay, I believe) got in trouble for its “white” sales. Its white sales usually involved its towels. Canada’s fair trade agency fined them for misleading advertising. As it turned out, about 80% of the time their towels were on sale and only about 20% of the time they were at regular price. The agency concluded the sale price was, in fact, the regular price. They just had periodic “pay more” days.
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They are persistent.
“Masterpiece”? You must be joking, right?
This was the worst piece of Adam Sandler formulaic pablum since the Wedding Singer sequel. Not to mention all the silly attempts to make kooky hardcore Judaism look “hip” and somehow not-insane, and their neighbors look primitive, to the point I seriously smelled a failed AIPAC cultural op ad buy aimed at the kids. What an abomination.