With most liquidations, "there will be big, gigantic signs to lure you in, but the sales are usually not as good as they appear, particularly at the beginning," said Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a national retail consulting and investment banking firm based in New York.
"And shoddy merchandise can be brought in later to support the sale, so it's consumer beware."
All sales are finaI in most liquidations, said Steve Hannan, executive director of the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition. He suggests that consumers pay with credit cards because those offer more protection than cash if an item is defective. Shoppers buying big-ticket items should make sure any repairs covered under a warranty can be done somewhere in the area, he said, "because you won't have Boscov's to take it back to."
"You need to know whether it's a good deal; it's not necessarily that it is," Hannan said. "The liquidator is going to put a price on it, but it might not be cheaper than anybody else's."
With the housing and credit crunch affecting consumer spending at stores, Boscov's is only the latest of numerous department store and specialty retailers that have been forced to shut stores in recent months or go out of business. Bombay Co., Sharper Image, Linens & Things, Lillian Vernon and California-based department store chain Mervyns LLC all have declared bankruptcy.
Boscov's, an 87-year-old privately held company, brought little name recognition when it expanded into Baltimore two years ago by buying former Macy's locations. The regional chain relies on a throwback strategy of selling everything from appliances to apparel under one roof, an anomaly when the handful of remaining department store chains typically focus on apparel.
The company said its stores in White Marsh, Owings Mills and Glen Burnie were not profitable.
Prior to filing bankruptcy, Boscov's Chairman Kenneth S. Lakin had said his family had poured equity into the company to try to stave off bankruptcy, but he would not give specifics.
Davidowitz, who estimated the family's now-lost investment at $28 million, called it a "Herculean effort to save this company, and it was an effort I've never seen an owner do. This is a remarkable level of commitment that could only happen at Boscov's."
Now, as the company prepares to close stores, the bankruptcy process of restructuring to pay creditors requires the family to look at alternatives involving outside ownership.
