After Circuit City announced that it's closing this week, I heard more than one person contemplate stopping by to see if there are any bargains to be had. The Sunday ad circulars came out in the newspapers today and my husband I noticed they had some already pretty good prices on laptops. (We also noticed they were still seemingly offering no interest payments for three years, but figured that deal was probably over.) So we brought the ad along on errands.

As we approached the store on Union Square in Manhattan, we saw they had stationed men with giant placards to lure people in to cash in on the store's demise. They had those same, bold "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS" signs you see on stores not really going out of business. And they also boasted 30% off.

So, we went in. Then saw the signs "10% to 30% off." Hmmm, that's a little different. Huge crowds of people thinking they'd get great deals. But here's the thing: We went looking for the Sony laptop, normally about $780, on sale at $650 -- with a $130 rebate. That last part should have clued me in. We found the computer, 10% off the original price. So it was about $700 instead of $650. In other words, their clearance price was worse than their normal price.

I think they're going to have to do a little better to unload all their stuff.