Ultimate Electronics going out of business

[Matt]

Ultimate Electronics moves to liquidate all stores nationwide

THORNTON - The misfortune of a national business based in Colorado will bring an opportunity for some shoppers as early as this week.

Thornton-based Ultimate Electronics is making plans to liquidate all 46 of its stores nationwide, including nine stores in Colorado, according to an email from the company's Chief Executive Officer, and documents filed in a federal bankruptcy court.

Liquidation sales at stores nationwide will start as soon as Wednesday, a liquidator inside the Thornton store told 9NEWS Sunday afternoon.

Ultimate Acquisition Partners LP, Ultimate Electronics parent company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Jan. 26, hoping to save some of its stores, but the company could not meet its obligations to pay creditors and keep all stores operating.

The company said it owes its biggest creditor, GE Capital Corp., $64.8 million.

"We have spent the past week working on alternatives and unfortunately determined that the best course of action is to enter an organized and orderly liquidation process," Ultimate Electronics Chief Executive Officer Bruce Giesbrecht wrote to senior level executives in the company Saturday morning.

The email was provided to 9NEWS by a senior executive who requested anonymity.

The senior executive said Ultimate Electronics laid off nearly 40 corporate employees Jan. 27, immediately prior to the bankruptcy filing.

The executive also said several store locations had received closure notices from landlords because of non-payment.

"It's a sad story," said Dow Jones Newswire columnist Al Lewis. "This is a story of all of the confluences of our economy coming together and crushing a company that was actually crushed in the last economic downturn."

Ultimate Electronics previously filed bankruptcy in 2005, and the company reorganized itself under United Acquisition Partners CEO Mark Wattles.

Wattles was previously chairman and CEO of Hollywood Entertainment, which ran the now-defunct Hollywood Video stores.

Phone calls and emails to Wattles and other Ultimate Electronics officials went unreturned Sunday.

As for severance packages for employees, store managers will receive a ten percent retention bonus if they stay with the company through liquidation, according to the senior level executive.

It was unclear what type of severance other store employees would receive.

They have two stores in the metro and one in Tulsa.

[MadMonk]

It was a nice place to do some hands-on shopping before I purchased online for cheaper (even with shipping).

Maybe this will open up an opportunity for Fry's to come in and put Best Buy out of business?

[bombermwc]

If they didn't work of commission, they might have sold some stuff. There are too many options to pay the price they want.

[SoonerDave]

The irony is that before the bankruptcy liquidation *previously*, they had pretty good prices on things (which might suggest why they went bankrupt in the first place). I always thought their prices plus their showrooms made for a lot of expensive overhead, combined with some really strange store locations...

[MustangGT]

The prices I found at Ultimate were not ecomically competitive. In many cases they were within a few dollars or maybe higher thatn BB & CC. I had great hopes when they arrived in OKC. Sadly they bombed out quickly with me. If they cannot make it in the marketplce good riddance to them.

[td25er]

It was a nice place to do some hands-on shopping before I purchased online for cheaper (even with shipping).

Maybe this will open up an opportunity for Fry's to come in and put Best Buy out of business?

Good luck with that.

[MadMonk]

Good luck with that.

Really, I don't care if they go out of business or not because either way, I'll never buy another thing from that company. But if we get a Fry's, I'll be a happy camper.

[MustangGT]

If Fry's prices are at least 25% more competitive aka lower then I would consider them. Otherwise they are just another big box retailer.

[Pete]

Best Buy has become pretty competitive with their pricing. I recently bought 3 HDTV's and shopped everywhere including Fry's, Costco, eBay and everywhere else on-line and I bought all three from Best Buy.

I've grown to hate Fry's. It's a mess of a place and very difficult to get decent help. I was big on them for a while but after a recent trip it reminded me why I now either go to Costco, Best Buy or buy on-line.

[dismayed]

That's kind of sad, I always liked their show rooms, but I am surprised it didn't happen sooner. It seemed to me like that had lost their focus. At one time they basically were not trying to compete with Best Buy at all... their strategy was market differentiation... they sold high-end TVs and speakers that were higher quality than what you could find at other local stores. Sure Best Buy had Sony's, but they didn't have the top of the line XBRs. Sure Best Buy had Pioneers, but they didn't have Pioneer Elites, and they definitely didn't have Marantz or Martin-Logan. As time went on though it seems like Best Buy has gotten a better variety of products in, and Ultimate started stocking up with lower-end things geared more towards the mass market. But they kept those retail prices. That's a terrible combination... doesn't take a business genius to see they mis-stepped pretty bad.

[BBatesokc]

I don't hold out much hope of getting good deals during their liquidation. I remember going to CompUSA's and finding several items were actually being sold at a price higher than they had previously sold for.

[Steve]

True story: few years back, not long after Ultimate Electronics entered the OKC market, I'm at Boomerang Grill with my wife and a group of the Ultimate Electronics sales guys (they had their uniforms on) came in and sat at a nearby table where it's likely they didn't see us, and there was really nobody else in the restaurant. We listened to 10 minutes of bragging about how they had deceived customers into buying "double warranties" (a warranty that covered the same stuff, time period provided by the manufacturer's warranty) and other tricks they had used (they had a really good laugh when one talked about selling a cheaper camcorder than the one tagged in an ad and what a piece of cr@p it was). Needless to say, I never shopped there.
In general I find that by buying at a reputable local store, like Harry's, you pay slightly higher prices but you don't end up getting screwed.

[bombermwc]

That's because they got comission on that crap. They're the worst kind of salesman possible. At least with Best Buy, they don't earn anything whether you get the extras or not, so they aren't motivated to screw you over.

[Paule4ou]

As a former employee of UE this does not surprise me at all. Ahhhh....ther stories I could share....lol.

[MikeOKC]

UE was a store that belonged in another era. It reminded me of the old Buttons store.

I agree with Pete about Fry's. Poor customer service. Have you ever tried to return anything at a Fry's? I've grown to hate the Fry's in Dallas.

Best Buy has changed a lot over the last few years and for the better, imo.

[bluedogok]

I haven't had much trouble returning anything at the Fry's here in Austin, but then the stuff that I have returned has been failed computer parts and it has been but a few times over 8 years. I don't expect "service" in any big box store, if you do then you are likely to be disappointed, the whole concept is not built with service in mind. That is what smaller, typically locally owned stores are for.

[SoonerDave]

Best Buy has become pretty competitive with their pricing. I recently bought 3 HDTV's and shopped everywhere including Fry's, Costco, eBay and everywhere else on-line and I bought all three from Best Buy.

I've grown to hate Fry's. It's a mess of a place and very difficult to get decent help. I was big on them for a while but after a recent trip it reminded me why I now either go to Costco, Best Buy or buy on-line.

This.

I bought my current DLP TV from Best Buy about three (four?) years ago, and BB had *the* single best price among local retailers AND mail orders/internet houses, and it wasn't even close. I think the key to the value was that the particular model number we wanted wasn't in their normal local stock, but we knew they carried it, so it went from their warehouse to their dock to my van.

Even when my model went on closeout later that year, the best prices I could find were still higher than what I paid @ BB.

[metro]

I could be wrong, but I think the local store is independently owned.

[lake hefner breeze]

Thanks Matt for this info. I had a $100 Ultimate Electronics gift card from Christmas and after seeing your post I found out that I only had a couple of days before they wouldn't take it anymore. Got a 3D Blu-ray player!

[metro]

Nice

[Easy180]

Bought my home theater from Ultimate around 5 yrs ago...Liked the setup but it didn't blow me away

Normally buy my big ticket tv and video stuff from Crutchfield...Love their site and have never had a problem with any purchases

[Debzkidz]

DH and I always went to Ultimate Electronics to browse, and to let him dream about having a TV that wouldn't fit through the front door, but really never bought much there. We did purchase an inexpensive, but decent TV for our kids there a few years ago. The only other thing we ever bought there was a car stereo for one of our sons for Christmas. We got a decent deal on the stereo, but the installation was a nightmare. Somehow they managed to cut this huge gouge in his console. We immediately brought it to their attention and they said they would take care of it. Needless to say, they did not. We kept getting the run around from them. It was always, the part was on back order from Nissan. Um, no it wasn't. That was easy enough to check out with one phone call to Bob Howard. Then it was, they lost the part, or no one seemed to know what we were talking about. The excuses went on and on. I think they really thought he was a college kid and would eventually just forget about it. No, not the case. It took months to get it fixed, and after that, we swore them off. Good Riddance.

As for Frys, we would shop there occasionally when we lived in Houston. What we found with them was, you had to really pay close attention to them, because often those really cheap things they advertised were not really new, but were actually refurbished items, or extremely low quality. We purchased a TV from them once, at a Black Friday sale. It lasted about 2 years, then was completely dead. I guess we got what we paid for, but it always made me leery of their sale items after that.

[HewenttoJared]

BBY dominates for a reason. If they do fold it'll be an online that takes them out. China's hoarding of rare-earth metals is going to start putting a real kink in flatscreen sales, so after that rolls out who knows what the competitive landscape will look like.

[anyafanya]

No way! I didn't know that. I worked customer service at BBY for two years. First Circuit City and now Ultimate Electronics...I guess customers won't have the threat of "Well I'll just go to (other store)!!" like they used to!

[Snowman]

No way! I didn't know that. I worked customer service at BBY for two years. First Circuit City and now Ultimate Electronics...I guess customers won't have the threat of "Well I'll just go to (other store)!!" like they used to!

They have the threat of I will buy that online