Price Gouging? At a Store Going Out of Business?

With Shopko closing its doors in the near future, I decided to take a stroll and see what savings I could get. I was quite surprised ... by the markups. Now I'm not saying you won't find savings and things discounted. I'm just saying, be careful, just because something is marked at 50% off, double-check before you spend your hard-earned cash. I went through Hollywood Video's going out of business sale way back in the day, and so I understand how a special "liquidation company" comes in and starts setting prices. But man, I never saw anything like this.

My main example is a Marvel Comics/Movie toy figure set featuring Thor. The price it has on the package is $69.99. But it's 50% off the original price! That's a heck of a savings to get this collectible action figure for $35! Or you can get it online for $29.94 or even $26.39 at the time of this posting. So that tells me that the store up-priced the item just to cut the price and still make $5 more than what it is otherwise going for. Is it like this for all items? I doubt it. But definitely makes you wonder how much of a discount you're really getting.

I don't blame the workers -- or even Shopko for that matter. There's a part of me that feels, if people buy it, why not try it? To all the workers needing to find new jobs, I feel for you, I've been in your shoes and good luck. And for anyone who ended up buying Thor thinking they got a deal, no worries, I've done dumb stuff with money, too.