Ultimate Electronics Closing all Texas stores
04-25-05, 09:06 AM
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Ultimate Electronics Closing all Texas stores
I havent seen this mentioned anywhere. Anyone who received a $5 gift card from UE for the great Incredibles deal about a month a go may want to use it soon if you are in Texas. I just found out that they are closing some of their stores in Texas at the end of this month and all of their Texas stores sometime in June.
04-25-05, 09:19 AM
#2
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The one in N. Austin (I-35 and Parmer) definitely seems to be closing soon based on the signage they now have hanging. Didn't know it was a more global closing than just that one store (I don't go by the other location often).
It was in a bad location as far as placement in the parking lot of that sometimes painful to enter/exit shopping center. It was on an end that required you to go to the center of the lot and double back, and it was next to a large Christian bookstore. The local UE's have only been open, what, a year or 2?
Seems like brand loyalty to BB or CC was strong here.
Didn't go in, so don't know if there are any bargains.
It was in a bad location as far as placement in the parking lot of that sometimes painful to enter/exit shopping center. It was on an end that required you to go to the center of the lot and double back, and it was next to a large Christian bookstore. The local UE's have only been open, what, a year or 2?
Seems like brand loyalty to BB or CC was strong here.
Didn't go in, so don't know if there are any bargains.
04-25-05, 10:46 AM
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Originally Posted by beavismom
The whole chain is going under. They also operate as Soundtrack in Colorado.
Ultimate Acquisition Partners to Acquire Ultimate Electronics and SoundTrack Stores
Wednesday April 20, 6:49 pm ET
LAS VEGAS, April 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ultimate Acquisition Partners, L.P. ("UAP" or "Ultimate") announced today that it has purchased from Ultimate Electronics, Inc. (OTC: ULTEQ - News) 32 Ultimate Electronics and SoundTrack stores together with their trade names and other corporate assets. The purchased stores are located in the metropolitan areas of Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, Ft. Collins, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, St. Louis and Wichita. UAP is owned by Mark Wattles Enterprises, LLC. Plans call for the stores to remain substantially the same, except for enhancements to inventory, to insure the broadest and best selection of audio/video products in the market today. Substantially all of the employees at the Ultimate Electronics corporate headquarters and in the 32 stores will transfer to UAP.
Commenting on the purchase, Mark Wattles, who will be Chairman and CEO of UAP, said, "I fell in love with the Ultimate store concept the first time I toured the stores in Phoenix, Arizona. At the time, I lived in Oregon where there were no Ultimate stores. In 2000, after moving to Las Vegas, where there are two Ultimate Electronic stores, I learned as a customer what makes Ultimate Electronics and SoundTrack great. They are the experts in home entertainment with knowledgeable staff, great selection and competitive prices. These attributes converted me to a lifelong customer." Wattles added, "In my opinion, their past financial problems were created by not being prepared for the executional challenges related to rapid store growth. We now have a great management team experienced in high growth retail, a solid base of core stores and employees who are fanatics about audio/video. These ingredients, combined with the financial resources now available to Ultimate, set us up for long term success."
Mark Wattles Enterprises, LLC, which is controlled by Mark Wattles, invests primarily in public and private companies in the consumer products and retail sectors. Mark Wattles is the founder, and former Chairman and CEO of Hollywood Entertainment Corporation which operates a chain of 2006 Hollywood Video stores and 695 Game Crazy stores.
Wednesday April 20, 6:49 pm ET
LAS VEGAS, April 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ultimate Acquisition Partners, L.P. ("UAP" or "Ultimate") announced today that it has purchased from Ultimate Electronics, Inc. (OTC: ULTEQ - News) 32 Ultimate Electronics and SoundTrack stores together with their trade names and other corporate assets. The purchased stores are located in the metropolitan areas of Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, Ft. Collins, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, St. Louis and Wichita. UAP is owned by Mark Wattles Enterprises, LLC. Plans call for the stores to remain substantially the same, except for enhancements to inventory, to insure the broadest and best selection of audio/video products in the market today. Substantially all of the employees at the Ultimate Electronics corporate headquarters and in the 32 stores will transfer to UAP.
Commenting on the purchase, Mark Wattles, who will be Chairman and CEO of UAP, said, "I fell in love with the Ultimate store concept the first time I toured the stores in Phoenix, Arizona. At the time, I lived in Oregon where there were no Ultimate stores. In 2000, after moving to Las Vegas, where there are two Ultimate Electronic stores, I learned as a customer what makes Ultimate Electronics and SoundTrack great. They are the experts in home entertainment with knowledgeable staff, great selection and competitive prices. These attributes converted me to a lifelong customer." Wattles added, "In my opinion, their past financial problems were created by not being prepared for the executional challenges related to rapid store growth. We now have a great management team experienced in high growth retail, a solid base of core stores and employees who are fanatics about audio/video. These ingredients, combined with the financial resources now available to Ultimate, set us up for long term success."
Mark Wattles Enterprises, LLC, which is controlled by Mark Wattles, invests primarily in public and private companies in the consumer products and retail sectors. Mark Wattles is the founder, and former Chairman and CEO of Hollywood Entertainment Corporation which operates a chain of 2006 Hollywood Video stores and 695 Game Crazy stores.
04-25-05, 11:41 AM
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Currently in DFW, all stores closing. I went into one and they had a general 10-30% off, most 10%, some out-of-box, demo, etc. at 50%. Probably will go up slowly over the weeks like most out-of-business sales.
04-25-05, 11:58 AM
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The one in Des Moines is closing, discounts on everything seemed to be 10%, which stunk, since many of their DVDs seemed to be at MSRP.
04-25-05, 12:27 PM
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Originally Posted by majorjoe23
The one in Des Moines is closing, discounts on everything seemed to be 10%, which stunk, since many of their DVDs seemed to be at MSRP.
04-25-05, 01:04 PM
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Also keep in mind that they raised prices on most items about 2 weeks ago. The current 10% off, really just brings prices down to what they were originally. They'll slowly lower prices more and more, but timing is everything. When I was in there yesterday, they had a Samsung DLP that they were selling for $3100 (that's with the 10% off). Sams Club across the street was selling the exact same TV for $2900 and it included the stand, which was another $400 at Ultimate.
It will need to be at least 25% off before things start becoming deals, and I probably won't buy anthing until it gets to the 40% off range (if it does).
Stew
It will need to be at least 25% off before things start becoming deals, and I probably won't buy anthing until it gets to the 40% off range (if it does).
Stew
05-02-05, 11:54 PM
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In the DFW area, a few employees told me that the location of the store was terrible and the rent was way to high. They knew it was coming to an end when the person responsible for picking locations to build stores was fired/resigned and he faxed or emailed his resume to other retailers and NO ONE was willing to even grant him an interview.
05-03-05, 12:05 PM
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I understand that, but the poster immediately before me said that the D/FW location (singular) was a bad location with too high rent. I wanted to know which one he was talking about that had the bad location with the rent that was too high.
05-06-05, 08:31 PM
#15
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I was at Ultimate in N. Dallas and didn't see any good deals, except,
They are taking names and your phone number if you are interested in buying any fixtures. They had a couple of things I was interested in. They wouldn't tell me prices but will supposedly will call when they get to the point of selling fixtures. There were a couple of pretty cool fixtures that held DVD's I really wanted, but they were to big for my media room. But if you go just ask when they are selling fixtures, at least at the store I went to they had a list going.
They are taking names and your phone number if you are interested in buying any fixtures. They had a couple of things I was interested in. They wouldn't tell me prices but will supposedly will call when they get to the point of selling fixtures. There were a couple of pretty cool fixtures that held DVD's I really wanted, but they were to big for my media room. But if you go just ask when they are selling fixtures, at least at the store I went to they had a list going.
05-08-05, 12:59 AM
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Originally Posted by BigDan
I understand that, but the poster immediately before me said that the D/FW location (singular) was a bad location with too high rent. I wanted to know which one he was talking about that had the bad location with the rent that was too high.
Originally Posted by BigDan
The location of which store? There were something like 10 stores in the D/FW area.
The store in Mesquite, TX. The employees there and at their store in Hurst and Arlington all said they have terrible locations and/or their rent was too high. In comparison the Mesquite employees also noted that the "new" Best Buy has a better lease agreement even though they are not that far apart from each other.
05-08-05, 09:54 PM
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I wouldn't say that ^. My old boss didn't have any problems answering my questions about our company when I worked for them. I think that some managers at Ultimate were being given reasons the company was not doing well in the DFW area. That kind of news doesn't stay quite very long.
In other news, I past by the Arlington Ultimate today and two things caught my attention. The employees are now wearing jeans with their Ultimate shirts and this store had a "now hiring" sign up in their front doorway.
In other news, I past by the Arlington Ultimate today and two things caught my attention. The employees are now wearing jeans with their Ultimate shirts and this store had a "now hiring" sign up in their front doorway.
05-09-05, 07:36 PM
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For our Minnesota and Western Wisconsin members (maybe Iowa too), the Ultimate Electronics store in Rochester, MN is closing. Current discount is 20%. I'd say about 40% of the store's merchandise is gone already. I didn't see any products from Krell, Sunfire or Martin-Logan, so probably these went quick (I doubt it), or were shipped to other locations or back to the manufacturers. Plenty of Monster Power stuff, so if that's your interest, get ye hence.
05-10-05, 02:32 AM
#20
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I hope nothing changes with the one in Denver. I enjoy going in there and having someone who actually knows something about electronics talk to me. They are also very nice about pricematching, 'finding' open box items, and giving me a bottle of water.
05-10-05, 06:38 AM
#21
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The one in Austin was not even open 2 years. I feel bad for all the people loosing jobs but I had not heard good things about the store. I did notice they were all in jeans instead of the normal slacks. Oh well I wonder if Tweeters is next.
