How store closing sales work

Under an agency arrangement, the liquidator runs the sale as the retailer's agent for a fee plus expenses, and the retailer keeps the proceeds. Under a guarantee, the liquidator pays the retailer a guaranteed amount for the inventory and keeps whatever it realizes, taking the risk and the upside.

Under a guarantee the liquidator is selling its own goods, which is why the discount schedule follows its recovery model rather than the retailer's habits.

The schedule is designed to maximize total recovery, not to clear fastest. Early shoppers are the least price-sensitive and the assortment is at its best, so the optimal opening discount is often lower than customers expect, sometimes shallower than the store's own recent promotions. Discounts deepen on a planned cadence as the assortment thins, which is the same logic as the markdown cadence in normal trading, compressed into weeks.

Liquidators frequently bring in additional merchandise from outside the closing store, which is why a closing sale can contain items the store never carried. It is legal where disclosed and it improves recovery, but it means the assortment is not simply the store's remaining stock. Fixtures are usually sold separately at the end.