Liquidation Sale Furnishes Insult To Injured Patrons Prices Great, Except For Smith’s Customers Who Already Paid

A large portion of the appliance inventory of the two closed Smith’s Home Furnishings stores in Spokane will be liquidated this weekend in a parking-lot sale.

About 400 items such as refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers, stoves, dishwashers and microwaves will be sold at below dealer cost on Friday and Saturday. The sale starts at 9 a.m. both days at Fred’s Appliance and Home Entertainment, 2525 N. Monroe.

While the sale is a blessing to bargain hunters, it’s a slap in the face to those who paid for but didn’t receive merchandise from the closed Smith’s stores.

Anna Moos of Coeur d’Alene paid $460 for a KitchenAid dishwasher at the Valley Smith’s store. She filed a claim against Smith’s for the appliance’s value, but like other customers, she is an unsecured creditor. Translating bankruptcy court terminology, that means she has virtually no chance of getting her money back.

Hearing that KitchenAid dishwashers like the one she already paid for will be sold at bargain prices to someone else makes it worse.

“It’s hard for me to believe,” she said.

But Moos has become familiar with rejection. She recently called the Boise store after hearing rumors that it was filling Washington orders. She was told she was out of luck, in less polite terms.

Moos and other Smith’s customers started down this dead-end path when the Portland-based furniture and appliance chain filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 22. All of Smith’s assets, including goods that had been paid for but not delivered, were thrown under the umbrella of protection offered by Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

Smith’s eight stores in Washington were closed for good. Its stores in Boise and Oregon will stay in operation at least through mid-October, thanks to an extended financing plan approved Wednesday by a bankruptcy court judge in Oregon.

Saturday’s sale was made possible last week when the court ordered Smith’s to turn its Washington appliance inventories over to manufacturers for liquidation. Smith’s attorney Tony Summers said the manufacturers then approached their respective dealers to sell the items. Revenue from the sales will be counted as credit toward paying off the company’s debts, he said.

Since manufacturers are secured creditors, they must be fully paid before any unsecured creditors receive any goods or money.

Fred’s Appliance is a Whirlpool, Frigidaire, Amana, KitchenAid and Roper dealer, and will liquidate only those brands.

Some appliance manufacturers had Washington merchandise shipped to Oregon for liquidation. Furniture and electronics will be sold later, Summers said.

John Amistoso, the owner of Fred’s Appliance, said he expects to very, very busy Saturday.

“It looks like it will be total chaos,” he said. “This town loves this kind of stuff.”

He said no merchandise will be sold before the sale, but bargain hunters have already tried to get him to fudge the rules.

The sale will be held in the store’s parking lot. Nonetheless, people wanting a sneak peek at the merchandise before 9 a.m. will have a tough time.

“We’re making a wall out of appliances to hold them out,” Amistoso said.

Delivery service will be available for a fee, Amistoso said, but shoppers are encouraged to transport their own purchases if possible.

“We won’t be able to handle that kind of volume,” he said.

On Tuesday, the bankruptcy court approved a liquidation plan to move the Washington Smith’s stores inventory of furniture. That inventory was purchased by Maynard’s, an international liquidation company, for 66 percent of the invoice price.

Maynard’s payment of more than $2.8 million will be used to further reduce Smith’s debt.

, DataTimes