Fire sale
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A fire sale is the sale of goods at extremely discounted prices, typically when the seller faces bankruptcy or other impending distress. The term may originally have been based on the sale of goods at a heavy discount due to fire damage. A fire sale may or may not be a closeout, the final sale of goods to zero inventory.
The sports term is derived from this term.
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[edit] History
In Proceedings of the Fitchburg [MASS] Historical Society and Papers Relating to the History of the Town Read by Some of the Members the following entry is found:
In December, 1856, the account of an extensive fire in the American House mentions the following occupants: E. B. Gee, clothing; T. B. Choate, drugs; J. C. Tenney, boots and shoes; Maraton Upton, dr\' goods; and M. W. Hayward, groceries. Maraton Upton removed his stock to No. 9 Rollstone block, and advertised "Extraordinary fire sale; customers are invited to call cind examine goods which are still warm." [1]
According to Dictionary.com, the term originated in 1890-95 in New Zealand. The fire at Whitcombe and Tombs in Dunedin resulted in a "Fire Sale."[not in citation given]
[edit] In popular culture
[edit] Arrested Development
In the Arrested Development episode "Top Banana", Tobias auditions for a commercial advertising a fire sale, but fails to land the part when he "made the fire too real" and "probably failed to highlight the sale."
[edit] Live Free or Die Hard
In the film Live Free or Die Hard, fire sale was used as a fictional hacker term meaning a crippling cyber-warfare attack on the infrastructure of the United States that would disrupt all power, public utilities, water, traffic, and other computer-controlled systems. The term is used because "everything must go." It is based on three steps. In the first step, the entire transport network is taken down; in the second step, the stock exchange and banks across the U.S. are hacked, crashed, and then washed of all information; and finally in the third step, nuclear facilities, military defense systems and all utilities are manipulated and disconnected. The theory is that if major infrastructure is disabled one system at a time, it will eventually be able to recover, but if all systems are destroyed simultaneously, the entire system will be destroyed without chance of recovery.
[edit] References
- ^ Proceedings of the Fitchburg Historical Society and Papers Relating to the History of the Town Read by Some of the Members. Volume Iii. Fitchburg, Mass.: Published by the Historical Society, 1902.p. 210.
