Fire sale
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.[citation needed]
A fire sale may or may not be a closeout, the final sale of goods to zero inventory.
The sports term and attack method are derived from this term.
History
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".
In popular culture
Tobias Funke, a character from Arrested Development, auditioned for a commercial advertising an upcoming fire sale. However, Tobias did not realize that there was no actual fire involved in said sale. His audition piece consisted of a monologue by a character trapped in a fire and trying to evacuate school chidren before eventually being killed by the aforementioned fire.
Matt Farrell (Justin Long), a character in the movie Live Free or Die Hard, used this term to describe the plot by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) to systematically shut down the United States infrastructure.
The plan consists of three steps or parts to be implemented successfully.
- Step 1 - Disable all traffic and transportation hubs/systems
- step 2 - Disrupt financial sectors and telecommunications
- step 3 - Disable water/electric utilities/ nuclear anything tied into computers
The plan would cripple and or destory the infastructure of the united states, It gets its name from the term "everything must go" thus its a fire sale.