Our Process

Strategic Sale Design

Wingate does not use a template liquidation model; it’s customized and never generic. Your sale plan is built around:

• Inventory depth and quality
• Seasonality
• Market demographics
• Customer profile
• Cash flow requirements
• Lease constraints

Proper staging before the sale begins materially impacts recovery. Maintaining or rebuilding fast-turning inventory prior to launch increases margin and traffic generation power. Clearance sales conducted prior to a structured store closing typically reduce final recovery and require deeper markdowns later.

The objective is simple: start strong, protect margins early, and manage markdowns with precision.

The Pre-Showing: Controlled High-Impact Launch

Wingate sales begin differently than typical liquidation events.

The launch phase centers on a proprietary Pre-Showing for your customers and targeted prospects. This announcement is written without published discount pricing to stimulate curiosity and maximize first-week traffic.

This controlled opening:

• Produces larger early volume days when margins are strongest
• Generates lines at opening
• Reduces reliance on heavy media spend
• Builds urgency before public advertising begins

Pre-Showing volume consistently outperforms traditional newspaper, radio, and television advertising in early sale phases. The sale is typically structured to open on a Thursday to maximize extended weekend volume.

Traffic Generation and Customer Participation Program

Wingate’s liquidation model does not depend solely on deep discounts. A proprietary customer participation program is implemented to:

• Increase repeat traffic
• Encourage larger basket size
• Sustain momentum through later weeks
• Expand your customer mailing and email database
• Reduce media advertising expense

Historically, this program has maintained traffic even as inventory levels decline and often produced some of the strongest volume late in multi-week sales.

The goal is controlled markdown timing, not chaotic price cutting.

On-Site Consultant Execution

An experienced Wingate Sale Consultant is physically present in your store throughout the event. Every consultant:

• Has prior retail ownership or management experience
• Has conducted numerous store closing or promotional sales
• Manages merchandising, pricing cadence, signage, and advertising
• Works with your staff
• Adjusts strategy weekly based on performance

Consultants concentrate full time on your sale, from preparation through clean-up. This is retailing at accelerated speed. Discount timing, merchandise flow, and traffic control require active management not remote oversight.

Advertising and Expense Discipline

Media is used strategically, not reflexively. Wingate will:

• Designs ad layouts
• Writes advertising copy
• Supplies high-impact signage
• Uses direct mail and email extensively
• Sequences public media after the Pre-Showing launch

Many documented sales have held advertising expenses at exceptionally low percentages of gross sales through traffic programming and disciplined media use.

The objective is not maximum advertising. The objective is maximum recovery.

Markdown Strategy and Inventory Control

Effective liquidation is margin management under time compression. Wingate Consultants:

• Determine when to hold pricing
• Determine when to take markdowns
• Protect high-value inventory early
• Target slow movers strategically
• Avoid overpricing that stalls momentum
• Avoid premature deep discounting that destroys return

Independent store liquidations require far more dynamic management than chain or auction models. Every week of the sale is managed with intent. The last half of the inventory often determines final recovery.

Fixtures and Equipment Monetization

Fixtures and equipment are marketed aggressively as part of the sale. They are:

• Promoted in the Pre-Showing
• Tagged and priced
• Included in signage and advertising
• Marketed to area businesses

Fixture sales are treated as an integrated revenue stream not an afterthought .

Completion & Remaining Assets (if any)

The sale concludes when inventory is substantially converted to cash and remaining assets are positioned for final disposition. In strong inventory conditions with disciplined execution, documented case histories show recoveries at or above inventory cost, and in many cases substantially higher. Results depend on:

• Inventory quality and depth
• Seasonal timing
• Owner cooperation
• Market conditions

There are no guarantees in liquidation. There is execution.