Liquidator's first showing was in the cartoon Darkwing Duck is in an episode called "Dry Hard".

The creation of the Liquidator came about by accident. It starts out as a water shortage in St. Canard, the home of Darkwing Duck. In all the water sales happening, an eager salesman named Bud Flud wanted a monopoly so people would only go to him to buy the water. In order to destroy the competition, Bud goes to each competitor's bottling plant and pours chemicals into the water supply. However, Darkwing Duck discovers about the water companies' contaminated water and suspects that someone is ruining the water market. So, Darkwing Duck goes on a stakeout to one of the the last two water bottling plants, Koo Koo Water. As Darkwing supects, someone was tempering with the businesses and sees Bud pouring chemicals into a vat of water. There was a struggle and Bud fell into the contaminated vat of water. Darkwing attempts to save Bud with a broomstick, but when he pulls out the broomstick from the vat, it appears that the water had eaten away the portion of the broomstick that touched the water.

After what had happened, everything seemed normal once again. Later on, weird things start ocurring with water systems, and a mysterious bottled water manufacturer comes into St. Carnard. With all the water systems disabled, except for the mysterious new manufacturer, prices for bottled water rise exorbitantly high. Darkwing accosts the new dealer, and the newcomer tells Darkwing that he once was Bud Flud. Now, due to the contaminated water- he is the Liquidator! The Liquidator shows Darkwing his true wattery appearance and his power to control water.

Due to the chemicals in the water, Liquidator speaks mostly in sales pitches. In the end, the Liquidator attempts to rob all of St. Carnard by transforming all of the water into rubber. Darkwing tries to stop Liquidator several times, such as freezing him, and evaporating him, but they all failed. Ultimately, the Liquidator is defeated when Darkwing throws cement to harden the Liquidator.

A liquidator is a business that sells merchandise that is somehow not suitable for sell at a normal retail outlet. There are various reasons that it is not sold normally: it is sometimes overstock or a discontinued item, or it is factory second material, or it comes from a failed business or closed down branch. Some liquidators also sell the equipment that offices and other businesses used for themselves. Sometimes it is perhaps not too good of an idea to ask too much where a liquidator's merchandise came from. Just as there is different sources for the material, the material itself varies widely. Some liquidators carry mostly small consumer goods, hardware and office supplies, while others specialize in larger, more expensive items, like home or office furniture. Of course, many have both; the word "specialize" and "liquidator" don't really go together, as such. The one class of items that don't show up quite the same way at liquidators is food, because food doesn't quite survive being found damaged five years late in a warehouse the way a pallet of Barbie trapper keepers do. Most liquidators will have a small assortment of smushed cookies and candy, but liquidators that specialize in food prefer to call themselves outlets. What I say about the business practices of liquidators may be colored to some extent by my geographical location: it is possible that liquidators in other parts of the country may have slightly different business models, but probably not by much.

The basic economic picture being painted (and it is pretty basic), I should add that liquidators, if done properly, have a qualia all of their own. They are also one of the coolest places to shop: and I am saying this from the viewpoint of 2008, when buying money on junk to be ironic has already expired as an interesting past time. If shopping is an interesting experience however, shopping at a liquidators is much more interesting than shopping at a Dollar Store, which mostly have tacky plastic things, and may or may not be cooler than shopping at a thrift store. The reason for this, as I said, perhaps has something more to do with the qualia of a good liquidator, rather than any specific differences I could name. Some of it is explainable: the clutter, the density, the mixture of products old and new, useful and stupid. But above it all, liquidators just feel like a Sunday afternoon in a garret. And if you don't believe all of that poetical nonsense, you can at least trust me that a liquidator is a good place to find a 36-piece screwdriver set and a package of two dozen misprinted pens for under 10 dollars all together.

Liq"ui*da`tor (?), n. [Cf. F. liquidateur.]

1.

One who, or that which, liquidates.

2.

An officer appointed to conduct the winding up of a company, to bring and defend actions and suits in its name, and to do all necessary acts on behalf of the company.

[Eng.]

Mozley & W.

 

© Webster 1913.

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