into the store to try out interactive displays. Higher taxes, wage freezes and the rising cost of food and essential purchases combined to keep consumer spending on discretionary purchases low and in June 2011 Comet posted a loss – its first in 16 years – of £8.9 million. The "brutal consumer recession" had, said retail analyst Neil Saunders, left the market "in quite a steep decline and with consumers not buying in the way they had the previous decade." In November 2011, in the same week that Best Buy announced that it was closing its eleven United Kingdom stores due to "tough conditions," KESA announced that it had sold Comet to investment firm OpCapita for a nominal £2. KESA would also provide a £46.8 million 'dowry' of working capital, and retain all the pension liabilities for employees on pre-existing defined benefit schemes. Two weeks before the firm entered administration, OpCapita announced they were exploring options to sell the chain, after only twelve months of ownership. Administration and closure On 1 November 2012, Comet announced it was filing for administration, and entered administration the following day. Deloitte were appointed to act as administrators for the chain. A spokesman said: "The board is urgently working with its advisers to seek a solution to secure a viable future for the company." This followed a period of "increasing pressure" from suppliers who insisted the retailer pay in advance for stock before the Christmas trading period. After the announcement, the Comet website became unavailable to visitors until 3 November 2012, when a liquidation sale promotion was published. The new website gave details of store locations, but the e-commerce system was no longer available. On 8 November 2012, at 09:00, Comet stores started their final liquidation stock sale. Also, as of 8 November, Comet was accepting again all of its own gift cards excluding corporate customers. On 17 November 2012, administrators appointed for Comet announced that at least 41 out of the retailer's 236 stores would be closed, if they failed to sign any potential buyer to take them over by end of the month. The announcement immediately triggered closing sales in 27 of the outlets and 14 others were awaiting closing sales. Up to 500 Comet employees were not reported to be directly affected in the 27 stores with closing sales. The closures continued over the next month, until there were no stores remaining open