Compusa closing stores !

[SingSing]

After years of trying to boost sales with audio/video electronics.

Compusa finally face the music and closing stores.
Slim has it wrong, for not staying in its core bussiness.

http://www.compusa.com/locations/closing_stores.asp#

[edDV]

Old news. The stores have already closed around here. Fry's just opened a new Roseville, CA store less than a block from the closed CompUSA.

[Seeker47]

Compusa finally face the music and closing stores.

Just like with Good Guys in '06 (which they owned), their stores began selling everything down to the bare fixtures a couple months ago.

Having fewer merchants / chains in any given category is very seldom a good thing, but you could see this one coming from quite a bit down the road. With the exception of occasional weekly specials, CompUSA never was very price-competitive. On most items, Fry's or Best Buy just clobbered them. Even their "clearance" prices on things like hard drives have so far been a joke, compared to what you can find stacked high on pallets at Fry's, most every week.

[lordsmurf]

I checked out some CompUSA clearance prices, and like others have said, they were a joke. The same items were on sale for much less elsewhere. Some clearance.

[dphirschler]

Yep, I viewed CompUSA's "clearance" prices as a final "up yours" to me - way too high. **** them. I am sorry to see them go for price competition reasons, but I left that store pissed off more times than not.


Darryl

[buttzilla]

Yeah the one around here closed a couple of months ago. They had a big closing sale. A hole ******* whopping 10%. i'm glad the shithole place closed.

[edDV]

The new Fry's that opened a half block down the road from the closed CompUSA has 66 checkout registers and has been full all week.


BTW: First day they were selling Olevia 27-inch LCD TV sets for $297. By the time I found out it was too late. The rest of the deals were just so so.

[Alan69]

Yep, I viewed CompUSA's "clearance" prices as a final "up yours" to me - way too high. I am sorry to see them go for price competition reasons, but I left that store pissed off more times than not.

LOL guys, next time you buy something, I will come over and buy it from you for 10% of what you paid.. You'll owe it to me, from your own judgement..

These stores are already not CompUSA, they were sold to a closeout company, IIRC it's the same one that closed out the Radio Shack stores. Buy or don't buy, they have the right to price as they see fit. No doubt just like Rat Shack they'll hold prices high as they can, then really close out the stores. Probably even sell off the better stuff to an online liquidator before giving it away locally too. Can't blame them one bit, you'd do exactly the same if it was your stuff.

CompUSA is still around, good amount of their business was online anyway, and lots of their competition was really Buy.com etc not a local store. Had problems in Raleigh from the start, don't buy a more out of way store near Best Buy etc, less people traffic is a bad idea even if the rent is cheap. And like everywhere no one wants to pay the premium for good employees. Cost would have been very high there anyway since RTP is close by and plenty of better tech jobs.



Plenty of deals off of them over several years, but it'd definitely slowed down lately. But it's hard to have cut throat pricing when your stores already aren't doing great. Online has really picked up in the last 2-3 years anyway, and a huge mistake with their rewards program last year, even with $30 fee to get it the free shipping added up fast, wasn't surprised at all when they cancelled it.

No real surprise but they're not exactly the evil empire either, and really they have nothing to do now with the stores you guys are talking about other than being the former owners..

Alan

[JohnnyMalaria]

Had problems in Raleigh from the start, don't buy a more out of way store near Best Buy etc, less people traffic is a bad idea even if the rent is cheap. And like everywhere no one wants to pay the premium for good employees. Cost would have been very high there anyway since RTP is close by and plenty of better tech jobs.

I used to frequent the Raleigh CompUSA. It used to be Circuit City before they opened a new store opposite Crabtree Valley. Gradually, CompUSA seemed to be more interested in selling non-computer stuff, so I started going to the Best Buy just down the road.

Well, now Best Buy have closed that store and moved to the ugliest, nastiest shopping mall (Crabtree Valley). Best Buy's original location was easy to get to. Now you have to contend with the nightmare of what is possibly the world's worst car park. I won't be going to their new location any time soon....

[dnix71]

There is a CompUSA, Circuit City and Best Buy in Sunrise all on the corner of Flamingo and Sunrise Blvd. I pass them twice daily going to and from work.

CC and CU are next to each other and BB is across the street. They keep each other honest. I avoid BB because their stuff is pawed over worse than Goodwill. I avoid CC now because they fired employees to hire cheaper ones. The salesman at BrandsMart who sold me an upright freezer Wed. used to work at CC and was one of the previous batch of employees fired to save the company money. I asked if he made a commission on the freezer sale and he said yes and shook my hand.

The CU I hope stays open. They are the only Apple retailer down here other than Apple themselves. There was another authorized Apple reseller (The Mac Store), but they went bankrupt a couple of years ago. I bought my eMac from The Mac Store.

CU doesn't give away stuff like they used to (holiday specials and the like), but that's okay. It's hard to make an honest living down here in south Florida. If you want it free, you'll have to fire all the Americans and hire Mexicans to take their place. I have to earn a living, too.

[oldandinthe way]

In the Northeast it seems they decided to close all of their stores in high rent/high advertising cost areas.

There's one store left in Mass - Holyoke in the western part opf the state. On in NH. And one or two in RI.

Guess they decided that in order to stay in business they needed to be in low overhead areas. I think their wrong but its their dime.

Their liquodator wouldn;t take my CompUSA gift card. Compusa wouldn;t take it on their website and wouldn;t send me a refund. I wound up giving it to a friend in RI to use in one of the stores that stayed open.

I wish them the worst.

As for the liquidator, they buy this stuff even though they know they're going to be overpriced, they somehow sell it to gullible people, and restock with obsolete merchandise from other sources until the store is actually closed.

Of course they don't overpay for the stock either.

In general, distress channels are poor values for the consumer with computer products. Check out Circuit City's three Ebay stores for product returns and liquidation.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZtradingQ5fcircuitQQssPageNameZSTRKQ3aMEBIQ3aMESOI

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZtradingQ5fcircuitQ5fliquidationQQssP...3aMEBIQ3aMESOI

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZtradingQ5fcircuitQ5fasQ2disQQssPageN...3aMEBIQ3aMESOI

[budz]

The 2 COMPUSA's here in Hawaii will not be closing but I heard from one of the employees that on the consumer level/walk in's they are not making money. On the other hand their business section is making money.

I like COMPUSA since they have many more DIY computer hardware/supplies compared to BEST BUY. I like the fact they carried rebadged BENQ drives under their own brand name and other manufacturers as well.

I have to agree the online retailers have taken a big bite out stores like COMPUSA, CIRCUIT CITY & BEST BUY. Sad that all those employees will be out of jobs.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Fry's just opened a new Roseville, CA store less than a block from the closed CompUSA.

Been there,it's nicer than the one in Natomas.
WARNING:when at Fry's and you see a white sticker with writing on it on a box...don't buy it because it was returned:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=white+sticker%2Cfry%27s

[edDV]

Fry's just opened a new Roseville, CA store less than a block from the closed CompUSA.

Been there,it's nicer than the one in Natomas.
WARNING:when at Fry's and you see a white sticker with writing on it on a box...don't buy it because it was returned:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=white+sticker%2Cfry%27s

Fry's has many traps. You need to know what you are doing to shop there. Watch out for the 10 and 15 day rebate expirations. Also some items have 15 day return limit.

The downside is well documented on the web.
Upside is lots of inventory to look at. Their store specials can be great if you play the game perfectly.

[driguy]

Here in AZ, the local CompUSA is closing... I will admit, I did buy a Capture Card from them, since the price was OK. I usually shop at Fry's, though, since it's:

A)Closer.
B)Cheaper.

I have bought returns from Fry's with no problems. The last hard drive I bought (500Gb Maxtor SATA-2) was a return or open box... Original price 250-something, marked down to 160. So I bought it... still vacuum-sealed drive in a banged-up box.

Though I will have to agree with other posters that CompUSA's prices are a joke most of the time... now they're just funny.

The one thing I did like about the store being in "closing mode" is the fact that nobody bothered me the whole time I was looking at items in the store. I hate pushy salespeople. Circuit City is a great example.

[Faustus]

The closed stores were all picked by combination of profitability and or cost to run the store.

I deal with this daily as I indirectly work for CompUSA. Many think we are "going out of business" but thats not true. At least not for now. We are putting up a fight. Both internally and externally.

Things appear to be on track to be restructured on the inside and thats a GOOD thing. We needed it.

I get about 5 calls a day demanding a refund for warranties since they are closing and have to explain that the warranty people are not going anywhere and all their warranties are still valid.

The down side? Us support guys are in a state of chaos right now. Higher call flow then in many years because more things require making calls now and trying to get a grip on the constantly changing processes we are putting in place to try and keep everyone covered properly.

We've been around a long time and from a semi inside view it really appears they are taking the steps to make sure we don't go completely. Who knows maybe they'll even be back.




Also, driguy, CC has not have sales people on commision for a long time so they only "pushiness" should be because they are trying to help you these days

[MOVIEGEEK]

Also, driguy, CC has not have sales people on commision for a long time so they only "pushiness" should be because they are trying to help you these days

I thought they get a commission on the extended warranty,which is not a surprise because most sales people do.

[SingSing]

1984 - Founded as Soft Warehouse in Addison, Texas, selling direct to business customers.
1988 - Opened first Computer Superstore.
1991 - Changed name to CompUSA.
1998 - Acquired Tandy's Computer City subsidiary.
2000 - Became privately-held company under Mexican retail company, Grupo Sanborns.
2003 - Acquired Good Guys.[1]
2007 - Announces the closing and liquidation of 126 stores

I bought my first CD burner, digital camera, laser printer, DVD burner all at CompUSA, when it was a computer store. It was a pioneer that offers new technologies at viable (Not low) prices.

Since Slim bought it at 2000, and tried to make it into an electronics store. Half of the store starts selling TV and audio that no one want to by. It's store brand BYOC stuff is still cheap, but micro center has more stuff.

I wish Compusa well, and maybe someone will take it over and run it like a Computer store again.

[moviebuff2]

Please allow me to join in your CompUSA bashing party!

1997-1998: I went in one of their stores in CT. I was treated like some dirt. I remember one of my questions was about sound cards. The 2 guys who answered my questions made me more confused and feel like dirt!

OK! I was a computer novice at that time who damaged my company's laptop's floppy drive by ejecting the disk while it was being written. :0

Fast forward to 2001.

I went to the only CompUSA store in Honolulu. I asked for some help to find a CD-RW drive. I waited and waited for +15 minutes. Nobody came. I asked for help again and waited another 1/4 hr without any help.

So I decided to leave the store. Just as I exited the store, someone at the door asked me:

- Did you find everything you were looking for?

I answered:

- I waited for 1/2 hr and nobody came to help me

- Oh, we're busy!

- !@#$%^&*()_+?

ADIOS CUMUSA!!!

[ZAPPER]

I never really had a real problem with Comp USA. Sad to see a brick and mortar store go. I walked through one last week or so and it was picked over with no real bargins that jumped out at me. The signs in the windows said 20 to 40% off but by my math and some of the posted and marked down prices 10 to 15% looked to be about the average. I didn't even see any store equipment or fixtures that I was interested in, of course, in my line of work we just throw most of that into a dumpster or take it to the scrapyard.

It was not like I purchased computer stuff every week, but it was nice to think that I could walk in and find what I needed for the most part.

Oh well, such is business.

[Conquest10]

Apparently they've closed the only CompUSA in Chicago as its no longer on their site. I find that really odd as they had no real competition. Other than the Apple store, they were the only computer store in downtown Chicago.

Well, now that I'm thinking about it, Apple was their competitor as about three years ago they switched and started to try to make Apple products their main thing. Not a good idea as the Apple store is only a block away from where CompUSA was.

[edDV]

Apparently they've closed the only CompUSA in Chicago as its no longer on their site. I find that really odd as they had no real competition. Other than the Apple store, they were the only computer store in downtown Chicago.

Well, now that I'm thinking about it, Apple was their competitor as about three years ago they switched and started to try to make Apple products their main thing. Not a good idea as the Apple store is only a block away from where CompUSA was.

CompUSA sold Apple stuff at about the same prices as the Apple store. A push there.

You don't have Best Buy there?

I think all box stores are leaving Chicago due to local gov't policies. You will find them all ringing the city limits next to the Walmarts. The big sucking sound of sales tax revenue going to the 'burbs.

[Conquest10]

There are three Best Buys and two Circuit Citys in yuppieland and one Best Buy on the southside. CompUSA was the only one downtown.

I think that stores leaving Chicago is a bit of lie spread by Walmart. There is only one Walmart inside the city (in the expansion to yuppieland). But yes, most the Walmarts here are just outside the city limit. Most other stores do just fine here. The only stores that have faced problems in Chicago are Walmart and Ikea.

There is some truth to it. The problem with these stores is that they need a huge chunk of land. Normally that would not be a problem except that they all want to build in a tiny area of the city (yuppieland). There's huge chunks of the westside and southside with abandoned warehouses and empty lots where I'm sure they would have no problem building. But no, they just want the northside.

[edDV]

There are three Best Buys and two Circuit Citys in yuppieland and one Best Buy on the southside. CompUSA was the only one downtown.

I think that stores leaving Chicago is a bit of lie spread by Walmart. There is only one Walmart inside the city (in the expansion to yuppieland). But yes, most the Walmarts here are just outside the city limit. Most other stores do just fine here. The only stores that have faced problems in Chicago are Walmart and Ikea.

There is some truth to it. The problem with these stores is that they need a huge chunk of land. Normally that would not be a problem except that they all want to build in a tiny area of the city (yuppieland). There's huge chunks of the westside and southside with abandoned warehouses and empty lots where I'm sure they would have no problem building. But no, they just want the northside.

Why are they picking on IKEA? Damn, out here in East Palo Alto they are financing a city formerly run by drug lords (the Nor Cal street murder leader). And how much more yuppie can you get for inner city than IKEA?

BTW. There were massive street protests against IKEA coming to East Palo Alto. What was the issue? Nobody knows. Some spokeman later said it was about traffic.

[Conquest10]

That was the reason here too. Traffic is already bad enough in that area. Imagine what it would have been like if Ikea would have been allowed in.

[edDV]

That was the reason here too. Traffic is already bad enough in that area. Imagine what it would have been like if Ikea would have been allowed in.

And not to do with the drug mafia?

BTW traffic hasn't been an issue in East Palo Alto. The gov't is now clean and sales tax now goes for services to the poor.

Not to mention most IKEA employees are hired from the community.

[AlecWest]

Out of 3 stores in the Portland, Oregon metro area, 2 are closing. Fortunately, the one remaining store is the one closest to me (the one where I bought my HP notebook). But, I have a feeling I won't be doing too much shopping there in the future. There is so much competition in the area and CompUSA is just one of the mix. Shopping around takes me to many stores.

In any case, my next desktop won't come from a store. I'll be getting it from a builder sometime before year's end (probably more sooner than later). And as planned, the new desktop will be my first step in slowly backing away from Microsoft OS offerings. I'll have 98SE and XP installed on partitions at first ... but with luck, will eventually find software that does what I want to do among the different Linux distros. And, I may start writing my own software again as I did years ago. We'll see.

[sanlyn]

I visited CompUSA often over the past few years, but I believe the last time I actually made a purchase there -- other than blank discs on sale or other small items -- was maybe 8 years ago. Why so long? Had nothing to do with price: I just couldn't find any PC stuff I wanted there. Years ago, I must have spent thousands of $$ on hardware and heavy-duty programming stuff and geek books. But at one point sometime back, all I saw when I walked into CompUSA was kids' games, cameras, and the usual junk tv's.

I'm told by a business CPA that cost-cutting is the prime mover today, not increased sales. If a product line is being purchased by only 20% of the customers, the perverted logic in use today dictates that you stop carrying that line -- which means you've just turned away 20% of your business. But management today doesn;t see this move as a customer loss. To these guys, it simply isn't true that 100% minus 20% equals 80%; Their logic is that if 80% of the traffic isn't buying 20% of the products, then get rid of the 20% product. That way, 100% of the 80% will buy whatever's left. Stated in fuzzy math, this means they think 80% minus 20% equals 100%.

I don't know why computer stores get so heavily into cameras. PC Magazine (which was never into power computing to begin with) is almost all electronic gizmos now and has shrunk to the size of a travel brochure. I wouldn't be surprised if PC Mag starts reviewing electric shavers and coffee makers next. The dumbing-down of tech publications seems to be mirrored in the retail world.

I guess this is what happens when a business is run by accountants and blockheads instead of people with real marketing or management talent. Accountants should stick to accounting; blockheads should find other work.

[BJ_M]

no money in hardware anymore (except for some accessories)

[ZAPPER]

Lots of wasted money in retail, I know only a part of it because it puts food on my table.

If someone was smart enough to open a bare bones outlet without the national paint sceam and without spending millions on posters and other visual merchandising crap, plain and basic racks and gondolas, flunkies to stock the shelves and maybe a service tech or two behind a work counter they could make money. Blowing money on advertising is a waste, just keep an updated website and have all of the stores stick to the same price plan. No frills, no deals. A product cost this much today, maybe more tomorrow, maybe less, no price matching, all sales final, take up defects with the manufacturer, maybe exchange for an identical item. The news of low prices and product availabilty tends to spread on its own.

Wasting money on all of the sales training and other crap that most big stores do is a waste. Put as much product as you can on the shelf and keep it moving with low prices!