CompUSA closes shop
Forget Black Friday. For the best deals on gadgets and PCs this holiday season, look no further than your neighborhood CompUSA.
The embattled electronics retail chain was dealt its final blow Friday when it was sold to Specialty Equity, an affiliate of private equity firm Gordon Brothers Group. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but the immediate result is that Specialty Equity will close all 103 CompUSA stores in the United States, according to a press release issued late Friday.
Gordon Brothers will "initiate an orderly wind-down" of each of the stores, the company says. That's great news for consumers looking for bargains. CompUSA will remain open through the holiday shopping season, presumably with "Everything Must Go!"-style signs.
It was clear all was not well at the retailer when in March it closed half of its stores due to pressure from bigger chains like Best Buy and Circuit City.
Erica Ogg is a CNET News staff writer who covers consumer electronics, primarily for Crave. E-mail Erica.
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I didn't see any real bargains on anything.
HELPFULNESS and surliness!
They dropped the ball by not creating a mechanism to teach their
people courtesy and manners.
I was there this past Sunday, and it was the same as it's ever been.
tell you there will be no deals till the last two weeks, when the store will go 70-90% offl but by then the idiots who are blinded by the word sale will have bought anything with value, at close to what they would have paid at a regular best buy or amazon sale price.
and poor selection. And heaven help you if you needed repairs or
technical support! I'm not surprised at all that the entire chain has
gone the way of the dinosaur. Anyone for a chorus of "Ding Dong
the Witch is Dead?"
They carried brands that I never heard of, and the one decent employee of our local store usually said to by-pass those items, as they were junk.
I can only wonder if Circuit City is next??? Not enough sales staff on the floor. Only one register open at a time, and technical staff that don?t know how to fix computers. Very similar to CompUSA.
is not so.
The real reason CompUSA is gone is because of Apple's
enourmous gains and Vista's lukewarm sells. Not only are box
copies not being sold but most people are buying macs when
they buy new comptuers. They are buying it from Apple. Need
an MP3 player? Apple store for iPod. Zune wha?
New phone? Apple Store. Apple is the new Sony with consumer
electronics.
Who is next? Well it all depends on what Apple has up its sleeve
next year...
My next machine is going to be Apple (or maybe Ubuntu). No way am I going to upgrade to Vista.
BTW, PC World announced recently that the fastest Windows Vista laptop they've tested is the MacBook Pro!
What is this country coming to when there is not even a local store where you can buy tech? Over the years we lost Egghead, Good Guys, and now CompUSA. Radio Shack? Virtually worthless. Ironically, these past few months as fewer sources of tech were left, CompUSA was consistently busy. Lots of people in the store and they were actually buying stuff.
A business thrives when it offers value. CompUsa wasn't offering the best prices; the sales help didn't have much technical expertize; and the quality of service was lousy. The products it did sell were pretty mundane.
If Circuit City doesn't clean up its act, it's going to be next.
aren't getting the business they once did because Apple directly
competes with them. They are opening stores everywhere.
One key fact you guys are missing is that in recent months
CompUSA tried to return to their barebones computer
components strategy. They thought returning to their roots and
core business would save them. The sad truth is, those who buy
components will buy from NewEgg. Consumer computers are
being picked up at an Apple Store. People will buy laptops from
other chains but have you seen their sales numbers? Vista has
scared many people from buying a new computer.
BTW Glad to see them go
about a $100 million mail-in rebate, which they'll probably lose the
form for or screw up somehow and not receive.
I hated Comp USA as much as anyone, however they were useful when you needed something hard to find.
First of all, they pimped all of us as being "experts" on computer stuff but the only real training people got was standard retail stuff. Technical training did exist, but they just put it out there and nobody said much if people didn't keep up on it.
Second, sales people got NO commission for big sales. For a while, they got a little bit extra for getting someone to buy the extended service plan, but as the company got more desperate, that turned into "sell the plans or you're fired."
Everybody who worked at my store knew we had the worst prices in town so we felt like idiots trying to keep the customers happy. If my bosses knew how many times I sent somebody to Radio Shack or Circuit City...
Everybody who worked there also knew, before there was any news about closings or bankruptcy, that the store wasn't going to be around for very long. We used to joke about how any day now there were going to be a bunch of people in suits coming in and measuring stuff.
CompUSA was the worst retail job I ever had.
Maybe even the worst place I ever worked for.
Good riddance.
- I work for compUSA and here is what I know
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by unaged12
December 9, 2007 8:23 AM PST
- First of all I have been thru the first round of stores closing, they just liquidated those stores. This time is different as they have sold the online site, and the Tech Services seperately. There are posibilitys some of the stores will remain in buisness, but under new ownwership of another company (tiger dierect is one name thats been poping up for years). The extended services are still honored, and your items will be repaired, most likely you will have to call an 800 number to have those item Facilitated (Assurance is the underwriting company). This was a buisness decision by Carlos Slim who has invested millons of dollars in this company to recieve little in return. There have been a few rumors that Some of the bigger chains might purchase CompUSA stores to enter certain markets, and retain some employees. I only have limited information, so this is all i can offer at the moment.
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