CompUSA To Close All Stores

An anonymous reader writes "Mexican telephone and retail magnate Carlos Slim, in a rare defeat, will exit the US consumer electronics market, shutting the last 100 CompUSA Inc. stores after sinking about $2 billion into the business. Gordon Brothers Group, a Boston-based retail store liquidator, will oversee a piecemeal sale of the Dallas-based business, the company said in a statement. Financial terms were not disclosed. Stores will remain open through year-end under the supervision of Gordon Brothers, which will also negotiate the sale of real estate and other assets."

Meh.

[Vthornheart]

I never really liked them, personally. I don't know if it was different on other regions of the country, but in the Sacramento area the CompUSAs were always overpriced. I guess it's sad to see any store that sells computer products die on some level, but there's better stores still on the market.
That being said, if CompUSA was the only brick and mortar computer store in your area, I guess this would be a sucky development. Maybe a Fry's will move in. ;)

Good riddance

[ricegf]

I purchased a computer from Computer City just before CompUSA bought them out - and it had trouble reading CDs. It was transferred from Computer City's shop to CompUSA's shop, where it languished for 13 weeks while I pleaded, cajoled and threatened. Finally liberated, I fixed it myself with a CD-ROM from Fry's (discovering in the process I didn't need some big box store to build PCs for me).

Fast forward two years. I'm building a new computer, and Fry's doesn't have the graphics card I want. In a charitable mood, I buy one from CompUSA. It doesn't work. I return it to find they've sold out, too - but insist on charging me a 15% restocking fee, even after I complain to the manager. I asked him if he would enjoy my $30 (since it was the last dollar they'd ever see from me), and he simply assured me they would. He never even apologized for the trouble they caused.

I never set foot in CompUSA again.

Perhaps I'm not the only potentially loyal customer they drove away through sheer greed and incompetence.

The Customer

[DeanFox]

The chain went through several CEOs and tried different turnaround strategies...

Except one: Customers are not our enemy.

Re:Goodbye

[ericlondaits]

Don't know about Japan, but when Tower Records came to Argentina it was as a franchise AFAIK, since it was owned by local investors and it even changed hands one or two times during its life. I don't see how franchising can be bad for a company, since it means it's getting money for its brand.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:No tears here...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've only been to a CompUSA once, and I wasn't impressed. Poor layout and the prices were ridiculous.

MicroCenter on the other hand, is the best computer store I know of in Minnesota. If I need something quickly, as opposed to UPS ground, it's about a three hour drive round-trip. The long drive is the only reason I don't go there more often.
Buying small items without S&H is really nice, especially for SD and keyboards.
Only qualm I have with them is their online catalog doesn't match their inventory, in my region. If I made a list of 20 things to buy, the store would only have 10 of them.

Super WalMart is the closest thing to an electronics store, within an hour of where I live. Even the nearest Best Buy is further away than that.

It's no surprise I always shop online for electronics, and occasionally consider driving to a store if it's urgent.

Re:Meh.

[putaro]

Basically what you're saying in a more informed way is what the original poster said - they weren't able to manage their inventory. It's a basic part of running a retail business. Yes, it's hard. Those who are good at it (Walmart) succeed in the retail space. Those that are bad at it will close their doors.

Re:Goodbye

[Dogtanian]

I don't see how franchising can be bad for a company, since it means it's getting money for its brand.

Then you clearly haven't thought about it for more than 5 seconds. If the franchisee(s) aren't up to the standards of the original chain or generally screw things up, they damage the name of the franchise, and that reputation can feed back to the original store.

In short, you lose some control of your own name, and while you can impose conditions on the franchisees, there have to be limits.

Now, the benefit of a franchise is also its disadvantage; people associate the local franchised operation with its original owner, and if this isn't up to scratch, then- at best- people may assume that other franchises are run to poor standards and- at worst- people assume that the original company is responsible and at fault.

"But... but... it wasn't us, it was one of our franchisees" won't cut it in the face of widespread complaints that swamp the ability of your PR to explain the true situation. And do the public care anyway? It's a double-edged sword- if a company is willing to exploit its name (and associated reputation) by selling it to others, it has no right to complain if it's too lax or greedy in controlling the franchise and these actions come back to haunt it.

Re:Meh.

[zullnero]

Maybe a Fry's will move in. ;)

Fry's: Where you always know you can find the most substandard of substandard computer and consumer products!

The trick with Fry's, for those who don't know, is that the good quality stuff is priced roughly the same as any Best Buy/CompUSA/Staples/etc., but the absolutely crappy imported stuff makes it all seem cheaper. It's like WalMart like that.

Re:As an ex employee...

[Obyron]

Likewise an ex-employee (store #349 in Lexington, KY). I definitely feel the same about the place going. They treated me, and all the other employees-- up to and including "back end" people like HR and low-level managers (front end, inventory)-- like complete trash. About a year after I was laid off (because the store was losing money) I heard that the then-General Manager had been embezzling money from the store and had finally been caught and fired. No clue if they ever pressed criminal charges. We actually had a lot of good experiences with their warranty, especially the full replacement. They followed it well enough that salesmen weren't unknown to use it to close a sale (ie: "accidentally" break your shiny new PDA two days before your 2 year warranty runs out, and get the dollar value toward the purchase of a new one). The restocking fee always came down to how much we didn't like a particular customer's attitude. There was a lot of stuff that went on to basically screw the customer (like fast-talking old people into spending 100 dollars on getting a tech to "set up" their computer before they took it home, for which the techs just held the computer for 30 minutes before bringing it up front). Given shit like this, and the way the stores were managed, it's no surprise to me they're going out of business. At my store we had probably 6-8 sales people and 4 cashiers working at any given time, and we had 8(!) managers-- General, Sales, Asst. Sales, Front End, Operations, Inventory, Business Sales, and Tech. No wonder they couldn't afford employees! I'm not the least bit sad to see it go.

Re:A Question....

[BenFranske]

The problem is that in the United States the local shops have several things going against them. First, the selection is often not all that good which is a problem for informed consumers who usually want one of a couple options none of which may be carried by the small retailer. Second, and perhaps more important to Americans is the price difference. It's usually a lot more than the few cents you cite. Often a product will cost at least tens of dollars more and depending on the price of the product perhaps $50 or $100 more from a local store. These are not insignificant price differences and people, at least Americans, will put up with just about anything to save $5. Unless your local store is within $5 on just about everything you will loose customers to the big store no matter how much better your service is, many are not. This is not to say there are not successful small, local computer (and other) stores but there are a limited number of them, usually in densely populated cities making it much more convenient for most consumer to shop at the (much closer and much less less expensive) big box retailer.

Re:my eyes are dry

[jddj]

I'll never forget the experience...I'd just arrived in Atlanta in 1994, and I was in a Marietta CompUSA. I'd asked the CompUSA staffer about a particular accessory for my Power Macintosh 7100/66.

"A Mac? Get a real computer!"

I thought: "I'm a multimedia developer trying to buy one of your highest-margin products, and you're working a crappy retail job. Will getting a real computer skyrocket me to the corridors of power you walk? I hope not..."

Over the years, I've only visited CompUSA out of sheer desperation, and the typical experience there was that I went in, looked for what I'd come for, found nothing I could use and left.

Has anyone walked into a CompUSA in the last 5 years and been anything but baffled at the retail experience they were trying to pull off? It's like they stopped focusing on computer equipment at all, but tried to display consumer electronics in the manner of an office-supply store. WTF? It's like the Anti-Apple Store, Anti-Gap approach to merchandising.

So they're fallen overboard. I'd be happy to toss 'em an anchor!

To anyone out there who wants to visit "a real computer store", I'd take a Microcenter or a Fry's over a CompUSA any day.

N.B. - Spell-check is warning me that "CompUSA" is misspelled. Thought for a second about adding it to the dictionary for future use, then realized that it's probably not too important to do so...

Re:A Question....

[vranash]

Honestly, around here it's because the small box stores have *WORSE* return policies, charge way too much for service and whatnot, and generally treat their customers as bad or worse than the big box stores.

At least that's been my experience. Best thing to happen to me was having Fry's move in here back in '99. Had a defective mobo that turned out to have been a return, as well as being sold a Rage IIC (Something I didn't figure out until much later, and hadn't returned, heh.) which after having the employees tell me they couldn't take back, led to speaking to the manager, who basically stated he didn't have to do anything, he'd only take it back for store credit, blah blah. This finally led to my dad coming in, having left the item in the car, convincing the guy to take it back (he was assuming we'd have to make another trip, and could pull this BS again.) and returned the item for cash.

Long story short, went to fry's, got a new mobo, fought through a 2 hour opening week line, and came home happy (with a *MUCH* better mobo for the same or lower price!). I've had plenty of hassles at Fry's themselves, but as long as you don't buy a warranty, watch out for open box tags (which they at least *USED* to put on everything returned.), and don't mind the wait, they tend to handle their returns VERY effectively with a minimum of hassle (After about the third return they'll look at you funny, but if you're on the third return of the same defective type item, you're best off getting your money back anyways! Just make sure you test the item ASAP since I think it's a 7 day return policy on electronics.)

Re:A Question....

[pla]

Why is it that the majority of Americans (and many Europeans to be fair) seem to think that only "Big Name" chain stores can provide these essential services to them?

Because in the US, only huge chain stores survive. We can largely blame ourselves for that, but such it stands.

Small stores have two major problems... First, they can't get as good prices for small quantities as WallyWorld can when they buy out a manufacturer's entire production run, so they need to survive on a thinner margin. Second, they have less ability to absorb losses - When Walmart eats the cost of a high-end TV, it shows up as a miniscule blip on the monthly report; when a Mom-n-Pop does the same, it could well mean ending that month in the red.

Re:Good riddance

[AFCArchvile]

Maybe it's because, for some reason, returning certain defective items to the vendor is more costly (in all ways: money, time, relationship with vendor) than re-shrinkwrapping a product that performs its function acceptably. Some managers inevitably stretch this a bit and put unacceptable products back in the box. And if this was a perfect world, there would be a discount gondola with product boxes marked as previously used and of acceptable quality, with a proportional discount. I believe that MicroCenter still has a discount counter in their stores. BestBuy and CompUSA would sometimes just reshrinkwrap the box to make it look like a new product.

First guideline when purchasing tech stuff at a physical store: LOOK AT THE BOX. Has it been damaged in any way, particularly in the locations that would see wear upon opening? Any sticker tears from the box being opened? If the box's surface (not counting the shrinkwrap) looks in pristine condition, then chances are you're safe. One advantage to those annoying clamshell cases that require a 5 watt laser to open is that you can obviously tell if it has been previously opened.

One thing that any retail store needs to learn in order to succeed is to be able to fall on their own sword for the customer. If it's a $50 joystick, eat the cost, make the customer happy. If it's a $300 videocard, this guy probably posts on some gaming forums and could have a devastating regional or national effect on your sales; eat the cost, make the customer happy. $1799 laptop? Okay, that's going to be a bit painful, but the manufacturer's warranty department is responsible here, unless they bought a replacement plan, in which case that department can assist the customer. But you don't make a customer so angry that they vow to never let you serve them again, and that they tell their friends locally or nationwide to never frequent your establishment.

Unfortunately, "make the customer happy" is becoming a victim to the rampant cost cutting that has been going on in the business world in the past 10 years or so. Anything that costs the company money is irrationally labeled "a bad thing" and verboten. Even "make the customer happy" costs the company money, so it MUST be a bad thing.

Re:They Screwed Radio Shack

[kevorkian]

Thats because you dont remember ( or are too young ) to remember the REAL radio shack. Back when you could get one of the 10001 electronic project kits.Or where you could talk to the guy behind the counter about using a 10k resistor in place for a 8k one and look at the schematic for the circuit and understand it. Yes now its all about the "service plan warranty" or selling you a cell phone , or even that private label credit card that they change the name of every few years.

Re:Goodbye

[ohmpossum]

This applies to my local Outback Steak House. The screw ups of the local franchise make me not want to risk going to any outback. The outback happens to be in front of the compUSA that closed a few months back here in the Dallas area where they already closed most of their stores.