Comp USA out of business?

MrAl · Post by **MrAl** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:49 am

Hi,

It seems as if many Comp USA stores have closed up.
Me and a friend went to one the other day and it turned into
a big costume store.

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

Any ideas what happened?

Janitor Tzap · Post by **Janitor Tzap** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:11 am

No Idea......

All the stores that were here, closed up about 4 months ago.
I can only speculate that they are going with ordering from they're online store.
Instead of having actual stores that cost money to maintain, and man.

Signed:Janitor Tzap

SETEC_Astronomy · Post by **SETEC_Astronomy** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:35 am

If it is the case I say goodbye and good riddance. Oh and Comp USA take Radioshack with you.

smariotti · Post by **smariotti** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:07 am

SETEC_Astronomy wrote:If it is the case I say goodbye and good riddance. Oh and Comp USA take Radioshack with you.

But without Radio Shack where will I go to pay $2 for a single resistor?

haklesup · Post by **haklesup** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 1:14 pm

While they haven't closed all their stores, they sure have thinned out the heard.

I expect it is due to competition from Best Buy, the internet and the stabalization of the PC market. There just isn't as much room for a computer only store anymore.

They are calling it a Realignment
http://image.compusa.com/retail/collate ... nounce.doc
http://image.compusa.com/retail/collate ... elease.doc

http://www.compusa.com/about/news.asp

dyarker · Post by **dyarker** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 9:35 pm

smariotti wrote:
SETEC_Astronomy wrote:If it is the case I say goodbye and good riddance. Oh and Comp USA take Radioshack with you.
But without Radio Shack where will I go to pay $2 for a single resistor?

When planning a project or just replenishing on-hand stock, $2 is rediculous; use mail/web order. On Sunday afternoon while building a project you find you are one resistor short, then $2 is a good deal. A $1.90 of the $2 is for mall rent, packaging, and having a sales person at the store on Sunday. I agree that the prices are high, the selection is poor, and most Radioshack sales persons don't know electronics; but they have a niche to fill. The prices need to be high to stay open.

Cheers,

Lenp · Post by **Lenp** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 7:59 am

Comment on Comp USA...

A while back I was in a Comp USA store early on a Saturday morning and saw a sales clerk loading software packages from a group of display shelves into carts, leaving only a few packages behind. Sunday, the software that was being removed was the focus of a big discount promotion bundle in the newspaper insert. Based on what I saw I thought they probably moved them to set up an end cap display for the sale. I went back to pick up on the deal and there were none available anyplace, and no rain checks would be issued. A salesperson I dealt with before, who seemed loose in the tongue, told me to come back in a few days and they might be back on the shelf. They remove the featured sale items so they can contact their special commercial customers and tell them that they have them 'on reserve' for them. It they aren't sold they go back on the shelf, but, sometimes not until after the sale expires.

What a great business model!

MrAl · Post by **MrAl** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 12:38 pm

Hi again,

I agree that Radio Shack has higher prices but also agree that at least
that keeps them 'there'. If that's what it takes to stay in business then
i guess we will have to live with it. The days of Lafayette Radio are gone
forever i guess
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette_Radio

We have another mostly electronics and elect parts store near us
(within about 2 miles) but they too have very high prices. I guess
thats what it takes to pay rent in those mini malls. At least they are
there when you need something in a hurry or forgot to include it in
your online order.

jollyrgr · Post by **jollyrgr** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:50 am

Speaking as someone that builds my own computers from scratch, CompUSA is a last resort; just like Radio Shack.

Bad practices like "hiding stock" as Lenp points out is not good for business. I've seen that happen more than once. They'd have a sale paper come out. You'd go to get the sale item only to find it out of stock and them unwilling to give a rain check. Then come back after the sale is over to find the sale item to be plentiful wears on you.

A coworker and I got to the point that we didn't even bother to try to get their sales and it was a running joke between us. He'd bring in his sales flyer and we'd joke about what we'd LIKE to buy but it won't be there. When you do this to regular customers they DO find other places to spend their money.

I suggest the following as I've had good luck with them:

http://www.mwave.com
http://www.newegg.com
http://www.tigerdirect.com

pwillard · Post by **pwillard** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 6:56 pm

Apparently they won't go withn 100 Miles of of a FRY's. (fry's is better than CompUSA and RadioShack under one roof.) Not by alot... by by enough to make me prefer to shop there... which I guess works for them.

We used to have like 5-10 Compusa's in the Atlanta regional area... now the nearest store is in Knoxville Tennesee (111 Miles away).

jwax · Post by **jwax** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 7:08 pm

I've been to the Fry's in California- loved it. Don't understand why they haven't gone national yet. CompUSA at times has big box bargains here in Albany, NY. Nix on components though!

driving bear · Post by **driving bear** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:19 pm

dyarker wrote:
smariotti wrote:
SETEC_Astronomy wrote:If it is the case I say goodbye and good riddance. Oh and Comp USA take Radioshack with you.
But without Radio Shack where will I go to pay $2 for a single resistor?
When planning a project or just replenishing on-hand stock, $2 is rediculous; use mail/web order. On Sunday afternoon while building a project you find you are one resistor short, then $2 is a good deal. A $1.90 of the $2 is for mall rent, packaging, and having a sales person at the store on Sunday. I agree that the prices are high, the selection is poor, and most Radioshack sales persons don't know electronics; but they have a niche to fill. The prices need to be high to stay open.

Cheers,

here in the east tennessee area some of the local radio shack are planning to get 100% out of the component business instead they are planning to focus on accessories for consumer electronics like cables, car chargers for cell phones etc..

Robert Reed · Post by **Robert Reed** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:37 pm

MrAl
"At least they are
there when you need something in a hurry or forgot to include it in
your online order."

But they have virtually no component stock and the odds of finding that 'forgotten' part are very, very slim.

MrAl · Post by **MrAl** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:03 am

Hi Robert,

I guess you are talking about RS again? Yeah i know

I wonder what happened though to the "order the parts here and
pay for them, then when we get them we call you and you come and
pick them up" ? It wasnt that long ago when they had a huge
catalog of parts where you could order from, you only had to wait
maybe a week for them to get it in.
Anyone know what happened to that?

I had ordered some linear magnetic sensors that way. They were
a little high priced, but at least i got a few to try out.

Robert Reed · Post by **Robert Reed** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 10:23 am

Yeah, I remember back maybe 4-5 years ago RS had a large catolog for mail order parts. This was even after the local RS store parts began to dry up. Parts were a little pricey, but they had a very nice display and some parts that were not attainable elsewhere. The big conveniance was that you did not have to deal with a store clerk who rarely new what was hanging in the parts bin or even what they were used for. About 3 years ago, RS eliminated their catolog sales completely and I don't know the reason. Maybe Mouser's and Digikey's lower prices drove them out of business. But they did have a lot of thru hole parts and obsolete ICs that made them worth while.

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