Squeezed by Retail Rivals, CompUSA to Shut Down

The Wall Street Journal (excerpt) ^ | December 7, 2007

[1066AD]

The first store was on Beltwood Pkwy in Addison

Agreed, I remember going in there and even at that time it was hard to get attention !!!!!! It was always very busy but I thought their prices were on the high side. I bought my first PC, an XT clone, elsewhere, seems so long ago but then not really...

[1066AD]

P.S. On that first PC I had to settle for a 10meg hard drive because the 20s were out and also pay about $200 extra to get the RAM up to 640K. Whole thing with an amber monitor & 9pin printer was around $1400.

[Trajan88]

Re: Soft Warehouse... yep... I bought a few pieces of software at that store... parking lot was always packed.

[texas booster]

Back in the Beltwood days, they were the cheapest in town and one of the few places in DFW that you could get just parts, and not a name brand computer. Clones were still unknown except by geeks.

I remember buying a close out on single sided floppy drives and getting one for about $150!

Once Computer Shopper came of age, the entire clone world came alive and allowed national marketing with a regional budget. Killed my business for a while but good service kept me alive. Gotta admit, there were a few things that I wondered how they bought them so cheap, since I could also import from Taiwan. The Asian marketplace if not for the weak of heart.

[VeniVidiVici]

I hate CompUsa but they are just about the only game in town here in Orlando.

I went to Frys for the first time this past weekend in Alpharetta, GA. I was in heaven. I would stay broke if this were to come to Orlando.

And I DO buy a ton of stuff from Newegg already!

[rb22982]

Newegg.com

[Dr. Sivana]

I use newegg regularly. I NEED a local store when I have to replace something at work THE SAME DAY.

[Westlander]

Yep, they sell Gateway.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

Another thing I never liked about CompUSA was the thug they stationed at the exit to check your receipts on the way out.

Yep, won't miss that at all. CompUSA, where all customers are criminals.

The only other place that does that (to my knowledge) in San Francisco is the De Young Museum -- where all art patrons are terrorists -- but they get you on the way in instead of the way out. Oh, and only women are terrorists in San Francisco -- because we carry handbags. Men aren't checked. A man could enter with a knife in his pocket, and nobody would know.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

At least they stopped demanding my Personal Health Information at checkout time.

All I get asked is my zip code. What were they asking you?

[DesScorp]

No surprise here. Stores like CompUSA were a great idea back when computers were a novelty, but now that they’ve mainstreamed, even Wal Mart carried things like USB expansion cards. You can get 80 to 90 percent of what stores like CompUSA sell at any chain store now. For the rest, there’s the Internet. Most cities also still have small computer stores that get the more obscure parts.

[anymouse]

ping

[HAL9000]

Ark. Dem-Gaz reported the other day that Apple Inc. has filed for a plumbing permit for Promenade at Chenal. That’s as good as a confirmation.

[VirginiaConstitutionalist]

But can't they just wait for the Senate to bail them out for making bad financial decisions?

[TheBattman]

Your CompUSA must have been in a bad neighborhood... I don’t recall ever having a “receipt-checking thug” at the exit at the one in Little Rock...

[TheBattman]

I have found that WalMart computer components and accessories are often MORE expensive than CompUSA and other similar stores...Saw a mouse I had been thinking about on the clearance rack at WalMart yesterday. When I checked out the red tag, it was still priced higher than CompUSA and Best Buy...