Ferris Bueller

Guys, CompUSA is apparently going to close all their stores after the holidays and are supposedly going to be having big store closing sales. Things like this usually mean that you can get good hardware/software extremely cheap. If anyone wants to read the article, you can find it here.

__________________
|TG-6th|Ferris Bueller

MagnaCentipede

A pity I have no stores nearby; I wonder if they'll vent their online stock as well -- I've gotten some really nice deals from them in recent times.

__________________

CingularDuality

They closed their only store that was near me last year. There were some good deals the last weekend they were open, but the selection was so limited... If you didn't have a Mac or a PalmPilot (for example), there was nothing for you. Bought the Peter Jackson's King Kong PC game for a dollar, though. Still haven't installed it.

__________________

Become a supporting member! -- Shop at the Tactical Market!

Take the world's smallest political quiz! "I was touched by His Noodly Appendage."
TacticalGamer TX LAN/BBQ Veteran:

TheBigC

Woot!! I have 2 within a couple miles. That being said, I never go in there anymore because they totally gutted all the stuff I am interested in as far as computers go. plus they had to have some of the most clueless people selling stuff I have ever seen.

I will definitely have to check out the deals..

__________________

The Meek shall inherit the earth..... after we're through with it!

The Wounded Warrior Project, help support my friends

Tonk

they pulled out of MN last year, that is where i got my baracuda HP-1 for kinda cheap along with a wireless router and wireless printer hub for $50 for both of em... about 120 off, but games and software is bumped up 50%, then marked off 30% so it is more, but they say it is on sale

__________________
[url="http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=46832&altf=Upbtuz&altl=|UH-QDT|"im running for president[/URL]

-Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely, in an attractive and well preserved body; but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, a beer in the other, body totally worn out screaming "YEEEHAW, WHAT A RIDE!!!" - my grandpa

-My New Rig: cpu: AMD 6400+ 3.2ghz dual core mobo: Asus Crosshair ram: 8gb (4x2gb) geil exotera 4-4-4-12 video card MSI 8800GTS 512mb (g92) Vista:x64

Laptop: Dell i9300 2.16ghz-2gb ram-6800-17" 1920x1200

-Toasty/Tonk/Chair http://tgtonk.notlong.com

Icehawk217

Yah, back when i built my computer i had to get a SATA cable, and molex adaptor or something for a second HDD, i lost the cables. I had no idea where to find it, never having been in CompUSA (it was 30 bucks or something rediculous at BestBuy). Sales guy points me over to a corner, says right where the cables are i go and look. It was USB, and Firewire cables, and some stuff for USB E-HDDs.

I told the guy i needed internal cables, and the guy said something along the line of "Memory in computers does not use cables, the sticks snap into slots on the mobo."

Same guy also did not know what a zip-tie was.

cant wait for the sales though.

__________________
"Give a man a match and he'll be warm for a minute. Light the man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life"

Eroak

Yeah this has been in the works for about 2 years now and talked about for the past 3 years. They were a bit to good for the market and the average person didn't need what they could provide. People rather buy new (cheap) computers then replace the parts. For some reason people rather shop and bestbuys and treated like dirt becasue they will not staff the floor for the volume of customers they have. Even CircuitCity(whom I work for) is falling victum to cuttbacks and less workers on the floor to help customers. Not sure whats wrong with the computer industry, but it's changing fast including the IT field. Why are there so many 5-10+ year IT technicians looking for jobs in the Philly New York area?

__________________

Gambit7

It's called recession. Get used to it boys. Expect to have a "formal" announcement of this fact during the 1st quarter of next year when economists level with themselves.

Aside from that, why screw around with these retarded retailers when you can get top-notch info. and better prices online?

__________________

Tempus

That's why, in fact, it's not about being in a recession. More and more buyers are following your advice and buying online. This leaves less room for the CompUSA's of the world.

__________________
Battlefield 2/2142 Game Officer
Contact me with server/player/admin issues.




-- Suits are what you wear when doing things you shouldn’t want to do anyway.

FROM THE TACTICAL GAMER PRIMER.
3) Support game play in a near-simulation environment. Where the focus of play would not be solely on doing what it takes to win, but doing so utilizing real-world combat strategy and tactics rather than leveraging exploits provided to players by the design of the game engine.

CingularDuality

THAT is why the computer industry is slowly failing, not because of some imaginary recession...

__________________

Become a supporting member! -- Shop at the Tactical Market!

Take the world's smallest political quiz! "I was touched by His Noodly Appendage."
TacticalGamer TX LAN/BBQ Veteran:

Gambit7

The two are somewhat mutually dependant. The more people feel the pinch, the more they yearn for a good deal elsewhere.

The more companies feel the pinch from a weak economy, the more that close their doors or merge. These big retailers never want to match salaries with inflation and the weak american dollar (never have), so rather than do-so they just shut down.

There will ALWAYS be room in the tech. market for a good high-quality, knowledgeable retailer (even though online sales are soaring). There just isnt room for the current crap we see now (best buy, CC, C-Usa, etc.). Present me with a good, knowledgeable retailer and I'd gladly hop in my car and pay a visit... hands-on with human interaction is still a smart move.

The way I see it though, eventually the tech. industry retailers will be dissolved into Futuristic "BladeRunner" type mom and pop umbrella stands where you can buy black market nano-stims or some such thing, while conversing in Gutterspeak and enjoying a bowl of hamburger lo-mein. You see bits of it now with small stores like Apple, Dell, Gateway, Alienware, Wolf Camera, etc. Highly specialized with knowledgeable staff paid a halfway decent salary... and usually down the way there's an intl' food court where hardly anyone speaks English anymore.

__________________

Acreo Aeneas

Because companies in the U.S. usually cut the bottom of the pyramid and move their way up instead of cutting salaries at the top going down. It ends up causing more harm than good, but business is about money right? When did they really care about the little guy?


Luckily for me, I have a CompUSA store downtown (just under 2 miles from me). Hopefully they haven't sold all of their good merchandise yet.

From my experience shopping at CompUSA, it's true that their floor is severely understaffed. I usually have to hunt for a rep and then have to wait about 20-30 minutes until they finish with another customer.

__________________
Acreo_Aeneas
Former 9th Member

IanTheRed

ROFL I worked for CompUSELESS for 2 and a half years.

Basically CompUSA can not compete with Newegg/Zipzoomfly etc
They can't compete with the prices, they cant compete with the selection they cant compete with the ease of access. One of the big things they focused on over the last 2 years was trying to come up with a model that could compete with the internet resellers but they missed the target by miles. I even talked with the Head of the West Coast region for CompUSA and told them they are going about it all wrong. They focused on the home/first time buyer market when all of the money is in the enthusiast and business markets.

You can not go into any CompUSA and pick up any top of the line components (CPU RAM even Graphics Cards my store still doesnt carry 8800GTX models). They dont stock them. What are enthusiasts and businesses looking for? Top of the Line components and systems. Instead they focused on midrange and low range PCs, advertised to those who are clueless about technology (I cant tell you how many customers a day asked me where the "UBS" cables are, I got tired of correcting literally every other person who walked int he building) and tried to push their Service Plans on everything. Low end PC users are likely to not buy any upgrades until it is absolutely necessary. I have had customers come in who wanted to upgrade their Windows 95 Intel P2 computers and I had to explain to them that their we dont sell anything that old and they need to get a new computer. Do you think those customers are going to buy another computer (or upgrade) any time soon? Meanwhile people like myself (I consider myself an enthusiast) are upgrading their entire platforms every year spending 2k or more a year just on the computer hardware not to mention software games accessories etc!

Also their replacement plans (not service plans) were worded in such a way that smart consumers could take advantage of them. I upgraded my monitor 3 times this year thanks to their replacement plan loop holes and CompUSA had to eat the cost each time. Now I have a slick 1080p 24" LG LCD with HDMI inputs and I only spent about $100 on it. Every time a new monitor came in mine would magically get a few dead pixels and I would come in on my day off to replace it with the one I wanted.

All in all im glad CompUSA is going under they are horrible to their employees (they were to me) and they only care about getting money. That is the only reason I exploited their weak replacement plans so badly.

This reminds me I better go in and get my Sennnheiser headphones replaced before its too late :P

Acreo Aeneas

That, ladies and gentlemen, is known as "cheating the system". We should all dive in and grab a piece of the pie before it runs out.

__________________
Acreo_Aeneas
Former 9th Member

ScratchMonkey

Some discussion on SlashDot suggested that CompUSA was also terrible at inventory management, and that's what killed them. You can't sell what you don't have.