CompUSA will go out of business
Carlos Slim loses a billion or so
US RETAILER of computers and other electronic gadgets CompUSA has been sold to restructuring firm Gordon Brothers Group and will go out of business after close-out sales over the holidays, the company announced late Friday.
CompUSA, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu's Grupo Carso SA. It operates 103 CompUSA stores located throughout the continental US and has a technical services division, CompUSA TechPro, and an online division, CompUSA.com.
The stores will reportedly be sold or closed, and Gordon Brothers will also try to sell the technical services and online businesses, which may or may not keep the CompUSA name.
CompUSA began as software retailer Soft Warehouse in 1984. It later started selling computers, took the CompUSA name when it went public in 1991, and bought the Tandy Computer City chain. Carlos Slim Heru began buying shares in 1999 and took it private with an $800 million buyout in 2000. He invested another $440 million last Spring in an attempt to keep the company afloat.
CompUSA has been hit by softening of demand, falling margins on computers and competition from big-box chains like Best-Buy, Circuit City and Fry's as well as smaller specialty computer sellers. µ
L'INQ
San
Francisco Chronicle
Comments
wonder how
With a name like CompUSA...you know they are good at selling overly priced store brand generic products. $50 for a CompUSA modem?....how did they stay in business this longBAD Marketing Selection & Pricing.
Computers are moving from Wind Up Era to reliable truck. That if it works operator is happy, yet still isn't family item of much good for long term.Comp USA double retail suggested Price of all its items, refused to give advertised instant discounts nor mail in. sold items that broke with no special effort, & in general left buyer confused & disorientated, sales grinning & laughing at you.
You can see naiveeness of ownership in closing large city stores & expecting people to travel 60 miles for some dumb part.
All Retailing of computers is flawed. People just don't care, While marketing is of opinion thats its more precious than opiloid.
DUMBNESS IN SELCTION, OWNERSHIP & SALES, ITS THREE PUNCH DRUNK UPON THEMSELVES.
Signed:thomas stewart von drashek m.d.
Bad Business
I dont get why anyone goes to BB either when you contrast their prices to something like NewEgg. These people didnt get that the world is changing in computer retail. Have you seen the prices at BestBuy??Was bound to happen...
I'm sad that it's closing for the fact that lots of people are going to be losing their jobs, but I would be lieing if I said I didn't see this coming.CompUSA people are simply stupid when it comes to technology, no one there seems to really know much of anything. I know more then they do! And their prices... well, you can get just about any item for less at another store than at CompUSA.
It was gonna happen sooner or later...
Service and Support is the Key
Like so many other companies, it seems that quality, service and suppoprt have all bone to hell and its not only happened in the electronocs business but has reached into the Automobile and many other types of business.Who do you blame,.....well firts and formost you have to blame the company, but you also have to go down the totem pole and place a lot of blame on the workers.
Seems people today have lost the sense of pride in their work, I see this even where I work, people have become lazy and careless in their jobs.
One thing that needs to happen is bring manufacturing back into this country (USA), pay people a decent wage and benifits while demanding they give 110% and show pride in their work. Tech support needs to return to this country and business need to start manufacturing quality products and not just worry about quanity.CEO's and business owners need to give up some of their yeary bonus and very huge saleries, I see so much junk being sold in stores, and on the net, it seems that everything has become cheaply made and again basicaly is junk.
I saw this in my last DELL Computer purchase (XPS Generation-3) and customer support along with Tech support was horrible, I no longer Buy Desktops from anyone, I build them myself. I wish I had the money to open up my own PC building company, I could build quality machines at very resonable prices.....
To sum it all up.....to many companies dont care about the customer...quality....or standing behind their product, all they care about is how much dough they can line their pockets with. We as customers are also to blame because we still do bussiness with those companies who dont seem to care, we should demand quality and customer/Tech support and those big corperations who think they dont have to give us that......well we should boycot those blood suckers
Thats My Rant For Today
TigerDirect next?
That shows you that you have to not stick to just one side of business if you are a "retailer".You walk into any Best Buy store and you can buy a myriad of items that have little, or nothing, in common with computers and/or electronics.
My nearest CompUSA store is in the middle of nowhere, any item they carry is 1 1/2 to 2 times more expensive than any mom-and-pop shop....The list is endless
@John Moreland
John, if domestic manufacturing was the only thing lacking to quality products American cars would be the gold standard. Sadly this is not the case. You're blaming the most outward symptoms of the problems but ignoring the mechanisms that create them.Specifically, having worked at CompUSA in the mid 90s, I can speak to this. Here's how it works: You start in the company with some or no computer knowledge at a register, on the sales floor, or in the warehouse. Those that excel (no pun intended) in product knowledge and learn are moved off the sales floor/front end to the tech department, corporate sales, or management. So there is this constant vacuum of any knowledgeable staff that would normally be exposed to customers moved to areas of higher margin.
Does it make sense for that knowledgeable guy/gal to be discussing the benefits of PrintWorks at $30 vs. Print Shop at $40 for greeting card creation to the grandmother there shopping? It would make more sense to put that person in business sales discussing the benefits of the new Pentium architecture over the 486DX line where that could net an extra $300 per machine when the client is buying ten. Keep in mind this is just from CompUSA's perspective. The worker themselves know that the knowledge they've acquired can earn them more money in higher positions and may choose to leave the company if not moved up internally.