CompUSA To Shut Down

[MacRumors]

CompUSA To Shut Down



CompUSA announced today that it will sell or shut down its remaining stores. Stores remaining open through the holiday season will feature heavy discounts on products to clear inventory.

CompUSA was once one of Apple's largest resellers until Apple began pilot programs with Best Buy and CompUSA began downsizing earlier this year.

The retail chain had received approximately $2 billion in investment since 1999, however it was unable to return to profitability amongst fierce competition.

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[JesterJJZ]

Meh...I don't have any where I live anyway so no biggie.

 

[daddywags214]

any chance they'll be liquidating their Apple inventory?

edit: changed "inventory" to "Apple inventory"

 

[Aeolius]

What a week.

The other day I read about a new Apple Store opening "early next year" in Greensboro, North Carolina. Now I see this rumor about the remaining CompUSA stores closing is true.

The Greensboro CompUSA store has maintained its "cozy corner" for Mac users for some time. The resident Apple Solutions Consultant is courteous, knowledgeable, and professional. It seems unclear, whether he would be transitioning from CompUSA to the Apple Store, but I hope that to be the case. He has maintained an active presence in local Apple user groups and has proven his knowledge of and passion for Apple products on numerous occasions. It would be unfortunate, for the local Macintosh community to lose such an invaluable local resource.

 

[ravenvii]

any chance they'll be liquidating their Apple inventory?

edit: changed "inventory" to "Apple inventory"

Yeah, wondering what kinds of discounts we'll be seeing here...

 

[Mydel]

Yeah Big Fat Sale??

 

[kkat69]

I knew this would happen when they completely pulled out of Atlanta a while back.

How people can patron BB over them sometimes is beyond me however, with Fry's, Microcenter, BB, and not to mention even office supply stores selling the same things, someone has to end up on the loosing end.

It's unfortunate as I haven't had any issues shopping at CompUsa since they were (at the time) the only place I can get certain PC mod items.

Not to mention it was always nice going in there playing with the Macs. They always had a big selection at the Northpoint store in Alpharetta. BB hasn't got SQUAT for Macs and I do NOT trust anyone that looks like they belong in the "Revenge of the Nerds" movie to work on any piece of electronics I own.

Oh well, wish all the employee's best of luck and my prayers with them.

 

[KiraDouji]

The Greensboro CompUSA store has maintained its "cozy corner" for Mac users for some time. The resident Apple Solutions Consultant is courteous, knowledgeable, and professional. It seems unclear, whether he would be transitioning from CompUSA to the Apple Store, but I hope that to be the case. He has maintained an active presence in local Apple user groups and has proven his knowledge of and passion for Apple products on numerous occasions. It would be unfortunate, for the local Macintosh community to lose such an invaluable local resource.

I'm sure he'll be happy to read this. ^_^ As far as I know, though, if there's any way to stay, he will be. Greensboro's been good to him and he likes the area. Given his track record with Apple, they might be more enticed to keep him around.

I certainly hope so at least, because it looks like Apple's my best bet for a new job

- Kira

As I said in the other thread, what exactly does this mean for my CompUSA Credit card balance??

CompUSA credit card is handled by HSBC, so nothing's going to change other than you not being able to add anything to it once all the stores who will take it have vanished.

- Kira

 

[applefan69]

IMO this is kinda sad. I mean it shows the company was loyal to apple by being one of their biggest retailers. Just a couple years ago apple struggled to get stores to sell Macs. (one of the main reasons apple fell so behind in market shares)

Now, apple is finally getting other stores to support them, and as a result this store is struggling and does apple care? Obviously not.

Im sure im looking at this in the wrong angle but IMO this story is sorta sad.

 

[daddywags214]

As I said in the other thread, what exactly does this mean for my CompUSA Credit card balance??

Hopefully the investment firm will be handling them professionally and prompty.

EDIT: Kira had a better answer than me. Thanks, Kira.

 

[Bill Gates]

I think we all knew this was coming, especially after the recent closure of half of the retail stores.

 

[LimeiBook86]

I had a feeling this was coming eventually. I guess I won't be looking into a job there anymore.

 

[todd2000]

CompUSA credit card is handled by HSBC, so nothing's going to change other than you not being able to add anything to it once all the stores who will take it have vanished.

- Kira

Yeah I kinda figured, but a guy can dream can't he

 

[bretm]

I knew this would happen when they completely pulled out of Atlanta a while back.

How people can patron BB over them sometimes is beyond me however, with Fry's, Microcenter, BB, and not to mention even office supply stores selling the same things, someone has to end up on the loosing end.

It's unfortunate as I haven't had any issues shopping at CompUsa since they were (at the time) the only place I can get certain PC mod items.

Not to mention it was always nice going in there playing with the Macs. They always had a big selection at the Northpoint store in Alpharetta. BB hasn't got SQUAT for Macs and I do NOT trust anyone that looks like they belong in the "Revenge of the Nerds" movie to work on any piece of electronics I own.

Oh well, wish all the employee's best of luck and my prayers with them.

The Apple Store at Northpoint has a pretty decent selection of macs. Maybe you should try playing with Macs there.

The CompUSA in Gwinnett was horrible, dirty, misinformed and outdated. The would sell older mac models refurbished for like $100 less than a brand new NOT refurbished model.

MicroCenter is the PC store with a Mac store in it. And not just an aisle or two. You actually enter through a doorway where there are pretty much just macs and mac peripherals and people that know what they're talking about.

But since we have at least 4 Apple stores in Atl, what's the point?

 

[salvatorereda]

so much for my 3 year warranty
I had 1.5 years left on my projector!!
I dont think i would ever by a warranty again from one of these kind of stores.
I also lost the warranty on my good guys stereo!

errrrrrrr

 

[Teddy's]

Meh...I don't have any where I live anyway so no biggie.

Yeah. You can sleep quietly tonight.

Let the workers who will lose their jobs worry. I guess these holidays will not be happy for many people across the U.S.

------

 

[Rot'nApple]

Meh...I don't have any where I live anyway so no biggie.

RIP CompUSA...

My only hangup is that CompUSA is closer then the Apple store in my area, is in a strip mall as opposed to a closed in Mega Mall with major anchor stores encompassing the numerour botique shops with all those people and it has free parking to boot!

 

[gerrycurl]

good riddance!

there was a compusa in brighton, ma, i hated the service, there would be four to five compusa emps sitting around chatting doing nothing while i wanted to buy a macbook pro, i just glared at them for about five minutes and finally decided that it was time to scream at them, one of them reluctantly came over to me while rolling his eyes and said, "what do you need?" so i told him that i want a macbook pro, but that i would be going to bestbuy to get it. owned bitches.

 

[ortuno2k]

I used to work for CompUSA about 2 years ago... poor folks.
Never shopped there after I left.

 

[The Monkey]

The one on Fifth Ave. in Manhattan had lousy service, lousy selection, and lousy prices. Good riddance.

But I do feel bad for the employees. I hate to see people lose their jobs. Apparently, they will at least keep them through the holidays.

 

[mangoarts]

Yahooooooooo!

CompUSA had the worst customer service (worse then fry's) I ever encountered. They earned this failure. They treated Apple fans like outcasts and could never answer a Mac question.

When I walk into an Apple store I feel as if I will get some help. Sometimes even intelligent.

Ding Dong, the witch is dead.

 

[DMann]

Retail Model

I think we all knew this was coming, especially after the recent closure of half of the retail stores.

With Gateway pulling the plug on its retail stores in 2004, everyone laughed at Apple while they started to increase their own. With Comp USA shutting down, one imagines that this reflects badly on the computer retail industry and its ability to turn a profit - yet Apple has been pulling in, on an average, 12 - 15 million per store per year. Although this seems to defy business model trends, Apple continues to prove that quality, style, and innovation can succeed despite internet sales competition which is perpetuated by lack of overhead. Apple has a different take on the function of a retail store - a showcase for their stellar products--and you can even take one home with you, today! On top of that, their customer service is incomparable.

 

[KiraDouji]

Opinions on retail stores vary greatly from place to place. I mention this because I'm seeing mainly two types of posts here; "good riddance" and "oh, that's sad". Well, frankly, the type of service you get from any big chain it going to depend on the managers. The CompUSA in Greensboro, NC, for example, has a lot of good people in it because the management doesn't put up with ******** like five employees standing around doing nothing. Likewise, there are ones in which people have had bad service. I could give a reverse example with Best Buy; the one in Newington, NH has excellent customer service and is a clean, easy place to shop, but the one in Greensboro makes me hate people. Literally.

Please keep that in perspective when you go on about "good riddance" and "reaping what you sow". Personally, I sowed customer service and approachability that brought people back to the store; I certainly didn't sow losing my job directly after the holidays.

That being said, I wonder where I will be able to get that one computer component I need the next time someone's pc crashes and they have to get it working omg THAT DAY, considering CC and BB don't sell parts.

- Kira

 

[Prelude2Tragedy]

The warranties you may have are still good you just deal directly with the insurance company compusa goes through.

 

[chr1s60]

The Comp USA by me shut down about a year ago so this doesn't bother me. They had an ok Apple section, but the sales staff was never very helpful with anything. They also had crappy sales on Apple stuff when they were closing. Most things in the store had a great discount, but the Apple stuff only went down to about 5-10% off and never went any lower except for one or two software things that dropped to 15% off. I think Apple will do much better with Best Buy since they are a better store than Comp USA ever was.