Thoughts 12 Dec 2007 12:23 pm
CompUSA is folding tents and leaving town
I just ran across this bit of unsurprising news.
CompUSA was owned by a Mexico based holding company, US Commercial Corp. SA de CV. Which sold it to an investment group, Gordon Brothers Group. A company who’s plan from the start was to dismantle CompUSA and sell the individual pieces.
Gordon Brothers Group is discussing with different parties the sale of stores in key retail markets and CompUSA’s other assets, including the Internet retail unit CompUSA.com and technical-support-services business CompUSA TechPro.
Retail stores that don’t sell will be shut down. The 103 stores will remain open during the holiday shopping season and provide heavy discounts on products.
Back in the first part of the year they started closing stores in spite of a large cash infusion. I believe the number was something on the order of 50% of their retail locations. In spite of the drastic measures and the added cash, partly because of the financial troubles of the Mexican parent and partly because of the cut throat computer market, they’re effectively gone.
This is not all bad. I disliked the way the local stores were run. And here we have a Fry’s, that may be a pain to get to, but that has most of what I’m likely to want.
The truth is, with online stores like Newegg, I only go to a brick and mortar store when I want something right away or when I want to see it in person.
Because I am not the only one doing this, the retail locations are loosing market share and having to cut corners.
The best example I can think of is Best Buy. It seems that every time I go in one of their stores the aisles are a little wider, the inventory is smaller, and they seem to be pushing washing machines and cellphones instead of computers.
The upside to the closing of CompUSA, is that they should have some great sales for the holidays.