CompUSA - Liquidation

[Mrbloodworth]

Sorry i don't have a news report... But, a friend of mine recently moved to the west cost..she works for CompUSA, she told me the store is getting liquidated. Consequently, another of our friends works in one here, on the east cost...His store started liquidating yesterday.

So, the reason i bring it all up..Most items in the store are 10-20% off.

Get some deals.

[Rasix]

So, the reason i bring it all up..Most items in the store are 10-20% off.

So, that would bring their prices down to Best Buy level? They had some liquidation sales in Phoenix, but by the time I got there, they were stripped pretty bare.

Went into the Tucson store near the mall the other day, terrible prices and terrible stock.  It's not shocking they're going out of business.

[Riggswolfe]

What Rasix said. Less selection and higher prices = doom.

[Mrbloodworth]

So, the reason i bring it all up..Most items in the store are 10-20% off.

So, that would bring their prices down to Best Buy level? They had some liquidation sales in Phoenix, but by the time I got there, they were stripped pretty bare.

Went into the Tucson store near the mall the other day, terrible prices and terrible stock.  It's not shocking they're going out of business.

No clue. Well, no , its not shocking, what is shocking.

Employees only got told their stores were being closed Monday.

Other than that... There are some good deals to be had. The store here has always been top notch, and yes, we have a best buy right next door.

*Shrug*

I just thought i would post this for those who haven't heard, 20% off PS3 games at the store near me. 10% on PC, 5% on laptops. Most everything else was 20%.

[SurfD]

Vaguely remember seeing something about this on the Netscape Daily news.  I think the entire franchise is going out, hence all stores are liquidating.

[Riggswolfe]

I'll definitely swing by and see if I can find something for my daughter. Just not a gift card. 

[Merusk]

Vaguely remember seeing something about this on the Netscape Daily news.  I think the entire franchise is going out, hence all stores are liquidating.

Yep, it was announced Monday.(Which is why the employees didn't find out until then)  The Mexico billionaire who bought the company a few years back has decided it's a failed venture and is closing it all up.    They were always horrible around here, even worse than Circuit City, which is saying something.

[geldonyetich2]

I buy my computer parts off the Internet.  Sure, I don't get that buzz of immediately finding and installing things, and the anticipation brings me to near postman clobbering levels, but the price and quality beats the snot out of anything CompUSA or Bestbuy has.

[Tannhauser]

The Knoxville CompUSA used to be one of my favorite places in the world to shop.  But all of a sudden it just seemed to malfunction, bad store layout, kinda dim lighting, high prices, bad service, no selection, etc.  This seemed to happen about the same time Best Buy opened.

I feel sorry for the folks who are out of work but a big MEH to the corporate dumbasses who screwed up a good thing.

[naum]

The CompUSA in AZ went out of business months and months ago, if not over a year or so… …I scoped 2 of them out in their waning firesell moment, and all the good stuff was already carted off… …instead, there was just a lot of garbage remaining that IMV wasn't discounted enough…

…one of them is now a Peter Piper Pizza and the other still sits empty…

[Selby]

The Knoxville CompUSA used to be one of my favorite places in the world to shop.  But all of a sudden it just seemed to malfunction, bad store layout, kinda dim lighting, high prices, bad service, no selection, etc.  This seemed to happen about the same time Best Buy opened.

10 years ago I used to get all kinds of good stuff and they had knowledgeable people working there.  I can't remember the last time I went into one after around 2001 and I was completely in awe of how bad the place had gotten with moron salespeople and complete ass for selection (not to mention what they did have was quite pricey for what it was).

[geldonyetich2]

…one of them is now a Peter Piper Pizza

Now that's what I call progress.

[HaemishM]

My local CompUSA closed down last year. Their liquidation sale was ass. But then, that store had been shitty shit shit shit for a while. It was nice to have some cheap computer parts you couldn't find elsewhere at a moment's notice, but most things were overpriced and their sales folks and tech people were gibbering morons. The company looked to be failing from the top down, IMO.

[rattran]

I got a few deals in Atlanta when the first half of the chain closed. They kept the local one (Rockford, IL) store open, and it was the only one I've been to in years with decent stock, knowledgeable employees, but still meh prices. I'm sad to see it go, as the only retail left will be Best Buy and Circuit City, and I expect Circuit City to go under in the spring.

<edit> Spelling is hard.

[HaemishM]

Let's face it, Circuit City deserves to go under. They are as shittastic as CompUSA ever was, it's just cleaner in their stores.

[Nebu]

I worked at Best Buy in the 80's and refused to buy stock when they went public because I thought they were run by a bunch of mindless idiots. 

Since this time, I no longer speculate in matters of business.

[geldonyetich2]

I don't know about Best Buy in the 80s, but walking into one of their stores today, I see a squad of headset-equipped sales stormtroopers patrolling every square inch of the store.  Their mindless idiot days are past (although who knows what the future may hold).

[Soukyan]

Their mindless idiot days are past.

I disagree.

[Llava]

While Circuit City frequently offers pretty good deals on things, their selection isn't nearly as wide as Best Buy's.  Meanwhile, CompUSA had neither the selection nor the good prices.

I remember looking at prices in dedicated CD stores at the mall and thinking to myself "There's a Best Buy across the street where I could get this exact CD for 75% of this price.  Yeah, cya."

I can't do that anymore, because those stores went out of business.

[rattran]

I stopped in the local one today. I'd been in there a few days ago (before the closing sale started) so I knew what some stuff was priced at. Many, many things had been marked up about 15%, then 10% off.
I pointed this fact out to the manager, he said it wasn't his call, word came down from corporate how things would be done, and that as soon as he found anything else, he was out of there. Also said they're looking at a 2 week schedule for price drops, to try to milk xmas sales at the 5%-20% level.

[Murgos]

I was looking over their prices online (for notebooks) today while comparison shopping with other places.

Their 'Clearance' prices are absolute ass.  Higher than most places normal prices.  So, I'm not at all surprised by rattran's observation.

[CharlieMopps]

I stopped by to see if they had anything worthwhile:
1 Gig memory stick: Normally $49.95 Marked down to $44.95
Wow... what a deal...

I absolutely despised that store, and am very happy to see it go away. I once went there to get a USB extension cord for my wifes mouse. They wanted $29.99 for a 4ft cord. Sitting right next to the extension cord was a wireless mouse for $19.95

Idiots...

[Krakrok]

Not a deal in sight. I'm thinking they may mark stuff down more New Years week. I ended up getting Medieval II: Total War for $38 after tax which wasn't really a deal (about equal with GoGamer and Amazon) but it was cheaper than any of the other crap they were trying to offload.

[CharlieMopps]

I thought I should let you all in on how CompUSA is going to play this...

I just stopped back in because they had a new sign "15%-30% on ALL Merchandise!"

Well... first thing I noticed was all the 5% off signs on things. So the front banner was a lie... ok...

But the real kicker was when I noticed things I had seen last time I stopped in... Everything had new price tags.... I was like "WTF?"

They raised the price of every damned thing in the store before the sale. Last week when I was in Vanguard was there for $29.99... now its $39.99... Last week it was 10% off and now it's 15%  Even with the extra 5% it's more expensive now.

I don't know about everywhere else, but that's illegal in my state. A toy store got shut down a few years ago for that. But I guess they figure they wont be around to face any fines.

[Salamok]

Their mindless idiot days are past.

I disagree.

QFT, for some reason (shit pay for a shit job maybe) the underpants gnome logic doesn't seem to be working for Best Buy.

step 1 = headset
step 2 =
step 3 = not a mindless idiot

[Nebu]

I stopped by to see if they had anything worthwhile:
1 Gig memory stick: Normally $49.95 Marked down to $44.95
Wow... what a deal...

2 gig at best buy = $29.95

No wonder they're going out of business.

[diivox]

i work at compusa, im holding on for my severance (weeks pay + $1.50 for every hour we worked since they anounced the closing of the store, in case you are wondering). yeah, im poor, and could use the extra cash. i keep giving away my shifts while i look for a better job, and as im sure you can imagine morale is absolute ass. my answer to customers is always "I havent the slightest idea" pretty much regardless of what the question is.

so yeah, prices didnt actually go up, its just that compusa doesnt have any direct contact with manufacturers anymore, so the manufacturer rebates cant be printed out in store. do your homework on the products you buy, and you can save a ton of money. you can still get the rebate from the mfg you just arent getting it as a reciept from the register.

i am pretty sure the price cuts are on a location by location basis based on what is actually selling at that location. a few stores are already done, and most will be done by late jan early feb.

[Krakrok]

They had people standing on all the street corners w/ up to 30% off signs (fixtures too) on Friday. I bet the prices are still more than anywhere else.

Edit: The compusa.com site got bought by the company that owns Tigerdirect it looks like.

Edit 2: Still no deals. Only things I saw were a 24" Acer for $379, some cheap projectors at 25% off (which weren't a deal because they were floor models), and Q6600 machines which were normal price at $807.

[diivox]

i kinda wish they would make me a sign carrying guy. honestly. its like 12 or 13 bucks an hour to stand there and listen to your ipod. i was a technician but tech shop got shut down inside of a week of the store anouncing it was closing. they got me working as a cashier now. I answer the same 3 questions all day - "no i dont know exactly when the store is closing, yes its every compusa nationwide, and we are closing because, umm, i assume we werent making enough money (wtf, do they shut down entire chains cuz they are too profitable???)"

in our store, it is pretty slow, it seems like everyone is just waiting for the last round of price cuts to buy up whats left. its pretty amusing how they are selling everything from the register tape to the registers themselves, to the little screen wipes we gave away when someone purchased an extended warranty (49 cents!). hell the demagnetizer that keeps the door alarm from going off (which is the same system as used in circuit city) is on sale for $300 bucks. the liquidators are really going balls to the wall on milking the store for absolutely every penny.

[Merusk]

Start telling people you're closing because the peso is gaining strength against the dollar, so the Mexican Billionare who owns CompUSA decided to move all the product home.