Farewell, CompUSA
December 10, 2007I’m going to miss CompUSA. The chain got sold to a company that plans to liquidate the retail stores while also trying to sell off related buisnesses like the CompUSA.com e-commerce site.
It’s not like CompUSA was ever my first choice for buying computers and electronics. But what I liked was their location — the Louisville store is right next to Barnes & Noble. So I could drop into the bookstore for some browsing and maybe a hot chocolate in the cafe. Then wander over to CompUSA to pick up some blank DVD’s or whatever electronic ephemera I happened to need.
On top of that their store is much closer to my house than either Circuit City or Best Buy. So now when I do need to pick up computer supplies I’ll have to drive farther.
I’m old enough that I remember when their stores first started popping up everywhere in the early 90’s. For a while it looked like they and Tandy’s Computer City chain were going to become the two dominant computer retailers. But what both chains missed was the inflection point where digital media became the driving force in electronics, not computers. That’s where the Circuit City and Best Buy chains dominated, it was easier for those chains to expand their computer offerings than for Computer City and CompUSA to expand their non-computer stuff (CD’s, digital audio, etc.).
Computer City bit the dust a while ago, it looked like without that competition CompUSA might be able to find a niche and thrive. Navigate into a geekier market than what Circuit City and Best Buy catered to. But then of course the Internet took off and those geeks started buying their stuff online. So that market dried up as well for CompUSA.
I don’t know that even with perfect management they could have survived the various market upheavals. I am going to drop by during their inevitable going-out-of-business sale. Even if I don’t end up buying anything, just for old time’s sake.