CompUSA is managing to screw up their going-out-of-business sale
December 23, 2007It’s becoming oh-so-clear why CompUSA is going out of business in the first place — they don’t know how to handle a sale. I mean really, they’re going out of business right during the height of the consumer orgy known as Christmas. Meaning their competitors like Best Buy, the guys who beat them in the first place, are having big sales and promotions and drawing in the crowds.
So what does CompUSA do? They put up half-assed discounts, like 10% off the lame selection of video games. I mean really, Best Buy has so much better selection why would I go to CompUSA unless they’re offering a real bargain? Ten percent off on such a weak selection is not the draw that’s going to get people into the store.
And while Circuit City has a couple cheap notebook PC’s discounted to under $500, what does CompUSA do? Give you tepid 5% discount. On prices that were too high to begin with which is why nobody was buying from CompUSA. Again, they should be discounting agressively now, to get people when they’re in the spedning mood.
And seriously, what the hell is up with the security guard at the checkout? Clearly the company doesn’t trust their own employees or their own customers — there’s a guard who double-checks your sales slip on the way out. Funny thing is, at the CompUSA here in Louisville the exit is like two steps away from the cashiers. So you basically pay, then turn around and hand the guard the receipt that he just saw you pick up at the cashier two feet away. What the hell is the point of that? It slows down exiting, and doesn’t add one iota of real loss prevention.
It was discouraging enough that I’m probably not going back. Not even in a couple weeks when they finally start doing the real discounting. Of course by then people will be broke, since they’re spending all their money now in the pre-Christmas timeframe. So once again CompUSA is shooting themselves in the foot, because they’re holding the big sale right when folks are too poor to buy the stuff.
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I suspected CompUSA was toast about a year ago when they reduced the basic rate of my reseller discount (and laid off the sales agent who’d recruited my business). When you refuse any measurable discount to a local reseller buying $80K of product a year, you know something’s wrong.
Basically the business sales desk ended up being just another checkout lane. Lame.
It’s a shame. I’ve been buying computer parts from a store in that location (I think it was Computer City before it became CompUSA) since 1993 or so. But I’ll just use two of the city’s remaining independents, now, instead.
Rex: I totally agree. The funny thing is when Good guys went out of business , CompUSA took alot of their assets. Retail is a tough business to be in. I work with alot of retailers on their advertising campaigns.
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