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Clearance Sale

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By JEROME R. STOCKFISCH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 1, 2008

Updated: 12/31/2007 08:55 pm

TAMPA - Those who waited for post-holiday discounts to buy computers and other gadgets might hit pay dirt as the venerable CompUSA chain clears its shelves.

The Dallas-based retailer announced last month that it would shut down its 103 stores, including four in the Tampa Bay area. CompUSA has not disclosed specific closing dates, but the company Web site states that the clearance sale should last no longer than eight weeks, which would be late January or early February.

The retailer was acquired by an affiliate of Gordon Bros. Group, a restructuring and liquidation specialist.

This week, a store in Tampa was offering 5 percent off laptops, 10 percent off audio gear, and 15 percent off high-definition televisions and software. Discounts are expected to deepen as the sale proceeds.

Launched in 1984, CompUSA is credited as being among the retailers that helped take the once-exotic personal computer into the mainstream. However, critics and posters to tech message boards had a litany of complaints about the chain, from poor service to high prices.

"A big retailer like that, you would think it would be an ideal place for our readers to go, and that they would be positively inclined toward a business like that," said Scott Wasson, editor in chief of TechReport.com.

That hasn't been the case among the more sophisticated computer users, who are flocking online to order tech gear, Wasson said. Brick-and-mortar tech retailing "has been a very bad situation," he said.

"I would go in to CompUSA and I would view what they had, and it would be a small subset of what you could find online. It wasn't always the best stuff, and it wasn't the best price."

That may not bode well for CompUSA's competition, he said.

"I would hesitate to predict the future of those big box stores," Wasson said. He credited Best Buy and Circuit City for the diversity of their products and for catering to less sophisticated computer users. However, he said, "As time goes on, I wouldn't want to be investing in those companies."
CompUSA was also considered the go-to source for Apple Mac fans before Apple entered the retail market with its own stores, a move that may have hastened CompUSA's demise.

"The retail experience you have at an Apple store is just great," said Jim Dalrymple, news director at MacWorld magazine. Even CompUSA's store-within-a-store Apple concept "just wasn't the same experience," Dalrymple said.

Analysts say CompUSA may have suffered from complacency and lost its lead as it failed to recognize emerging technologies such as video gaming. Wasson said that the chain recently made a push into high-definition television. "It seemed like not necessarily such a good fit, to start selling televisions when they weren't doing too well selling computers," he said.
CompUSA referred inquiries to the liquidation specialist, which declined to elaborate beyond a company statement.

Complaints about poor service and inexperienced staff didn't resonate across the board locally. Last week, Jacob Hammond of Lutz snagged an iPod case at 30 percent off at the CompUSA at 701 N. Dale Mabry Highway. He considered himself a regular customer and had no such problems. "I don't know what happened," the 16-year-old said as he made what might be his last excursion to the store.

Tim Spero of Tampa snapped up a 1 terabyte external computer drive at a discount. "It was a pretty good deal to begin with," he said of the $299 drive. "Then I got another 10 percent off."

Spero said he didn't notice any decline in the store, but speculated that the ability to order online and then pick up merchandise at the big-box outlets might have been a setback to CompUSA.

The chain was acquired and taken private by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu in 2000. He reportedly sank some $2 billion into the stores attempting a turnaround. More than half of the CompUSA sites were shuttered this spring.

Reporter Jerome R. Stockfisch can be reached at (813) 259-8402 or jstockfisch

LOCAL STORES

Find CompUSA stores at:

TAMPA

3617 W. Hillsborough Ave.

701 N. Dale Mabry Highway

CLEARWATER

23656 U.S. 19 N

BRANDON

1211 Causeway Blvd.

ON THE WEB

Visit www.compusaconsumerhelp .com for information regarding warranties, gift cards, rebates and service.

@tampatrib.com.

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