CompUSA to close more than half of U.S. stores

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Let?s face it. Comp IS a victim of a much-changed consumer technology market. Consumer technology purchasers consist of two types of people. To oversimplify? (1) The ENTHUSIAST. These folks are ?really into? their technology. These are the people who are interested in the way their technology products really work. They are usually (but not always) early adopters who want to have the latest and greatest that they can afford to buy. Hell, sometimes we are such nerds that we even build our own computers ? did I say ?we? ? (2) The second group, JOE, consists of those who are shopping for the last thing they saw hyped on the evening news or in the latest paper ad or flyer. They don?t care how it works, or even if it works very well. They just want it, but they are at least savvy enough to shop for the best price they can find (many don?t even care about the price).
Enter the retailers. JOE can shop just about anywhere, but ten (or more) years ago the ENTHUSIAST had a limited choice in where to shop. There were the department stores? enough said. There were the brick and mortar ?catalog? stores? enough said. There was Circuit City which rarely had anything near ?enthusiast? quality. There was the occasional Micro Center (which I personally, still shop in Vienna, VA). There were of course internet and mail or phone order warehouses ? but far fewer than there are today ? and their web sites were awful. Then there was Comp. Comp was one of the few places you could literally get your hands on enthusiast products. It was a store where you could actually hold a part, turn it around, upside down, check to see if had the port or the adapter you needed, etc., etc.
Now JOE still has the department store for his Ipod or whatever the Apple ?I? of the week is. Now the ENTHUSIAST has tons more places to go for his fix. Primarily he can go to the internet for incredibly improved selections, prices, product specs and descriptions. Add to this, the fact that Best Buy, Circuit City, Office Depot and Staples are on nearly every corner and are doing a better job at handling the ENTHUSIAST (admittedly not exactly at the ?cutting edge?) and you can imagine why CompUSA has a dwindling market share. Then they go and start to abandon their market niche by trying to be more like Best Buy. Go figure.

Posted by: chapy2   Posted on: 03/12/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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