New CompUSA

I was pleasantly surprised today.

A "new" CompUSA opened up near my house a while back. I decided to visit today, expecting it to be craptastic like the CompUSA of years past.

I was shocked. It seemed to be very oriented toward people that might build their own pcs. There were the usual laptops and desktops, but I was surprised at the sheer amount of component that were available. I don't know if I missed it or what, but I didn't see any software at all in the place. They had an entire row of video cards, and they were organized way better than Fry's does the same...

The prices, while not as good as you might get at some places online, looked very reasonable.

Finally I can stop driving out to Fry's, which I loathe because of the annoying setup.

Anyone else been to one of these yet?

MS

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Comments

shaqazoolu

We had one here throughout my college years but Best Buy moved in down the road and they shut down. I wish they would reopen in the format that you describe...although it's probably better for my bank account if they don't.

Plantwiz

Not too many locations just yet:
CompUSA.com Retail Store Locator

I've always hated compusa as I found their store employees incompetent and their prices WAY over priced from other local stores. Best Buy and Circuit City knocked them out...and that doesn't say much. The few mom-and-pop computer stores have survived and are my first choice if I'm stuck not able to wait for shipping a part in.

Maybe they've (compusa) figured out how to re-introduce themselves...we'll see.

Devilsbane

I used to shop there in the past. If nothing else its good to add some competition.

Claymoore

Many of the retail store locations were purchased by Tiger Direct when they bought the other CompUSA assests. It's good to have a retail location nearby that focuses on the builder/modder in case you need some parts on short notice.

alan2308

Claymoore wrote: »

Many of the retail store locations were purchased by Tiger Direct when they bought the other CompUSA assests. It's good to have a retail location nearby that focuses on the builder/modder in case you need some parts on short notice.

It was actually Systemax that bought them. Systemax also owns Tiger Direct, Circuit City, and other brands.

eMeS

Plantwiz wrote: »

I've always hated compusa as I found their store employees incompetent and their prices WAY over priced from other local stores. Best Buy and Circuit City knocked them out...and that doesn't say much. The few mom-and-pop computer stores have survived and are my first choice if I'm stuck not able to wait for shipping a part in.

Agree...that place was a waste of time. Even when they were going out of business, their clearance sales were way too pricey.

My experience there today was totally different though...it seemed very techie-oriented.

Despite the knucklehead at the front-door that demanded to shake my hand (I'm not a real touching strangers kind of guy) it was a good experience.

I'll be heading back there soon vs. driving the 20+ miles to one of 3 Fry's in the area.

MS

varelg

phoeneous wrote: »

I used to work at CompUSA from 97-00. It was my favorite pre-IT job. I couldn't wait until payday because I would buy all kinds of goodies. We had this huge win 98 release party in the winter. The press was there, and Santa too! Sometimes I miss working there, life was so much simpler then...

Oh man, reading this I could almost hear Christmass bells ringing

Imagine, the new CompUSA even has a corner for unlocked smartphones! Prices great too. They made BestBuy look like the new old CompUSA? I guess we all noticed BestBuy would put a piece of hardware in their stores only if it's above certain price...

blargoe

Is CompUSA making a comeback? We used to have one in a nearby city that I really didn't like that much, but it was handy if I needed parts at like 8:45 in the evening or something.

alan2308

blargoe wrote: »

Is CompUSA making a comeback? We used to have one in a nearby city that I really didn't like that much, but it was handy if I needed parts at like 8:45 in the evening or something.

It looks like it, they're up to 6 states now. But as we discussed earlier, this CompUSA is related to the old CompUSA in name only.

veritas_libertas

None near me

NetAdmin2436

Oh wow, I didn't think they were still around. We had one very close to us close up shop a few years ago. I prefer Microcenter, but that's a 45 min drive. CompUSA did come in handy a few times during emergencies. Emergencies, ya know, when a company has no budget for IT and then a 6 year old switch finally dies at 8 am and takes down the network and needs to be replaced ASAP.

cbigbrick

NetAdmin2436 wrote: »

Oh wow, I didn't think they were still around. We had one very close to us close up shop a few years ago. I prefer Microcenter, but that's a 45 min drive. CompUSA did come in handy a few times during emergencies. Emergencies, ya know, when a company has no budget for IT and then a 6 year old switch finally dies at 8 am and takes down the network and needs to be replaced ASAP.

+1 on Microcenter. Luck me there's one right down the street. As a matter of fact, I need to get a 24" monitor. hhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmm??

dorawe

TigerDirect is my favorite, and their delivery times are awesome, unless of course you need it yesterday.....

snadam

We had a few in the Phoenix metro area, but since yanked them. The one I visited is now, ironically, a Best Buy (and a crappy one at that). It will be nice to see another computer store in the area if it happens.

eMeS

I'm going to revise my recommendation here.

I received a new phone last night, and wanted a new MicroSD card for it, so I decided that given this recent recommendation that CompUSA would get my business.

I was sorely disappointed. The highest capacity card they had was only 4GB.

Seriously, I can get a higher capacity MicroSD card at target....

MS

Paul Boz

We had two in Baton Rouge but Best Buy promptly put them out of business.

msteinhilber

I despised CompUSA before they were bought out. The prior company I worked for, which was a small local whitebox OEM and repair shop supplied CompUSA's throughout the nation with a considerable amount of whitebox CTO computers. These were to be (and were labeled as such) a brand not associated with our retail brand. There happened to be a CompUSA in the same city as the local branch of said company which I managed. The CompUSA employees caught wind somehow that my firm was the one who built the machines and would often send their customers my way for support and repair requests after they said "well talk to these guys, they built them" rather than sending them to the proper support lines which were branded for their private-label.

Even a discussion with their (arrogant) general manager was basically met with laughter and he stated he told his employees to refer them to my branch. Sorry, but your firm paid bottom tier pricing for whitebox pc's that should get big-box store style product support. If your customers want carry-in local store type support where warranties are handled local same day or overnight then you pay the local PC shop price premium. Doesn't work both ways. That and other issues with the arrogance of the "I'm a large customer so you'll do as we please or else" mentality we got from them pretty much lead to us firing CompUSA as a customer - simply wasn't worth it after a few years as things got worse.