The Comp USA chain of stores were sold off to Gordon Brothers Group LLC, a liquidator that specializes in business closures and sales. The entire chain will be closed with some of the stores sold off to other retailers. Speculation is that this Honolulu location will be one of the stores sold instead of totally shutting down.
Nevertheless, there will be "Going Out of Business" sales at all stores, though at my visit yesterday, prices were more or less the same as they always were. I expect deep discounts to start showing up as we get closer to the Christmas holiday and most definitely after that if the stores are still open. The consumer vultures have already started to circle the dying carcass of this once thriving retailer.
I've had mixed experiences with Comp USA. The worst thing that happened to me at this store was back on the last day of the year 2000. I received a $100 gift certificate as a Christmas gift and went to the store to redeem it on the purchase of my first digital camera. I was using the certificate as a discount to the amount that I would pay for the camera in cash. When the certificate was passed thru the check-out, it came up as "invalid". Surely the person who gave it to me did so in good faith. After all he paid for it.
After wrangling with the sales clerk and then finally the store manager or supervisor, I got them to call the person who gave this to me. Luckily the person had saved the receipt and somehow he either faxed it over to Comp USA to prove that the certificate was legit. Apparently the clerk that had checked him out probably forgot to validate the thing after purchase, which left me the hapless recipient, stuck in a bind.
The problem took about a half hour to remedy at which point I was probably stressed out and vowed not to buy anything big from this store ever again.... which I more or less did. No large computer or other electronic component was ever purchased by me at Comp USA since this incident. I limited my Comp USA purchases mainly to blank media (CDs) and other small items.
Will I miss Comp USA? Probably not. I prefer to go to BestBuy these days and being a Macintosh owner and user, I usually end up at the Apple Store or local retailer MacMouse Club which is just up the street from Comp USA.
Photo: Comp USA Honolulu taken on Dec. 10, 2007. More photos at this link.
1 comment:
Well I bought a 19" Sony FlatScreen with a U$60 rebate that I never got it back. I complained to the CompUSA management and they never cared. I also bought a PC game that never worked and they refused to exchange after I showed receipts of big shopping the day before. The management never gave an appropriate customer service.I liked the store but I hated the unflexible managers.Unfortunately this nice store in San Francisco is closing and will leave a lot of unemployed dedicated employees.
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