CompUSA is back (sort of)
If your memories of tech childhood include trips to CompUSA to browse through the aisles of goodies that by the time you could afford them would be obsolete, well, welcome to my world.
TL;DR – CompUSA brand is back, now owned by DealCentral
CompUSA, for those who weren’t around them, was a small warehouse of goods that simply could not compete with the rise of Internet shopping. They had to have a pretty heft markup to pay for the huge space, but most people just didn’t want to pay that markup and were fine with waiting a couple of days.
But it was pretty great if you needed something right that instant.
CompUSA was founded in 1984 in Addison TX, started its expansion in 88, became publicly traded in 91, and had a whole lot of history before I started wandering the aisles of their Cool Springs location.
The new incarnation of CompUSA can be found at CompUSA.com. The new business model appears to not be selling so much as directing people to reviews, deals, etc. They’ve hired deal hunters, an editorial team, and bought a name. So we’ll see how that goes.
Taking over a name after another company has failed with it is not an easy task, and whether this CompUSA will be any bit different from DealCentral remains to be seen. I think they’re counting on tech nostalgia like I have to start their reboot, but honestly most of my tech nostalgia involves remembering how utterly bad and shoddy most computer equipment was back in the day.
Man I had a lot of returns (not CompUSA’s fault, nor mine.)
So yeah, anyway, it’s a thing again.
Got any memories from the stores to share? Comment below. Think I’m asking you to comment below to spawn user engagement and that it’s a cheap trick bloggers use to gain SEO from being talked about? Comment below.
Actually I’m just remembering the smell of the place as you walked in – somewhere between cheap plastic, something that had burned (usually a power supply on the bench,) and too much hair product, but that may just be the era.
