Reborn CompUSA (from Dallas Star-Telegram)
CompUSA is back — with an Internet-linked, in-store system that gives customers instant product information, including videos, and then allows them to compare prices charged by rivals.
The chain opened a new store in Euless in February and plans another in about a month in Arlington near Interstate 20 and Cooper Street.
It’s been a choppy ride for the 26-year-old consumer electronics retailer. Once known as Software Warehouse, it went public in 1991, acquired Tandy Corp.’s Computer City chain 12 years ago and then took over California-based The Good Guys chain in 2003.
But it struggled to make profits as fierce competition ate into margins. Not even Mexico’s renowned investor Carlos Slim — Forbes magazine’s richest man in the world — could salvage the ailing chain after investing over $3 billion.
Systemax, a publicly traded Long Island-based company that owns TigerDirect.com, an online electronics retailer, bought the CompUSA brand and 16 stores, including ones in Plano and El Paso, in early 2008 from a liquidator. Just the year before, CompUSA had operated 229 outlets nationally and employed 1,500 in North Texas alone.
Read MoreCompUSA Opening Three New Stores Featuring Retail 2.0
CompUSA® today announced the opening of three new retail stores: Houston, TX, Newark, DE, and Euless, TX. These new openings make a total of 32 CompUSA stores in the United States and Puerto Rico, each complete with “Retail 2.0®,” CompUSA’s powerful new shopping method.
“CompUSA is thrilled to be opening new stores in these markets. We look forward to providing shoppers not only with great deals on computers, HDTVs, components, and other consumer electronics, but offering them the chance to experience a completely new approach to retail shopping with Retail 2.0,” according to a company representative
Read MoreChicago Tribune Reports on Retail 2.0 in Chicago
Chicago is a-buzz about the forthcoming CompUSA to be located in the downtown area of Chicago. This store is not your average CompUSA, it’s going to be nearly 35,000 sq. feet in size and will feature Retail 2.0 technology throughout. The Chicago Tribune visited the CompUSA Retail 2.0 demo during CES 2010 and reported on the upcoming store opening and Retail 2.0.
Read MoreCompUSA … is rebooting the stores through an interactive shopping concept called Retail 2.0 and will be opening its biggest location in the country in Chicago next month.
At the new stores, in-aisle displays come with scanners, monitors and keyboards. When a shopper scans a product, a Web page appears with detailed product information and recommendations based on local inventory and what’s physically available at that store. The terminals also are open to the full Web, allowing shoppers to check their e-mail, update their Facebook account and check competitors’ sites for better deals. The retailer is ready to take that risk.