CompUSA, Inc. is a retailer and reseller of consumer electronics, technology products and computer services. CompUSA serves consumer retail, small-to-medium businesses, corporate, government and education customers. Founded in 1983 and based in Addison, Texas (a northern suburb of Dallas), CompUSA currently operates 103 stores in markets across the United States and Puerto Rico. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... A private company is a company that is independently owned. ... This article is about the year. ... Image:Addison Flag. ... Image:Addison Flag. ... Carlos Slim in Brazil. ... A drawing of a self-service store Retailing consists of the sale of goods/merchandise for personal or household consumption either from a fixed location such as a department store or kiosk, or away from a fixed location and related subordinated services (Definition of the WTO (last page). ... This article is about the engineering discipline. ... For the tax agency in Ireland of the same name, see Revenue Commissioners. ... USD redirects here. ... This article is about work. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML... A drawing of a self-service store Retailing consists of the sale of goods/merchandise for personal or household consumption either from a fixed location such as a department store or kiosk, or away from a fixed location and related subordinated services (Definition of the WTO (last page). ... Consumer electronics is a term used to describe the category of electronic equipment intended for everyday use by people, the consumers. ... By the mid 20th century humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the surface of the Earth for the first time and explore space. ... This article is about the machine. ... Image:Addison Flag. ... For other uses, see Texas (disambiguation). ... Dallas redirects here. ...

CompUSA, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Commercial Corp S.A.B. de C.V.^[1], which is indirectly controlled by a common shareholder, Carlos Slim. U.S. Commercial trades on Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (Mexican Stock Exchange) as USCOMBI. A subsidiary, in business, is an entity that is controlled by another entity. ... Carlos Slim Helú (born January 28, 1940 in Mexico City) is a Mexican businessman of Lebanese Arab heritage[2] and the worlds richest person as of August 2007, according to Fortune magazine and the Wall Street Journal. ... The Bolsa Mexicana de Valores or BMV is Mexicos main stock exchange. ...

CompUSA's retail Web site offers an assortment of over 19,000 products and the ability to schedule technology services and training sessions. Businesses may order from a catalog containing more than 573,000 products as well as select from over 133,700 online products. Drawing of a self-service store. ... By the mid 20th century humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the surface of the Earth for the first time and explore space. ... Training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relates to specific useful skills. ... Look up catalogue in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

CompUSA's sales team now works under a combination of hourly pay and commission.

History

• 1984 - Founded as Soft Warehouse in Addison, Texas, selling direct to business customers.
• 1985 - Opened first retail store.
• 1988 - Opened first Southern California stores.
• 1988 - Opened first Computer Superstore.
• 1991 - Changed name to CompUSA.
• 1993 - Began offering technical services at customer locations.
• 1996 - Launched retail sales on CompUSA.com.
• 1997 - Filed for bankruptcy
• 1998 - Acquired Tandy's Computer City subsidiary.
• 2000 - Became privately-held company under Mexican retail company, Grupo Sanborns.
• 2003 - Acquired Good Guys.^[2]
• 2005 - Converted three CompUSA stores and 13 Good Guys stores into "megastores." Closed all 46 Good Guys locations. Began marketing in California and Hawaii as "CompUSA with Good Guys Inside" (in response to Best Buy's marketing campaign "with Magnolia Inside").
• 2006 - Announced the closing of 15 stores across the United States including several locations in California; these stores are being used to liquidate discontinued items from other stores across the nation until the end of October. Roman Ross, a former Phillip Morris executive, replaced Tony Weiss as president and CEO after only four months in office. In November 2006, CompUSA launched their new "Home Entertainment" Rollout in 40 of its stores (including Puerto Rico), who now sell a variety of High Definition Televisions and Home Theater equipment. Roman Ross claims that Home Entertainment is one of his chief focuses as the new CEO.^[3] Press reported that CompUSA's Mexican parent Grupo Carso was interested in putting CompUSA up for sale.^[4]
• 2007 - Announces the closing and liquidation of 126 stores due to "..need to close and sell stores with low performance or non strategic, old store layouts and locations faced with market saturation" Roman Ross CEO. ^[5]. The realignment includes a $440,000,000 cash infusion, store closures, major expense reductions and a corporate restructuring.
• 2007, May 14 - CompUSA ends the liquidation sale and finalizes the 126 store closures.
• 2007, May 27 - Annual General Manager Meeting brings talks of 56 store closings to the table, the corporate officers present refuted the claim.
• 2007, August through December - Gabriela Villalobos, EVP, makes her stops through all of the 103 operational stores to evaluate the functionality of each since the store closures.

Tandy Corporation is the former name of the parent company of RadioShack Corporation, a Fort Worth, Texas-based company best known for its RadioShack electronics stores. ... In Mexico, few companies are as steeped in history as Grupo Sanborns. ... (This article focuses on the hostage crisis event that took place at a Good Guys! retail store in 1991. ... For the defunct chain of catalog showrooms, see Best Products. ... Altria Group, Inc. ...

Current Rumors

• 2007 - Internal rumors floating around that CompUSA as a whole is to close after the holiday season.
• 2007 - Rumors surface of up to 20 stores being bought out by Tiger Direct as other rumors state that the Technical Services department will be bought out across the country by Circuit City. By chance, the EVP of Circuit City's Technical Services "FireDog" is ran by former CompUSA Tech Services President Carin Falconer. Company's employees await "Big Announcement" slated for Friday, December 7, 2007.

The CompUSA Network

In 2005, CompUSA started a customer loyalty program called The CompUSA Network. For every dollar spent at any CompUSA store, the customer received 13 points. Rewards included an Epson photo printer and a Canon Digital Rebel SLR digital camera. However, in June 2006, sales of The CompUSA Network membership cards were suspended pending further investigation onto the operation's effect on customer retention and "program awareness among low-visit customers."

On August 24, 2006, CompUSA announced the end of the Network Reward program. All customers were notified of this and issued coupons for the remaining reward value, as well as their original purchase price. They were also offered a refund of the original purchase price in the original form of payment, however this option removed any remaining reward points.

Controversies

Product rebate offers

On March 11, 2005, the Federal Trade Commission settled charges against CompUSA on the issue of rebate problems. The FTC alleged that CompUSA engaged in deceptive and unfair practices relating to rebate offers made for both its own branded products and QPS products. CompUSA paid no additional fine and only had to pay out any cash rebates that it owed, unless it had substantiation for errorenous rebate claim.^[6] is the 70th day of the year (71st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... | logo_caption = | seal = US-FederalTradeCommission-Seal. ... For other uses, see rebate (disambiguation). ...

CompUSA-owned brands

• Norwood Micro
• Master Power
• CompUSA PC

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with CompUSA. (Discuss) A Norwood Micro TV Tuner Norwood Micro is CompUSAs in-store brand, which is mostly used to market computer accessories. ...

Slogans

• "The Computer Superstore." (1997 - May 2003)
• "Where America Buys Technology." (May 2003 - July 2005)
• "We got it. We get it." (July 2005 - present)

Puerto Rico slogans

• "Where Puerto Rico Buys Technology." (May 2003 - July 2005)
• "Lo Tenemos. Lo Entendemos." (Translation: "We have it. We understand it," essentially a Spanish translation of the current US slogan.) (July 2005 - present)

Closings

On or immediately before February 28th, 2007, CompUSA retained the services of Gordon Brothers, a company that specializes in liquidation, for the purposes of closing 126 stores nationwide.^[7] The closing locations were chosen based upon their overall performance, profitability, and proximity to more successful competitors such as Best Buy, Fry's and Circuit City. Among the CompUSA stores that were liquidated, were every Long Island location, every store in New Jersey (except the Mount Laurel store), all of the stores in the Chicago area (downtown Chicago, Schaumburg, and Skokie), all Minnesota locations, two Florida locations (including one of the two Miami locations), all locations in Missouri, over two-thirds of stores in California, including all stores in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas (except Santa Barbara), all stores in Michigan (except the Lansing Superstore), all stores in the Washington DC area (except Columbia, MD), all the stores in Georgia (except the Augusta Superstore), stores in the Philadelphia Area, all stores in Western Washington, all stores in Phoenix, the Columbus, Ohio location, the Milwaukee area store in Brookfield, and a majority of stores in the Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston, Texas area. Winding up redirects here. ... For the defunct chain of catalog showrooms, see Best Products. ... Frys Electronics is a specialty retailer of software, consumer electronics, computer hardware and household appliances with a chain of superstores headquartered in Silicon Valley. ... Circuit City (NYSE: CC) is a dealer and retailer in brand-name consumer electronics, personal computers, and entertainment software. ... This article is about the island in New York State. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Mount Laurel Township highlighted in Burlington County. ... Chicagoland redirects here. ... The Loop is what locals call the historical center of downtown Chicago. ... Coordinates: , Incorporated March 7, 1956 Government  - Village President Al Larson Area  - Village 49. ... Skokie is a village located in Cook County, Illinois. ... Capital Saint Paul Largest city Minneapolis Area  Ranked 12th  - Total 87,014 sq mi (225,365 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 400 miles (645 km)  - % water 8. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Florida. ... Miami redirects here. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Los Angeles and L.A. redirect here. ... San Diego redirects here. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... Lansing is the name of several places in the United States of America: Lansing, Illinois Lansing, Kansas Lansing, Michigan Lansing (town), New York Lansing, North Carolina Lansing, Iowa Lansing is the name of several settlements: Lansing, a former settlement that is part of Toronto Lansing, West Virginia, north of Oak... The National Capital Region of the United States consists of Washington, D.C. and the surrounding counties and independent cities in Maryland and Virginia. ... Augusta is a city in the state of Georgia in the United States of America. ... For other uses, see Philadelphia (disambiguation) and Philly. ... Western Washington is a region of the United States defined as that part of Washington west of the Cascade Mountains. ... The Phoenix metropolitan area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, is a metropolitan area that includes the City of Phoenix, much of the rest of Maricopa County, a large section of Pinal County, and small parts of southern Yavapai County. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... Location in the state of Wisconsin The Milwaukee–Racine–Waukesha metropolitan area is an urban area that the U.S. Census Bureau defines as a Combined Statistical Area centered on the city of Milwaukee and had a population of 1,708,563 people as of the 2005 U.S. Census... See also: Brookfield (town), Wisconsin Brookfield is a city in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. ...

During the liquidation process, the stores typically offered discounts starting at 5 percent to 30 percent off of retail prices, ending at up to 90 to 95 percent. The liquidation process was completed on May 14th, 2007, and all stores were completely shuttered by the following Friday. At the time of the closings, there were internal rumors circulating that additional stores would possibly face closure.

CompUSA has also failed to negotiate an early terminations for the leases of some of the closed locations. One such store in Woodbury, MN, has an eviction notice posted on the front doors, stating the rent for Sept 2007 ($39,700) was not paid to building's owner, Robert Muir Company. ^{[8][verification needed]} It also claimed attempts to contact CompUSA Inc. were not answered. The building is leased through July 2011. The terms of the lease include a full buyout upon eviction or cancellation, meaning CompUSA will be forced to payout nearly $1.8 million to buyout of the lease. ^{[9][verification needed]}

References

1. ^ http://wrightreports.ecnext.com/coms2/reportdesc_COMPANY_C484HN000
2. ^ "CompUSA To Buy Good Guys", About.com, September 29, 2003
3. ^ "CompUSA Names New CEO", Yahoo! Finance, September 1, 2006
4. ^ "CompUSA seeking buyer, paper says", CNN Money, September 13, 2006
5. ^ "CompUSA Announces Realignment Strategy", Press Release Feb, 2007
6. ^ "The Rebate Debate: Why Were They Late? FTC Settles Charges Against CompUSA", Federal Trade Commission, March 11, 2005
7. ^ http://www.CompUSA.com/locations/closing_stores.asp
8. ^ Robert Muir Company was my client for aerial photos in 1984. It hired me to photograph three areas in the Minneapolis/St.Paul area. The area East of I-494 where the former was CompUSA store was located, the Mall of America and Northtown Mall were in the photo package. The area east of I-494 was mostly undeveloped in 1984. Mall of America did not exist. It would not be unreasonable to accept that RMC would be the lessor to CompUSA in the St. Paul area East of I-494 and South of I-94 where the CUSA store was located. http://www.co.washington.mn.us/info_for_residents/courts_and_supporting_services/court_administration/
9. ^ Public Records: Stillwater, Washington County, MN

External links

• CompUSA company website
• CompUSA Puerto Rico website
• CompUSA Business Sales website
• The CompUSA Network website
• "The Gutting of CompUSA" Commentary by David Pogue