I heard some rumors over the weekend, and now TechCrunch is reporting that CompUSA is shutting down. Good.
They shut down the store nearest me in Maryland a while back. It was replaced by a Micro Center, a chain I had never heard of.
To put it simply, they nailed it. A haven for both geeks and non-geeks. The place is clean, and well stocked with anything you would ever need. The staff is helpful and friendly (they have a novel system for ensuring that). A far cry from CompUSA.
What is more interesting for me is the promotional tactics used to get people in the store. They mailed almost everyone in the area a coupon for a free branded thumb drive or memory card. Just for walking in the door. I had no interest previously in checking out the store, but it got me in there. And I’ve since spent a ridiculous amount of money there, so it worked for them! I’ve seen tactics like that before, but on top of the coupon they sent to you, they attached a similar companion coupon to give to a friend. That’s awesome. What a great viral way to have people advertise for you.
They have done a great job of keeping people visiting brick and mortar stores, and their approach will hopefully be echoed by other chains.
And, especially important for me, their return policy is awesome :-).
Microcenter here in Fairfax is geek nirvana. They open at 10am on Saturday mornings. About a year ago I was heading there to buy something and rolled into the parking lot at 9:45am. There were already 20+ people waiting outside.
And their clerks actually know something… In the last three years, I’ve bought probably $3k+ stuff from them, even a few times when the price was better online.