Here in Akron Ohio this is the only location within an hours drive to buy macs, mac software, or find someone who knows about macs / what printers are compatible, what external drives might be best and so on. They had a pretty nice area of the store devoted to Apple an a big sign in the window when the new iMacs were available. ...sure the prices were not the best, but i agree with the post about trying to find a ribbon cable at Best-Buy, Office Max or Staples (our only remaining computer/tech resellers in town).

they may have been mismanaged, but this buyout/consolidation/closing tactic of the ruthless "business" that bought them is nothing to be happy about in any situation. It reduces competition, puts people out of work, and in this case makes buying Apple products in a heavily populated region very difficult. Now that Dell is in Best-Buy throughout the country, and Apple can only be found in the limited Apple stores or online, people out shopping for a PC will end up with a low-end windows machine more often than before. There is really no doubt of this in my mind... I witnessed more than one new iMac getting carted out of our CompUSA this fall.

Well, I guess if you always know you'll like something, buying them online is nice and quaint. But some people actually like to touch, feel, and use a product before purchasing it. Makes knowing whether you'll like that mighty mouse a lot easier.

And some people must like it, since Apple's stores are all the place to be, aren't they.

CompUSA was c***. Buying stuff there was like buying aspirin at 7-Eleven... you paid out the a** for the convenience. I only ever used them if I needed something immediately and someone else was paying.

Yeah, why should convenience cost anything extra. I'd much rather order something online and wait 5-12 days for the free shipping for it to arrive, too. But sometimes need overcomes desires to save $5.

Best Buy will have a Apple store inside the store concept in all of their stores by the end of next year. They keep opening new stores everywhere and their online store is ever popular... Apple won't really suffer from this.

As for CompUSA; they sucked IMO. Their HR department always acted like a bully (that's what happens with non-public retailers I guess), their prices were ridiculous and lets not even get started with the rebates...

Now the only retailer will be Best Buy, and they are pitiful. They have always been hostile to Apple. Their anemic Apple display shows they haven't changed.

At least CompUSA had an Apple employee on duty to help the store within the store. After a while it was hard to find employees in other parts of the store, they were all over playing with the Macs or hanging with the Apple sales rep. He really helped Apple in Lexington Ky.

Chotty, that was a good one. But I hear you southern folks also have other quaint customs like incest and shooting people in malls. I guess if you're clean though...

t*******-udo, you old f***. Give up the touchy-feelie stuff. That approach only works for pedophiles. Apple's Stores are great to be in because the environment is hip and cool. You already know you're going to like that Mighty Mouse. You don't need to lick it first.

They may have had Mac mini-stores, but they were otherwise extremely hostile to Macs. The "store within a store" was usually tucked in the back corner, out of sight of most customers. They often carried badly outdated products. (I saw them trying to sell G4 Mac Minis for more than CoreDuo Minis!) And their employees would give you the evil eye if you tried to ask for anything for a Mac.

You already know you're going to like that Mighty Mouse. You don't need to lick it first.

Sorry, hated the mighty mouse from the moment I touched it. Right-clicking was a joke that never worked unless I specifically removed my left finger from the mouse (yeah, no carpal tunnel form that move). And the stupid little scroll ball that looks so much like a mouse ball and has the likelihood of the exact same issues (getting gunked up).

And it was twice as expensive as other bluetooth mice I looked at (which, BTW, I ended up buying at compusa, since I could actually try them out and see which felt right - did the same thing when trying to find a decent wireless keyboard that was laid out like a traditional keyboard, and not some multimedia user's wet dream).

Now that CompUSA is gone, we're getting comments about how great the BestBuy stores are going to be? Please. How is this going to be different than the Apple store in a store in compusa? Or, for that matter, why does anyone think it will work out any better this time vs. the last 27 times BestBuy tried selling Apple stuff.

Maybe apple should just go back to Sears or something.

Let's hope they don't shut those compusa's down, just imagine the number of spotty teenagers who now work there, who would be let out on the streets if they did.

do you really think apple would compromise on performance just to bring out a cheaper model,

plus sad to say, no matter how good a celeron processor is, the perception is that they are plainly c***, (and apple is all about perception...)

What's the point of buying the chain, just to close them?

No matter what you think of CompUseless, this is bad news for Apple and bad news for the US. Less competition = less incentive to perform.

My only hope is that other chains that are more Mac-friendly, like Fry's, will see this as an opportunity. Otherwise, computer users (PC too but particularly Mac users) will suffer.

...from CompUSA. The original Bondi Blue iMac. I won't miss them, but it's still kinda sad.

I bought my PowerMac G3 from them. Got my 7100 from the now defunct Computer City. I think when I walk into a store, the employees rush to update their resumes.

Oh, chucker, even worse then pimply kids loose in the wild might be that they start working at the apple store.

Every time I walked into CompUSA, I wondered how they stayed in business. As soon as Fry's came to our town, I knew CompUSA was in trouble.

I went to CompUSA during the last round of closings, to see if I could find any smoking deals on closeout merchandise. Their prices were a freaking JOKE. When a business is closing its doors, you expect to pick up merchandise at fire sale prices - say, half what you could buy it for elsewhere.

Well, guess what, their prices were about the same as what you'd pay at Fry's, maybe a bit lower in some cases. They were NOT 'going out of business' prices.

I'll echo what another commenter wrote: they were good for emergencies, when I needed a printer cartridge or other part right away and I didn't have time to order online and it wasn't worth the drive to Fry's Electronics to save a buck or two. And their store-in-a-store concept sucked, the salespeople didn't know s*** about Apple at my CompUSA.

this story says they are closing SOME physical stores and selling off the website. Huh? So they will remain a brick-and-mortar chain in some areas but not have a website with their name on it???? That only makes sense if you convert the remaining physical stores to some other brand.

Also I heard on NPR that they were closing ALL the stores. So which is it??? Who got it wrong?

I went to CompUSA during the last round of closings, to see if I could find any smoking deals on closeout merchandise. Their prices were a freaking JOKE. When a business is closing its doors, you expect to pick up merchandise at fire sale prices - say, half what you could buy it for elsewhere.

Maybe in your world they're supposed to have really cheap prices. But in the real world it doesn't work that way. They didn't need to sell anything off (since they weren't closing all stores), so they had the choice of shipping the stuff to other places. Also, the whole point of a 'going out of business' sale is to sucker people into the store with the thought of 'great deals' and con them into buying stuff.

Plus, they're not going out of business so you could save a boatload of cash. They're going out of business to save money. You don't do that by writing off 50% of your merchandise to save money for people who probably never patronized your store before and one of the reasons your closing now.

Let us all know when you decide to 'go out of business' so we can get smoking deals on your merchandise. None of that trying to make the most possible $$$ to help pay off your creditors, now.

The lesson to be learned in all of this... Crappy service, employees who know nothing about the products they sell, and ridiculously high prices along with a exceptionally difficult return policy don't tend to help you stay in business.

Reminds me of a similar fate that met a similarly run company here in Canada (which I formerly worked at a number of years ago, I'm ashamed to say). Compusmart had a very similar problem when it came to both customer service and employee relations which ultimately cost them the business.

Compusmart was also a larger Mac reseller (one of the largest in Canada by far), but ultimately very few Mac users miss them or were even surprised that they'd closed.

If you want to read an interesting story on this, go to http://daft-key.livejournal.com/13863.html and read my entry. Replace Compusmart with CompUSA and see if there are any similarities.

Also the Apple Store in Store concept was nicely done when compared to the former experience at places like Best Buy, Circuit City and Sears. In fact, I think CompUSA's stores played an important role in helping save Apple.

The store-within-a-store concept was great, but required a lot of support from Apple. Apple has pulled a lot of their support in the past decade when they started their own retail initiative. You can expect the loss of a lot more independant Mac retailers in the coming years as Apple expands their own chain and pulls support from the other resellers. Apple has been acting more as a competitor than a partner to the independants lately.

this buyout/consolidation/closing tactic of the ruthless "business" that bought them is nothing to be happy about in any situation. It reduces competition, puts people out of work, and in this case makes buying Apple products in a heavily populated region very difficult.

On the surface, losing a competitive business looks like it may be bad for customers, but in reality it usually serves as a wake-up call for other businesses (so even in death, some of the competitive forces are still at work). Besides, in the computer resale industry, there is PLENTY of competition, even losing a Best Buy wouldn't kill competition enough for customers to really feel it, other than maybe losing the convenience of a location nearby (a gap which, no doubt, will be filled by some other reseller)

Now the only retailer will be Best Buy, and they are pitiful. They have always been hostile to Apple. Their anemic Apple display shows they haven't changed.

Apple deserves the hostility, IMO. While they may be good overall to their end customers, Apple has ALWAYS been hostile to resellers - I'm not surprised that some of the larger resellers refuse to put up with this.

I don't think Apple will be setting up any store-within-a-store concepts anymore, either. They have been persuing a disintermediation strategy since Jobs returned to the helm. Simply put, Apple knows customers better than resellers do, and Apple makes sure the playing field is just level enough so the resellers have to lose money any time they offer any service above and beyond what Apple offers.

What's the point of buying the chain, just to close them?

It's most likely that the cost of buying the chain was substiantially lower than the value of all the physical assets (buildings, etc) that the chain owns, as well as the extra profit that the Christmas season will no doubt offer. They'll probably wind up on top once everything is liquidated.

No matter what you think of CompUseless, this is bad news for Apple and bad news for the US. Less competition = less incentive to perform.

Well yes and no. As I've mentioned above, competition is good, as long as the competition is effective. If a company isn't offering anything that customers want in a way that's economically feasible, then there is really no competitive force at work anyway. In CompUSA's case, that's exactly what happened, so now all that's left is to remove this blemish from the face of retail and make way for a better-run business to take its place.