Micro Center Eyes 10 Ex-CompUSA Locations
By Doug Olenick -- TWICE, 4/18/2007
Nashville, Tenn. — In a major shift from past practices, Micro Center will add at least three new stores this year in addition to its just-opened Patterson, N.J., location.
Micro Center is looking to pick up as many as 10 former CompUSA locations, said Kevin Jones, the chain’s merchandising VP, at RetailVision on Tuesday.
The former CompUSA locations were shut down just last month. The first will open next month in Rockville Pike, Md. Micro Center has signed letters of intent to occupy two shuttered CompUSA stores, and it is looking at seven more. Jones would not give specifics on the upcoming locations, but he said not to be surprised if more were opened by the fall.
 Kevin Jones |
Prior to this announcement, the chain had opened 20 stores since it was founded in 1982, including the New Jersey store.
In another break from the past, the new Maryland location will not undergo a major renovation. Instead Micro Center will open it “as is” Jones said. This is being done to maintain the stores customer base currently associated.
“We will overlay the CompUSA stores with our products for the time being and then refurbish them to match the layout of the new New Jersey store,” he said.
This will not be an easy task as the CompUSA stores physical plant differs greatly from the established Micro Center locations, Jones said.
Following the company’s traditional slow and steady approach to growth, Micro Center held the soft opening for its New Jersey store on April 16. This location was announced at last year’s Spring RetailVision. The grand opening will be held April 25.
This location will incorporate several innovations new to the Micro Center chain. As announced last year, the store will have a specific planogram, which also will roll out to the other stores. Jones said the new system will be tough to get used to, but it is necessary if Micro Center is to grow to the next level.
The new store has a large CE component with a large flat-panel TV display holding about 90 products and a sound room.
On the computer side there is an integrated Apple area, a service section called the Knowledge Bar and, Jones joked, the company even bowed to the inevitable and added candy and soda. Although even here it has a PC component, he said — the high-energy drinks and sugar can help the store’s hard-core gamers and programmers stay up all night.
Jones is hoping the stores look and feel will help it create an environment where people will hang out, much like an Apple Store.
“We want to create an Apple-like community for the PC crowd,” he said.
Many of these changes will be incorporated into existing Micro Center stores, Jones said, although the company will, as usual, take its time and see what is succeeding in New Jersey before it reverse engineers its older stores.
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I am hoping they locate in the former Orange, CT CompUSA.
We are underserved by PCW, Best Buy and Circuit City and the Apple Store is miles away in Norwalk or Danbury. I have been inside the Microcenters and they always beat CompUSa on customer service.
Andy B - 2008-27-4 22:48:00 EDT -
In reference to the previous comment(s) contrasting Fry''s and MC, the real difference is that Fry''s has way way way more individual items than MC. At MC in Cleveland, there''s maybe a single half-aisle of nuts and bolts and other electronic device builders'' essentials. At Fry''s, there are several full aisles of custom boxes, electronic parts (resistors, transistors, etc.). At MC in Cleveland, there may be a dozen motherboards, but none of them have a PCI-X slot. At Fry''s, there are over twice as many motherboards, and a couple of them do have PCI-X.
Fry''s is SOOOOOOO much better than MC, it''s a must whenever I travel to the West Coast!
John Nowak - 2007-5-11 16:48:00 EST -
MC can say what they want about keeping elements of the old CUSA location on Rockville Pike, but when I looked in the window there the other day, there was nothing but concrete visible as floor, ceiling, and walls. So I assume at some point MC decided to completely redo the place, which is fine with me if keeps me from being reminded of CUSA when I go in there.
Joe - 2007-30-7 12:53:00 EDT -
The only way in which Fry's beats Micro-Center is pricing.
But if you're shopping for price, why would you bother with Fry's? Why not just shop at Newegg, where prices are even lower?
I've been shopping at MC for years, and hope that the expansion isn't a bad sign. They've always been good at keeping a "local PC store" feel, right down to giving you good help and advice when you need it. Every time I send someone over there with a problem I don't have time for, they come back and rave about all the help they got.
Walk into Fry's with an 8 year old Dell that is no longer supported, and see if they'll help you locate some hard-to-find driver for XP, right down to installing it on the machine.
Anon Imus - 2007-21-4 20:26:00 EDT -
From the article:
"...Instead Micro Center will open it “as is†Jones said. This is being done to maintain the stores customer base currently associated."
Oh yes, it is so important to hold onto the 4 or 5 "loyal" customers to that Comp USA location!
Let''s see, Comp USA closed over half of their stores... why?... Because they had no customer base anymore!
Well, as long as the former Comp USA locations that Microcenter choses are not near any Fry''s locations. Neither Microcenter or Comp USA can effectively compete against Fry''s. It has been tried, but they fail miserably.
Adam - 2007-18-4 13:35:00 EDT
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