Best Buy snaps up 17 CompUSA leases

Apparently, not only is CompUSA rising from the dead like a horrific, zombified corpse, but now its guts are getting bought up and replaced by another retail behemoth. According to reports, Best Buy has just paid $13.5 million for 17 CompUSA store leases, ranging in time from three to 14 years and totaling 453,000 square feet. If the nightmare of CompUSA wasn't enough to haunt you in your sleep, the news that its now-defunct locations will be replaced with essentially more of the same should shake you to your very core. We imagine the Best Buy victory rap will be making the rounds again, you can jog your memory after the break.

[Thanks, Brian]

[shawnmos @ May 1st 2008 8:29AM]

Which stores?

[Mehul @ May 1st 2008 10:49AM]

This might just be rumor because, Best Buy's usually are twice the size of a CompUSA. So unless they have a new business strategy, there is no way they can fit a Best Buy in an existing CompUSA store.

[Dave @ May 1st 2008 1:29PM]

@ Mehul

That's not necessarily true. There is a Best Buy in Signal Hill, CA that was built in what was once a Toys R Us store, and that location is much, much smaller than your average CompUSA. You walk in it and you can pretty much see every department without even turning your head.

As far as the acquisition goes, the only former CompUSA stores in my area are located a few doors down from a Circuit City and down the freeway from an existing Best Buy. I'd wager those locations would remain closed or become some Halloween Costume Outlet or something.

[andyg8180 @ May 1st 2008 8:40AM]

i know here in CT, local PC businesses ended up doing very well and destroying their own personal goals... with a bby moving, i think they will be going back to the red... unless they go strictly mac.... bby's sell mac, but not in store :-)...

[Britboyj27 @ May 1st 2008 10:07AM]

Any new Best Buy's being built should have a special Apple area built in and will sell them in-store.

[SilverFireshot @ May 1st 2008 9:47AM]

Actually the Best Buy here sells Macs in store. But I agree with you. Before CompUSA, there were a number of small PC stores here. Now, even after CompUSA has disappeared, there are only 2 or 3 left.

[MeatyPi @ May 1st 2008 8:43AM]

any ideas which ones, there's an old dead CompUSA down the street from my home, and would absolutely love it if it was a BestBuy because the nearest one now is a 20 min drive.

[cgarison @ May 1st 2008 8:51AM]

Does anyone have a list of stores that are being acquired?

[Fed @ May 1st 2008 9:00AM]

Living in Florida, allows me to have both Bestbuy and CompUSA just around the block from pretty much anywhere.
I have always liked CompUSA, they carry odd computer parts that Bestbuy doesn't.

[po @ May 1st 2008 9:56AM]

They sell you one thermal grease for $15 a piece, don't you love them ?

[Bootes @ May 1st 2008 1:00PM]

It's nice to actually be able to find these parts somewhere other than online.

My CompUSA became a Staples. =/

[zargon @ May 1st 2008 9:03AM]

All the CompUSA's in the Twin Cities are right near nice and big Best Buy's, don't think they will be doing that here. In fact the huge BB HQ is located really close to one of the old CompUSA's.

[jerry @ May 1st 2008 9:41AM]

Where, you say? RTFA

"The stores, most of which are in western states... Best Buy said it plans to open new Best Buy and Pacific Sales locations at the sites over the next two fiscal years."

That tells me 'out west.'

[MeatyPi @ May 1st 2008 9:48AM]

Thanks Ass, I can read, we wanted specific locations.

[Bob S. @ May 1st 2008 10:05AM]

I miss CompUSA. I work near the old location of the Chicago store and miss the days when I could head over at lunch to pick up some supplies. It was like a nerdy convenience store. Now the only option is the Apple store, which doesn't have anywhere near the selection (and never has the sale prices) that CompUSA had. I'm not the hugest Best Buy fan, but I hope they take that space.

[fashionista @ May 1st 2008 10:55AM]

Was that the one near the Mag Mile? For some reason that store felt "special", and very unlike the suburban big box space typical of CompUSA.

[Flashpoint @ May 1st 2008 11:28AM]

COMP USA used to be the place I could always count on to have the freshest technology.

Problem was, everything they had seemed overpriced and in many cases, they were selling computers - especially media center computers - that were so pricey, it would have been a miracle if they were moving them.

COMP USA got eaten up by Best Buy and to a lesser extent, Walmart. Their customer service was weak and they were too expensive.

My question is, what's going to happen to Circuit City. I can't imagine BEst Buy, and circuit city cooexisting for a long time.

[zargon @ May 2nd 2008 7:46AM]

Thankfully here in the Twin Cities, we have a Micro Center to take Comp USA's place. I think Micro Center actually is better than Comp USA with selection and prices, but it also seems a lot nerdier.

[dpjax @ May 1st 2008 10:10AM]

Re-opened CompUSA stores in Florida are not so bad. Its like a retail newegg in some ways. Most of the prices are competitive.

[Rob_in_Cuse @ May 1st 2008 11:05AM]

Mac Fanboy,
Best Buy's actually do carry Mac's - and Dell now

[Geoffrey Sperl @ May 1st 2008 11:29AM]

Look, I'm not a fan of Best Buy, but saying that Best Buy = CompUSA is like saying cake = pie. Sure, there are some similarities... but not really.

[Michael @ May 1st 2008 12:49PM]

In Encinitas, CA, the CompUSA hole has been filled with a new BestBuy. The store is the smallest BestBuy that I have ever seen - the selection is smaller, but they still have a fairly good variety of PC upgrade parts - hard drives, video cards, etc - plus all of the usual crap.

Music selection is small, Car Audio department has very small section, but they have lots of TVs.

[MrGuru @ May 1st 2008 1:15PM]

BEST BUY HUNGRY best buy want eat

[brianshah @ May 1st 2008 1:16PM]

I know that the 5th ave store in NYC is a go sometime this year and maybe the 57th and Broadway.

[phanbouy @ May 1st 2008 1:20PM]

AWESOME! now i don't have to drive as far to buy my $150 HDMI Monster cable / coat hanger!

[ddub @ May 1st 2008 1:39PM]

Maybe some of them will be replaced by a Magnolia HiFi. Those would fit better in a CompUSA space.

[Vexorg @ May 1st 2008 1:39PM]

It would be nice if a Best Buy would open up in the old CompUSA at Totem Lake Mall in Kirkland WA, although most of the mall is empty these days, so I don't know if they would. On the plus side, they have another empty store (formerly a Rite Aid) next door they could add to this if they were really ambitious about it.

[Protaganis @ May 1st 2008 1:41PM]

Actually the prices were just over margin in many cases. They weren't "beaten" by Best Buy, as many people thought. They were destroyed by incompetent and greedy upper management. Guys with loosely defined jobs, making six figure salaries for 2 days of "work", that was in reality going to two meetings a week and then "working from home" when they'd hit the golf course. The final reason for the shut down was that Carlos Slim. the owner of CompUSA got tired of losing money year after year, thanks to those corporate slackers.
Happy note is, some of them are under investigation for tax fraud and evasion. Makes you wonder why they didn't shut down earlier...

[WildGuesser @ May 1st 2008 1:49PM]

Well, perhaps this is going to be the setup to the new storefront for "BlockBest-BuyBuster"

[phanbouy @ May 1st 2008 2:13PM]

how long before Wal Mart has built in studio apartments?

[Dennis Wang @ May 1st 2008 2:20PM]

Hmm.. The CompUSA in Monrovia now has a banner for Circuit City.

[Jonathan Termechi @ May 1st 2008 2:24PM]

lol....greedy upper management. I worked there, so I know what you mean. They bought out Good Guys because they were ambitions, and they kept many of the employees who knew nothing about Computers or even Home entertainment. Most General Managers would come in, tell us to sell Protection Plans on everything or sign customers up for AOL (sometimes 5 sign ups for 1 customer), so that they could win the contest and go to Spain, or Italy on our hard work. Moral was low, as employees we got treated like crap. And once the store did well and we finally had some store chemistry with the GM and stuff, they would move him to a lower preforming store and they would promote some prick from like 50 miles away to GM move him to our store, and have him come in on a power trip because he just got promoted and now he's a GM. Lots of problems with the company.

[triforceOFcourage @ May 2nd 2008 7:15AM]

LOL, yah I couldn't stand that. If we sold enough, or made enough of a gain of last month's profits, we'd send the GM on vacation while we got $8.50/hr. It was that "trickle down" economics, but too many people were greedy and it never trickled very far.

[ZeroCorpse @ May 1st 2008 2:39PM]

If it means more jobs, then it's a good thing.

[Cary Gordon @ May 2nd 2008 3:08PM]

Well the CompUSA nearest my work became a MicroCenter, which is cool for me.

The one nearest my home was empty last I checked, but that was a while ago so who knows?