New Computer Store in Town

Aug 29 01:06 UTC 1993

As some of you may know, a Best Buy store just opened in the
space vacated by Highland Appliance in the Target shopping
center.  I stopped by today to look for a vacuum cleaner, but was
pleasantly surprised to find a large computer section.  The
prices seem to be about what the computer superstores, such as
Computer City or CompUSA charge.
 
I looked at the CD-ROM drives.  They had both plain drives and
packages with both drives and sound cards.  It was quite a good
selection.
 
They also had a pretty good selection of computer software.  The
selection wasn't as broad as Computer City, perhaps not even as
broad as Egghead, but the prices were better than Egghead.

response 2 of 54:

Aug 30 05:08 UTC 1993

check out ccs.  they've got great prices.

response 4 of 54:

Aug 30 22:17 UTC 1993

Any place is better than Egghead.

response 6 of 54:

Aug 31 05:16 UTC 1993

Because it's an excellent monitor. What would you suggest?

response 10 of 54:

Sep 5 13:10 UTC 1993

re 9: no.  The closest one I'm aware of is on John R. just south of 14 Mile
in Madison Heights.

response 12 of 54:

Sep 5 20:32 UTC 1993

That's right. And the prices aren't that great either. Somebody out there
opening these things has more money than brains.

response 14 of 54:

Sep 6 19:43 UTC 1993

re:Best Buy:  They'll match anyone's prices in the area.  My friend works
              there and said he changed the price of the NEC monitors about
              four times in one day. :)

response 16 of 54:

Sep 7 20:41 UTC 1993

Re: Best Buy stores. AKA: Highland Appliance by any other name.

Have you noticed that *all* of the locations of the former Highland Appliance
stores just happened to now be occupied by Best Buy stores?

The Highland "going out of business" sale, was the best organized, most
highly advertised, and marketed "going outof business sale" I've ever seen.
Think about it, when a company really is going-out-of-business, they ussually
are because they are *broke*, they don't have the funds to plaster the
airwaves with all those commericials, that were speciffically produced just
for the sale. That takes *alot* of money.

The prices Highland put on their merchandise during the sale wern't all that
great. When a company truly goes out of business, they're trying to move
*all* that stuff out of there, including the shelving, floor models, display
cabinets, *everything*. Alot of time you see things going for 1/2 or even
1/4 the original price.

I was telling a friend at the time that I though the whole thing was a scam.
That they would close their doors and 4 months later another appliance
chain called "Buyland" or "something-land" would spring up to replace them.
Almost got the name right.

I was thoroughly disgusted with the way Highland did business and their
*very* pushy sales people. I wouldn't shop at Highland. I don't intend
to shop Best Buy either as I'm fairly convinced it's the same people running
the show and they will probably have the same instore tactics.

response 18 of 54:

Sep 7 22:46 UTC 1993

Highland sold much of their inventory to ABC Warehouse.

The markups on some electronic equipment is *huge*. I went to ABC Warehouse
and Mickey Schorrs to look for a hand-held phone. There's a Mitsubishi
which Mickey Schorrs (owned by the same guy who owns ABC Warehouse) sells
for about $750. I went to ABC Warehouse and the guy showed me what their
cost is -- $400. This isn't even their real cost, because apparently 
Cellular One pays Mickey Schorrs $200 for each person they sign up. In
effect, Mickey Schorrs' cost on the Mitsubishi was $200 and they were 
selling it for $750! (The sticker price was $900!) You don't see that kind
of markup in the computer industry... (There's an ABC Warehouse and 
a Mickey Schorrs at the same mall in Canton, and I just walked back and
forth inviting them to cut each other's throats. It was beautiful...)

BTW, all this "lower price" crap between Fretter and ABC is totally
irrelevant because they compare sticker prices, which hardly has any
bearing on eventual price. During my recent search for a kick-ass stereo
system, I found out that Fretter's claim of "lower prices" is true, if you
look at the sticker price. But ABC's eventual price is usually lower
than Fretter's (and Highlands). You got to know how to deal with those
ABC salespeople, however. 

response 20 of 54:

Sep 8 03:58 UTC 1993

      My experience with Highland's going out of business sale sure didn't seem
like they were trying to sell anything.  I went in there, and their prices were
still quite high.  Then I had a question about something, and started to look
for one of those pushy sales people.  I did find one, eventually, but he didn't
seem very interested.  I eventually figured out that they had probaly figured
out that the longer it took to sell out, the longer they would have jobs..

response 22 of 54:

Sep 8 12:16 UTC 1993

I've been in ABC a few times but always walked out saying I'd never go back.
I'm starting to figure them out though....Now they just have to have what I
want in stock!

response 24 of 54:

Sep 10 01:06 UTC 1993

Highland is definately dead.  ABC Warehouse bought their inventory and ran
the going-out-of-business sales, hence the high-visibility.  By that time,
Highland was long gone.  Best Buy is a totally seperate chain, I *think*
it's based in Milwaukee (just popped into my head, probably wrong).  I like
the concept - it's like a PACE or an OfficeMax for electronics.  I like
being able to actually get at the merchandise, and they've definately
got a lot of stuff...  good prices on CDs too. :)

The employees I talked to were helpful.  (bias: my friend works there. :)
There were a lot of them, too.