You notice very little small computer shops anymore?

[geepondy]

I know why they went out of business. I worked part time at one during 1998 and 1999 and even then we could feel the pressure of the Best Buy's and dramatically falling prices in general. But I miss them. They were so handy when say your motherboard died or you wanted to purchase that old stick of PC133 SDRAM or the likes, or other items a home computer hobbyist might want to purchase that even stores like CompUSA were not apt to carry or carried at way overpriced. What was really great if you found out that your motherboard wasn't the culprit after all, it was the CPU, you could drive right back and return the motherboard. Since my friend got done with her shop, there were two others in my general vicinity that I would go to from time to time but last month the last one closed shop.

Did you guys use/still use the little computer shops?

 

[PhotonWrangler]

I miss those guys also. I've built and upgraded several machines with parts purchased from those guys.

 

[K A]

There used to be a company here called locally called National Computer (not sure if it was just local or part of a chain). They had two spots in the same little shopping center, a surplus spot with lots of old computer hardware/software and a newer shop that sold new computers/equipment. I'm not sure when exactly it happened (at least a year ago) but they are not in the little shopping center they used to occupy. Seems they've gone away as far as I can tell.

The surplus shop was neat to poke around at all the old stuff they had (and some of it was OLD). But nothing that was really worthwhile as far as computing power was concerned as cpu speed kept increasing. The stuff just sat and turned into junk that really wasn't worth anything anymore. I remember one time some years ago they had received a 500 port hub (pretty certain it was a hub and not a switch) from somewhere. Would have been neat to get that and have a huge lan fest with it!

 

[BillCurnow]

We still have a couple of shops in town. They make the bulk of their money these days doing network support.

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

The shop that built my K5-166 clone and repaired it a time or two disappeared a few years back.

Up here in little Shepherd there is a shop that I haven't been into yet. The nearest big electronics store is about 32 miles away in Humble (Best Buy and Circuit City)

A true electronics superstore (Frys) is about 55-60 miles away.

It's so true that the big guys like Wallyworld drive small places out....

 

[Cerbera]

I visited a shop over here and I loved the services and personalities that were in the shop. I visited them many times and I haven't bought ONE thing from them ,and they were always nice to me.

I really would buy a system from them, but I'm planning on building my own system. It is cheaper and more self satisfying, but I am taking the risk of screwing up (which is quite hard IMO).

For you Hawaii residents, go to H Power Computing. You won't be disappointed.

 

[goldenlight]

I'm lucky: there are two very well equipped, (and with very good prices) small computer shops near the big University in my city.

One or the other of them always has that odd cable you need, etc.

I sure hope they stay in business! They've gotten a lot of my money, and they have some really good 'geeks' to offer accurate advice, when I've needed it.

 

[paulr]

There are some around here but I'm in a tech heavy area.

I think the custom made computer is mostly a thing of the past. These days most businesses buy preconfigured systems and home users typically buy laptops. It's not simply that we can't so easily buy those weird cables and stuff any more--we don't NEED that stuff any more, computers are commodity items now and they need much less futzing around than they used to.

 

[DieselDave]

There are 2 within 1/4 mile of my house. One just opened a year ago and will likely run the other out of biz. They are 300 yards apart and have a genuine dislike for each other.

 

[ringzero]

But I miss them. They were so handy when say your motherboard died or you wanted to purchase that old stick of PC133 SDRAM or the likes...Did you guys use/still use the little computer shops?

There used to be three little computer shops within two blocks of my front door. Each handled different brands of motherboards, memory, monitors, etc.

Now two of them are gone, but the one remaining shop has expanded and has a pretty good selection of parts. Prices tend to be higher than Best Buy, Circuit City, or ordering off the net.

However, it's just so handy to stroll up the block and pick up parts as needed that I rarely go to any of the bigger stores anymore. I've never bought a ready made computer, just the parts to upgrade older machines, so I rarely spend that much money at a time. If I was going to buy a big ticket computer item, I'd probably shop Best Buy or order off the net to try to save some money.

 

[ringzero]

I think the custom made computer is mostly a thing of the past. These days most businesses buy preconfigured systems and home users typically buy laptops.

Maybe. I know guys that still make a living building and selling white box computers to local business, and their operations are booming. If I was in the market for a new computer, I'd rather buy a white box built to my exact specs than something on sale at Circuit City or Best Buy.

 

[Fluffster]

There's a lot of those small mom&pop-type computer shops here in Reykjavík. I much prefer buying stuff from somebody who knows what they're talking about.

I'd guess that the fast deprecation of value of anything kept in stock is what kills these shops.

 

[DoubleDutch]

I have one within a mile of my home. Small shop, just three guys, but they know what they're talking about. Good service an very reasonable prices. I make it a point to buy my stuff from them to help keep them in business.

Kees

 

[myk]

my uncle runs one of these little shops - in the same plaza as a compUSA and two small computer stores, and bestbuy/circuit city less than a mile away. He doesn't stock a whole lot obviously due to the volatility of the market, but this allows him to be more flexible than compusa/bestbuy who bought a million blank CD's in 2003 that they're still trying to sell for $60/spindle because they paid $40 and want to make their 50% profit.


That and mostly labor now, fixing/reparing, de-spyware-ing, upgrading, custom builds for CAD businesses, and the people that don't just want their machine reformatted when there's a software error

 

[ksonger]

i have one of the shops and ,yes, we really survive by haivng service contracts with local businesses. new pcs are a tough nut to crack with dell around although many folks after having had the dell experience are willing to spend a little extra for the aftersales service and handholding available from us. The thing that pisses me off are the guys that come in and take an hour of your time discussing specs and relative merits of different components and then buy the stuff form tiger direct!

ken

 

[havand]

My experience with small computer shops has been horrible. Every single one locally i've ever gone in has charged outrageous prices. I'm not talking 'low' prices like bestbuy or newegg. I'm talking prices that made me audibly scoff. Fans that were $15 bucks. Lcd's with $150 markup. Luckily these places have gone out of business. In the sense that you could run there and buy some thermal paste (at 3x the 'normal' rate) in an emergency was nice, but it was never arctic silver or equivalent. It was always white goo, reminiscent of elmers glue. Just my experience. I honestly don't miss them. Some still survive, the good ones. Sometimes it is worth paying for service. But what is the point in paying when there is NO service?

edit:
And another trick that used to get me was NEVER labelling any prices. So you had to take the item tot he register, wait for someone or go and find them, explain you wanted to know the price. Then they look at you like you're retarded and how dare you question it. Gah. Sorry, i'm a bit bitter. I got into computers pretty young. I used to go to local computer shows. Never would get any service until i pulled out the 100s (and before you go callin me rich, the 100s were strictly for the computer parts..I don't walk around with 100s or anything). Then everyone and their uncle could pull boards out to show me. I never made much cash, but it was fun. Anyone remember the days when cyrix(sp) was still competitive? I remember building a 133mhz machine and it was blazing fast at the time....Now someone is gonna come along and tell me about the time they overclocked a 4mhz amd to 8mhz.

 

[yuandrew]

There's a small computer repair shop of this type in my town next to the 99 cent store and they do most troubleshooting and installation.

There's also PC club although they are now a chain but they are pretty much small stores when you compare them to places like Fry's Electronics, CompUSA, or Best Buy. PC club started as a privately owned computer store in Industry as well but they've quickly became a small chain with 40 stores.

 

[Codeman]

We still have a few in my town. They can't compete on a purely monetary basis, but they're knowledge and support leaves the big dogs in the dust. Several folks in our Desktop Support group do outside work as well. I suspect a lot of the folks are still around, just without a store front. I know of 2 guys locally that have kept a good business going through word of mouth. One swears he's making more since he doesn't have the overhead of the b&m anymore.

 

[Brighteyez]

I still see one or two around occasionally but most are gone. I don't think it was the big box stores that drove them away. Quite honestly, most of them were opened on a shoestring and ran on a thread anyway. Most of the stores had next to no inventory, their displays were nothing but low cost computer cases and keyboards, with mock-up cardboard monitors. Additionally many of those shop owners (usually Asian immigrants) had to also worry about fluctuating market prices, and extortion from Asian gangs. Additionally some were victimized by being forced to buy stolen components from organized crime syndicates, other stores were actually "fronts" for gangs and a means of liquidating goods that had "fallen off the truck."

Another reason for the demise of the independent assemblers may be attributed to the manufacturers themselves, who clamped down on the bulk gray market products that were being sold by retailers after obtaining them under the guise of being used in the assembly of computers. Prior to that time, the big box stores and mom&pop stores were able to coexist pretty well, with the big box stores selling retail packaged components and the independent stores selling their "OEM" versions. But as the price of the legit retail versions started to match or sell below the price of the gray market goods, the end was pretty much in sight. If I recall, I think the bulk of them closed during the dot-bomb recession in the 1999-2001 period.

There are still a couple of larger vendors who are able to sell gray market goods, like Newegg, as they are owned by a "Systems Integrator" (computer assembler company)

 

[ksonger]

I have been in the "small" computer store business for 18 years, most of theother stores i have known that have gone out of business were owned by wasps. Most went out of business because they tried to sell top quality components instead of the marginal components sold in most of the "home" machines by the mass producers. Please do not generalize about an entire segment of businesses.

ken