The whole CompUSA saga takes me way way back to around 1989 when it was called Soft Warehouse and there was only one of 'em (that I was aware at least). It was on Marsh Lane in Dallas, and it was a thing to behold. Mind you, this was back in the day when the biggest computer retailer in your town was either the local Radio Shack or the local Big Bob's PC Clones, so the concept of a computer store that was as big as a K-Mart was something mythical.
Of course, I lived in College Station (Texas A&M) at the time, so Dallas was a good 3.5 hour drive. That didn't stop me (and Bryan IIRC) from making the trek a couple of times, usually returning with some obscure piece of software that couldn't be had anywhere else (this was pre-internet, mind you).
A couple of years later the chain grew and changed its name to "CompUSA" to reflect the fact that they didn't JUST sell software. And the Marsh Lane location moved across the street to an even larger building.
But now the Marsh store is closed, as well as pretty-much all of the stores in the D/FW area. In fact, the only stores left in north Texas are in Plano and Frisco (far northeast Dallas), so I don't think I'll be making the trek anymore even though Southlake-Frisco is quite a bit closer than College Station-Dallas.
Yeah they're geeky memories, but they're memories just the same. I'll miss 'em.
Be careful of buying anything at a CompUSA closeout sale -- they are not honouring rebates or warranties on any of it, so the low prices you see there (and they're not even that low -- like 5-10% off) can't actually be achieved.
Consumerist has been carrying stories for weeks about how shifty this whole "going out of business" sale is.
However, it's not like Best Buy is any better -- looks like Best Buy's floor staff have been trained to pull up a "secret" Best Buy webpage that looks otherwise identical, but has different prices on it, so when a customer comes in and wants the "web price," the floor staff can claim "no, look, the intartrons really say this price".
You know it's bad when Wal-mart is starting to look ethical compared to your business.