CompUSA / The Good Guys Megastore

In June 2005 the CompUSA and The Good Guys electronics chains, owned by the same company, created joint "megastores" in 17 locations, with plans to open more during 2005. The stores were created out of 14 The Good Guys stores and 3 CompUSA stores. They are a combination of CompUSA's "open shelf" type of merchandising with The Good Guys focus on specific categories (digital cameras, camcorders, computers, etc.). CompUSA purchased The Good Guys in Dec. 2003 for about $55 million. There are still about 50 The Good Guys branches still operating stand-alone.

CompUSA has been an Apple reseller from the "old" days, being the first to create a store-within-a-story for selling Apple products.

In this case, the megastore has CompUSA-type supplies around the rear and side walls of the store, and more up-scale merchandise in areas and special walled rooms in the center of the building.

One of those rooms is labeled "Appleshop" with a large white-on-black sign near the ceiling--it's the first conjoined use I've seen of the trademarked word "Apple" and any other word.

Inside the space are two walls of Apple merchandise on shelves, and a center island of products. There is a nearby third shelf of Macintosh software, a small endcap of accessories, and iPods in a separate section of the store. The photos below detail how Apple's products are presented.

Also see my report on The Good Guys marketing of Apple merchandise, which is very similar to this joint venture.

This is the view of the front of the Apple product area-the front door is to the right, and the front is angled slightly away from the door, making it more difficult to see this area until you are well within the store. Notice that the sign typeface appears to be authentic Garamond for the word "Apple," but then a san-serif typeface (perhaps Verdana) for the word "shop"--very strange. Just inside the space, on the left and right walls, are shelving for Apple's products. The area has one large opening at the front (accessible from the middle of the store), and two smaller doors at the rear, leading to the TV section of the store.

A closer view of the Apple product area, showing one set of product shelving (right) and the central island with bubble-pack accessories

One of the product shelves in the Apple area. Each item on the top is identified with a large card giving a description and price. Products on the lower shelves are identified with a smaller card. Note that the holder for the upper product cards hangs down 3-4 inches, obscuring the products on the next shelf down--you can't tell that you're looking at iWork or iLife '05, since the title is at the top of the box, and that portion is obscured. In general, the displays are working (no Internet access, however), neat and well-described.

The second shelf of Apple products, displaying laptops and speakers on top, hard drives, speakers and other sound gear down below. Pegboard behind the top shelf is also used to display smaller items (cables, adapters, etc.).

Just outside and around the corner from the Apple area is this shelf of Macintosh software. The display is fairly complete and is neatly arranged.

A close-up view of the laptop, showing the method for securing the computer to the shelf that doesn't allow you to close the top or heft the computer for a check of its weight or carrying convenience.