CompUSA needs to spin off its online operations, and make sure it operates out of only one state, or operate only of of sales tax free states.
One very big item that makes CompUSA less competitive online is the sales tax issue.
6 to 8+ percent can be a very significant dollar amount when buying a computer. CompUSA, as it currently operates, has to charge sales tax in every state it has a store (which is most of them).
Quite frankly, I go into CompUSA to see and touch an item. If I decide to buy it, I compare prices to PC Connection and a few other online stores, and then figure in the sales tax. In 95 percent of situations, it is cheaper to buy it online. (I will often buy software at CompUSA, but while I have bought about 10 PCs in the past two years, none of them have been from CompUSA, because they didn't offer the best deal.)
Egghead is doing less than 1/20th of the sales of CompUSA, yet it has half the stock market capitalization.
CPU will extract much greater value for its shareholders by spinning off its online operations. |
