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Non-Tech : CompUSA (CPU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: blankmind who wrote (2065)	4/5/1999 11:09:00 PM
From: Herc	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3187

Expanding on my analogy with Walgreen's, imagine what Walgreen's margins would be if they just sold generic drugs. Not too hot! But CPU mostly sells generic hardware.

To: blankmind who wrote (2065)	4/6/1999 11:55:00 AM
From: Mark R	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 3187

<<<assume the margin is the same. the problem arises that profit is now cut in 1/2. unless you sell 2x as much merchandise, profits and revs suffer. why SSS are critical in the computer biz.>>> That was my point, the margin dollars suffer even if percentages stay the same. But your saying SSS are important to the computer biz. SSS are a measurement of retailers and has nothing to do with the products sold. I prefaced my points by describing the value of SSS in measuring a retailers health was tied to whether you were getting more customers or if those customers were buying more, or both. Your attempting to use SSS as some measurement for profits or revenues yet its clear they do not reflect any of these areas accurately. SSS is for retailers and CPU is much more than that. My reason for posting is that I feel it misguides the street and investors. At the same time it serves as a panacea to have a number to use as a measurement and prevents us from having the numbers we really need like CPUs share of the computer retailing market, for the retail traffic we need the number of repeat customers & number of customers. For the business sales we need customer growth in numbers and %. If Halpin came out tomorrow and said we have more customers entering our stores, they come back, and when they are here they buy more items across the spectrum of what we offer including training and service etc...you and I would be fighting over the last few shares left. It would say that the model works....... (For the first time Halpin is showing his service/training numbers but those are not affected by lower ASPs.) If Halpin really wanted you to understand the health of the business he would be giving you something other than SSS. He's running a technology company like a Sears. And your accepting it......