COMPUSA INSTALLS NEW GOOD GUYS MANAGEMENT
CompUSA, in its first moves since closing on its Good Guys purchase last month, has swept aside several of the chain’s top executives. Meantime, CompUSA is said to have been in extensive discussions to buy Goodguys.com from a group of investors that once included Good Guys founder and ex-CEO Ronald Unkefer.
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In putting its stamp on the chain, CompUSA promoted Good Guys Exec. Mdsg. & Advertising Vp Cathy Stauffer to pres. of retail stores, replacing Kenneth Weller, who left with COO Thomas Herman, CIO John DeLuca and CFO David Carter, Stauffer confirmed in an interview with Consumer Electronics Daily. CompUSA’s 14- year veteran Rick Fountain was named Good Guys COO, Stauffer said. CompUSA is expected to keep the Good Guys buying staff while testing new merchandise strategies.
Among these is the addition of videogames -- which CompUSA carries -- to a Good Guys store in Reno. The store carries 3 Xbox titles including Halo, and plans to add Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2 consoles in time for a grand reopening in late Feb., store staffers said. The Reno location also is expected to carry handheld PCs and other IT products that relate to home or mobile entertainment, Stauffer said. Good Guys dropped home office products in 1999.
CompUSA is testing sales of products typically sold through Good Guys at its stores in the Las Vegas area, the sources said. The number of products in the test couldn’t be determined. Among the additions at Good Guys stores is Samsung products, which initially will be available in about 1/3 of the chain’s 71 stores, Stauffer said. It’s expected that Samsung products will be available chainwide by the spring, Stauffer said. Samsung held off shipping product to Good Guys as the chain struggled before the sale to CompUSA last fall. With the tests, CompUSA CEO Larry Mondry is “trying to figure out which formats will work and what the merchandise mix should be,” said the sources.
Meanwhile, Stauffer wouldn’t confirm or deny whether a preliminary deal for CompUSA to buy Goodguys.com was imminent. Goodguys.com has been on the block since last summer when investors hired Acquisitions Northwest to sell the online business for a reported $5 million. Good Guys owned 20% of Goodguys.com, for which it purchased product and received a royalty for the name. GoodGuys.com posted $346,000 in earnings in 2002 on $22 million sales, up 88% from the prior year, according to a prospectus last summer. The online retailer suffered inventory shortages from Good Guys’ inability to get enough goods, the prospectus said. Good Guys also suffered shortages as some vendors tightened supply amid concerns about the chain’s financial condition.