The Toledo area has witnessed the demise of the local Gateway computer store in the past month and area computer hobbyists haven't seen a computer retail show since last year.
That's because the business model for selling PCs is changing, local computer store owners say. More people are turning to large discount stores, like Best Buy and Circuit City, or they are shopping online.
Local independent stores still sell PCs but have begun focusing on service, which online sellers have difficulty providing.
"When Gateway closed, some people started looking around, but really things started changing two years ago," said Loretta Lammie, office administrator at Computer Discount, which owns three Toledo area stores.
The company once was a fixture at computer shows, usually held regularly at banquet halls in south Toledo, but stopped attending them a few years ago, because customers started buying parts online, Ms. Lammie said.
"There's not a lot of markup anymore in computers," she said. "It's all about sales and service now."
And with the advent of rogue programs collecting information from PCs, called spyware, and of computer viruses, the service becomes more important.
For 2004, industry researcher Gartner Inc. has estimated that PC shipments worldwide will top 187 million units, up 14 percent from the year before, primarily from business buying. Jeff Nissen, owner of Virtual PCs on Executive Parkway in Toledo, said his firm benefits by providing service the manufacturers cannot.
On a popular Web site that lets customers rate vendors, www.resellerratings.com, Dell received a 2.39 out of 10 rating by 710 customers. Gateway got a 1.07 from 121 reviews.
"The consumer is becoming smarter and smarter," Mr. Nissen said. "The average 12-year-old now has 6 years of computing experience."
Prices on computers have come down considerably even as the machines have become more powerful, but many owners don't know how to fix their equipment when it breaks down, he said. Terry Dai, head of sales at Stone Computer in the Westgate Village Shopping Center, said the trend toward more online shopping is noticeable. Stone's sales have been slow for a few years, he said, but people want to buy locally and be able to get service.
The local angle led Computer Discount to go from one store in 1997 to three, Ms. Lammie said. A fourth is to open this summer.
"It's dog eat dog, but the competition has been thinning out," she said. "And we don't consider people like Best Buy our competition because we can't compete in their market for computer sales.
"But what we are finding is people who have a warranty with Dell or even Best Buy will pay us to fix their machine rather than have to send it away for service."
Contact Jon Chavez at:
jchavez@theblade.com
or 419-724-6128
First Published April 28, 2004, 12:20 p.m.