Sales associates John Powell, left, talks with Edmund Chu and his brother, Richard Chu, about Apple computers in the new Computer City store on Auahi Street, across from Ward Centre in Kakaako.
Photo by Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
The company says the opening of the second store, three years after the first Hawaii outlet opened at Waikele, means Computer City is here to stay.
The computer specialist retailer, a division of Fort Worth, Texas-based Tandy Corp., will be looking for other Hawaii locations, Robert Gellman, vice president for North American sales, said today.
"The Honolulu market has been very, very good for us," he said.
The new store, just under 16,000 square feet, is an early step in what the Victoria Ward Estate is calling its Ward Village development.
Gellman denied claims of other local computer dealers that so-called "category killer" stores such as Computer City push out computers as fast as they can at the lowest prices they can and don't provide follow-up service.
"We have great buying power," he said. The volume that Computer City's 111 stores produce does enable the company to get the best deals from the manufacturers and that keeps prices low for the customers, he said.
"But people demand more than just price. They want to be sure they're buying from a company that's going to be there a long time," Gellman said.
He said Computer City has an "all systems go" approach, making sure everything works to the customer's satisfaction before the customer leaves the store.
"We'll spend half an hour or 40 minutes with you, opening up the box and setting everything up, making sure you have a great out-of-the-box experience," he said.
Software Plus, a computer retailer that had a major store on Keeaumoku Street, closed down at the end of January, saying it couldn't stay in business in the face of competition from the superstores entering the market.
At the time, Computer City's plans for its second store, the Ward location, were known and so were the plans by Circuit City to open an electronics and computers store in Pearlridge Center. Circuit City's store, a former Star Markets location, will have nearly 62,000 square feet of retail and warehouse space.
MicroAge Computer Centers owner Krishan Kapur said he isn't too worried about Computer City because he is mostly in different markets now, concentrating on schools, government and corporate accounts. The Ala Moana store sells, sets up and services computer systems, he said.
"We are not at this time too much into retail business," Kapur said. "It's just that the margins in retail are too low."
The emphasis is on service and showing customers that if they pay more they will get follow-up service, he said. "We're going to shrink our retail even more."
"Most of the people need a lot of information and hand holding," Kapur said. That's hard to do while matching the low prices of the big stores, he said.
Computer City's Gellman said his company continues to open new stores. "But the focus now is a little less on new store growth and more on developing services."
Computer City was founded in 1991 and had revenues last year $1.8 billion.