[cd34]

I honestly forget why I will not shop at Best Buy, but, it happened in '97 or so prior to me buying most of the home theater and computer stuff that I have now. I would say that my computer budget is probably in the $15k/year range with things that I purchase from alternate stores to Best Buy (all online).

I do remember why I will not shop at Circuit City though -- and that was over a $90 TV that died after 29 days that I returned that took 2 months to be returned and $112 in labor costs. So, I have a $200 13" color TV -- that we used for 7 days when we bought the house before our stuff arrived.

CompUSA has been there when I needed it, but, thank goodness I usually know what I need because they are generally clueless.

Generally, I refuse to shop at a store unless I absolutely have to. This probably makes the education factor in the stores drop because they are losing sales to the online market. Almost a vicious cycle -- they lose money, can't hire the right people, stock the store full of warm bodies, lose sales because they don't have people able to answer technical problems, lay off the expensive, smarter warm bodies... lather, rinse, repeat.