According to David Pogue at nytimes.com, CompUSA will be closing half its stores in the next 90 days.

"I’ve never quite understood how CompUSA stayed in business to begin with. Most of the stores I’ve visited have been sterile and soulless, and pervaded by a feeling of abandonment. You’d think a gearhead like me would get all excited to be there, but for some reason, I just can’t wait to get out.

Here’s the official reason the chain is shuttering 128 stores, as it appears in a statement by Roman Ross, CompUSA’s CEO: “Based on changing conditions in the consumer retail electronics markets, the company identified the need to close and sell stores with low performance or nonstrategic, old store layouts and locations faced with market saturation.”

Well, whatever.

I think the real culprit behind the gutting of CompUSA is Internet pricing. You can order computers, accessories and electronics from the Web for a fraction of CompUSA’s in-store prices–and evidently, most people are doing exactly that. (It’s not just CompUSA, by the way. Circuit City is closing 70 stores, too. And don’t forget the 30-year-old Good Guys chain–46 electronics stores in California–which CompUSA bought in 2003 and then closed in 2005.)"

Read his entire account here, including a link to the list of stores closing:

The Gutting of CompUSA