![LGR - CompUSA & Best Buy Ad Nostalgia [Summer of 2000]](https://i3.ytimg.com/vi/TpiC9PBVXQQ/maxresdefault.jpg)
LGR - CompUSA & Best Buy Ad Nostalgia [Summer of 2000]
video description
And man, Best Buy was such a cool store. Back in 2016 when this video was made, they just had like 6 years in Mexico and I really liked going there. However, they disappeared in 2020 thanks to the pandemic and I miss them, so please enjoy them if you still can. We have three main chains of thriving department stores, but their electronics and gadgets departments are nothing like what Best Buy had.
Prodigy Internet became a Mexican brand in the early 2000s, I guess shortly after that catalog was published. Funnily enough, CompUSA was sorta Mexican as well at the time, so I guess that's why Prodigy was offered in that catalog. Both companies became property of Carlos Slim, a Mexican billionaire. He used Prodigy as a brand for his own Internet service from Telmex (Mexican's biggest telco) both in Mexico and the U. S, though CompUSA was never brought here. CompUSA disappeared less than 10 years later, but Prodigy became a well-known brand in Mexico, disappearing completely from the U. S. and staying in Mexico until the mid-2010s. I guess Sears (also owned by Slim in Mexico) is going that same way, and when the brand finally disappears from the U. S, it'll become a 100% Mexican store.
Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 9
Viper
The quarantine is so bad, I've resorted to listening to Clint go over ads.
Haha, I kid! I actually enjoy this. I had one of those generic HP Pavilion computers, a 532w which was from Walmart. I will say while looking at those people, I feel bad for people who thought they were getting a good deal on some computers, especially when it says -Celeron-. What a piece of crap for a processor. Then again, most of them were generic family computers so they most likely weren't for power users. I remember the first time going into Best Buy, they were the bomb! I couldn't even think of what I wanted to spend my money on. Hard drives, graphics cards, sound cards. There was just sooo much to choose from. I went in recently and their computer section is almost non-existent. There was two aisles of parts, and not even full aisles as some of them had keyboards and others I think were some Apple peripherals. Such a HUGE disappointment. I don't think I'd miss it if I never went there again. I know you can buy anything online. but there was just something so fun about going out to a store and being able to see this stuff in person, and hold it in your hands, spend hours mulling over your options. Fun like that is gone these days.
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The quarantine is so bad, I've resorted to listening to Clint go over ads.
Haha, I kid! I actually enjoy this. I had one of those generic HP Pavilion computers, a 532w which was from Walmart. I will say while looking at those people, I feel bad for people who thought they were getting a good deal on some computers, especially when it says -Celeron-. What a piece of crap for a processor. Then again, most of them were generic family computers so they most likely weren't for power users. I remember the first time going into Best Buy, they were the bomb! I couldn't even think of what I wanted to spend my money on. Hard drives, graphics cards, sound cards. There was just sooo much to choose from. I went in recently and their computer section is almost non-existent. There was two aisles of parts, and not even full aisles as some of them had keyboards and others I think were some Apple peripherals. Such a HUGE disappointment. I don't think I'd miss it if I never went there again. I know you can buy anything online. but there was just something so fun about going out to a store and being able to see this stuff in person, and hold it in your hands, spend hours mulling over your options. Fun like that is gone these days.
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kato223
I just watched this video again. I got to the point with the CompUSA ad when you talked about the Wireless Internet Connection dialup. Those are the Intel Inbusiness Internet Stations. I actually worked for Intel before I went to CompUSA. I worked at Intel from '97-'99 and was part of the team that supported those products when Intel acquired Dayna Communications that had actually developed those. So my days were spent supporting the Dayna products that were actually started as Apple / Mac networking products and when Intel acquired them they made sure to spread them out to PCs as well. I actually received one of the very first Intel Internet Stations that I used at home for a while. Later on after they moved the support to Oregon, I pawned off those products. They were cool when they started, but Intel really didn't do anything with them much beyond that.
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I just watched this video again. I got to the point with the CompUSA ad when you talked about the Wireless Internet Connection dialup. Those are the Intel Inbusiness Internet Stations. I actually worked for Intel before I went to CompUSA. I worked at Intel from '97-'99 and was part of the team that supported those products when Intel acquired Dayna Communications that had actually developed those. So my days were spent supporting the Dayna products that were actually started as Apple / Mac networking products and when Intel acquired them they made sure to spread them out to PCs as well. I actually received one of the very first Intel Internet Stations that I used at home for a while. Later on after they moved the support to Oregon, I pawned off those products. They were cool when they started, but Intel really didn't do anything with them much beyond that.
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JK
I worked at Circuit City selling computers when that Best Buy ad came out. That $400 rebate wasn't mail-in. if the computer was $850 before rebate, when they signed up for a 3 year contract with AOL, they could walk out of the store with that computer for $450. I was barely 20, and making more than almost any -grown-up- I knew. It was a golden age for selling computers. If you did well with accessories and warranty, you could hit 100k a year without even being the top salesperson in the store.
edit: forgot to mention - free cable modem and free cell phone and free cell phone service. At 20 years old, I really thought life was just that easy all the time lol
edit edit: 12: 34 - that was my PC! HP made the most badass computers, and the 900mhz atholon was a beast. I wanna say I got just the tower at cost for 400ish
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I worked at Circuit City selling computers when that Best Buy ad came out. That $400 rebate wasn't mail-in. if the computer was $850 before rebate, when they signed up for a 3 year contract with AOL, they could walk out of the store with that computer for $450. I was barely 20, and making more than almost any -grown-up- I knew. It was a golden age for selling computers. If you did well with accessories and warranty, you could hit 100k a year without even being the top salesperson in the store.
edit: forgot to mention - free cable modem and free cell phone and free cell phone service. At 20 years old, I really thought life was just that easy all the time lol
edit edit: 12: 34 - that was my PC! HP made the most badass computers, and the 900mhz atholon was a beast. I wanna say I got just the tower at cost for 400ish
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World
In 95 while still in college I worked for CompUSA in the upgrades section and one of my favorite memories was of a Extremely Irate customer screaming about not having his laptop fixed on time and Demanding to see the store director and when he showed up to try to calm this screaming customer down the customer only wanted to write down in his little day planner the corporate address and phone number, the name of the owner of CompUSA and the name of the store director to which the store director said with a Very Big Smile on his face -The owners name is Hal Compton Sr. and my name is Hal Compton Jr. - It was at that point that the Irate customer went into a screaming tirade of cussing while ripping up his little day planner and left the store never collecting his laptop.
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In 95 while still in college I worked for CompUSA in the upgrades section and one of my favorite memories was of a Extremely Irate customer screaming about not having his laptop fixed on time and Demanding to see the store director and when he showed up to try to calm this screaming customer down the customer only wanted to write down in his little day planner the corporate address and phone number, the name of the owner of CompUSA and the name of the store director to which the store director said with a Very Big Smile on his face -The owners name is Hal Compton Sr. and my name is Hal Compton Jr. - It was at that point that the Irate customer went into a screaming tirade of cussing while ripping up his little day planner and left the store never collecting his laptop.
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lwvmobile
Watching this, I think I realize why tons of big stores went out of business. NOBODY LIKES BUNDLE DEALS, especially deceptive ones in sales ads. When the Internet came into its own and sellers were prominent, they listed just the item and the exact price you pay. Seeing those sales ads, they can have a price listed, but you had to read all the terms to figure out how much it really costs up front. Having the final price after signing up for services and buying something else and sending in and receiving the mail-in rebate was just a tease and a gotcha back in the day and since everybody was doing it, you really didn't know which store honestly had the better deal.
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Watching this, I think I realize why tons of big stores went out of business. NOBODY LIKES BUNDLE DEALS, especially deceptive ones in sales ads. When the Internet came into its own and sellers were prominent, they listed just the item and the exact price you pay. Seeing those sales ads, they can have a price listed, but you had to read all the terms to figure out how much it really costs up front. Having the final price after signing up for services and buying something else and sending in and receiving the mail-in rebate was just a tease and a gotcha back in the day and since everybody was doing it, you really didn't know which store honestly had the better deal.
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jo
That HP on the cover of the Best Buy circular was one my parents had in the office during 2000-2001. My sister and I had an older 98/99 era Compaq Presario 5032 upstairs in the -computer room. - The one feature I remember not appreciating til much, much later was that it had a Zip 100 Drive that I had no idea what it was until around 2003 when my computer applications class in HS used Zip disks to save our stuff on between class periods. I remember still having dial up and downloading or ripping songs from CDs and using the CDRW drive on my parents HP to make mix CDs for my friends at school. As many songs as would fit on a CD for $3-$4 each.
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That HP on the cover of the Best Buy circular was one my parents had in the office during 2000-2001. My sister and I had an older 98/99 era Compaq Presario 5032 upstairs in the -computer room. - The one feature I remember not appreciating til much, much later was that it had a Zip 100 Drive that I had no idea what it was until around 2003 when my computer applications class in HS used Zip disks to save our stuff on between class periods. I remember still having dial up and downloading or ripping songs from CDs and using the CDRW drive on my parents HP to make mix CDs for my friends at school. As many songs as would fit on a CD for $3-$4 each.
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bigalexg
I'm guessing MS paid a lot for that Encarta ad on the flyers but not sure how that worked. All those CDROM educational things MS invested in, LOL, that was -the future- for such a short window of time before broadband wiped all that stuff out just like that. MS was so slow to accept that the Internet wasn't just the killer app for their platform but would become the whole platform and Windows just a dumb terminal to get you on it - lucky for them actual dumb terminals Larry Ellison and others were pushing hard were not quite up to the job of rendering a local computers irrelevant.
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I'm guessing MS paid a lot for that Encarta ad on the flyers but not sure how that worked. All those CDROM educational things MS invested in, LOL, that was -the future- for such a short window of time before broadband wiped all that stuff out just like that. MS was so slow to accept that the Internet wasn't just the killer app for their platform but would become the whole platform and Windows just a dumb terminal to get you on it - lucky for them actual dumb terminals Larry Ellison and others were pushing hard were not quite up to the job of rendering a local computers irrelevant.
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gurgy3
Yup, I started college about that time. The school had a mandatory policy that incoming freshman had to own a PC. Being a poor teenager with limited means, I sold my motorcycle to get the funds for an HP with an nVidia TNT card if anyone knows what that is. Unfortunately at the time I was not too familiar with PC hardware having been of the generation to come up through school using Apple products. The computer I was sold was the biggest piece of shit that was underpowered a few months later. I traded a pristine Honda Nighthawk for that hunk of crap. Still pissed about it lol.
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Yup, I started college about that time. The school had a mandatory policy that incoming freshman had to own a PC. Being a poor teenager with limited means, I sold my motorcycle to get the funds for an HP with an nVidia TNT card if anyone knows what that is. Unfortunately at the time I was not too familiar with PC hardware having been of the generation to come up through school using Apple products. The computer I was sold was the biggest piece of shit that was underpowered a few months later. I traded a pristine Honda Nighthawk for that hunk of crap. Still pissed about it lol.
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phatcowboy76
I used to get the best buy ad out of the Sunday paper. Coworkers would buy the paper and bring it to work to read. I loved the Best Buy ads and pored over them every week to see the latest pc tech. I would read every line of every pc, graphics card, and laptop. Like you LGR I purchased a Packard Bell 400Mhz Pentium ii in 1999 and after that, I always built my own pc's. To this day I have never bought another box pc for myself. I can't stand the compromises manufacturers make. It's a cash grab and I won't have it. I will pay considerably more to have the best components.
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I used to get the best buy ad out of the Sunday paper. Coworkers would buy the paper and bring it to work to read. I loved the Best Buy ads and pored over them every week to see the latest pc tech. I would read every line of every pc, graphics card, and laptop. Like you LGR I purchased a Packard Bell 400Mhz Pentium ii in 1999 and after that, I always built my own pc's. To this day I have never bought another box pc for myself. I can't stand the compromises manufacturers make. It's a cash grab and I won't have it. I will pay considerably more to have the best components.
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