Post may contain rambling and biased opinions.
The problem there is betting the bank on web retail - I assume they made themselves fairly large (on a small scale) but to bet the bank on hardware is suicide. To be competitive you end up running suicidal margins... actually last I checked there was a bigger markup on milk and feed corn than on computer components.
#RAMBLING
I work for a mom and pop shop - have for 9 years now - do a bit of everything in this back woods retirement area.
Big doesn't give you the flexibility - small gives you flexibility but the "presumed" assumption that its available cheaper elsewhere.
One thing over the years I've found is that flexibility and personal one on one to spec out and based on that spec configure and setup a machine works - and works well. The big problem is with internet price shopping what it is we get a bunch of "Friendly Assistance Idiot Layabouts" (FAIL) problems every now and then. (eg - I built my own machine so I'll make a business of web shopping parts and building machines for people or I read EnGadget and TomsHardware etc. so I'm a computer expert) that crop up as ad's in the paper - and we always loose customers to that (until something goes wrong and the FAIL person has moved or is too busy drinking or out of town or just flat out refuses to spend the time with their "Customers") and they come back and show us what they have and you cringe looking at all the fancy high end parts got on the cheap that were "BEST BUYS" "UcanBeL33TCompProfessional recommended" garbage.
For Nana checking her email and playing freecell is both un-necessary and a good way to enhance the potential failure rate a bunch.
These systems are usually setup with non legit programs, office, a hacked full version AV - and when they start throwing up their "THIS IS A NON GENUINE VERSION" or "Please Revalidate" we get to break the news that "Yeah - sorry bout your luck"
Sorry Mrs. Old Lady - to get rid of that message and be able to use the email program your now familiar with is going to cost you the windows license price + Office or Outlook
Sorry Mr. Business man - that sweet machine you had moron build for you is made with nice stuff - but gee... years of business info put onto a Raid 0 + no partitioning of OS and Data + using a backup program that dropped your backups onto the same raid set because one of your staff unplugged the no name usb drive with the dodgy hissing power supply and it wouldn't have mattered cause the "Professional" free backup software was misconfigured so unless your business stuff was stored in Documents and Pictures and your email file was moved you still would be 4 months behind with your important data. Nothing money can't fix.
Oh Mr Trailer Park Owner Guy - its a nice setup you have for wireless for your park your friend setup- too bad its completely insecure and has enough range to get to maybe 4 of your trailers. Oh what - you need ~100 trailers hooked up - and your on DSL-Lite - and your main wireless point is a Dlink 601 - and your trying to figure out why people are complaining that its slow and or they don't get a signal. Oh well maybe your friend can sort it out seeing as you don't want to pay to get it set up correctly - what oh - he says he can't figure it out... *FAIL*
#END RAMBLING
I guess the point of this is - if your Small and want to go big - its going to take time - there is no quick way to get big. Small succeeds at being flexible and personable. Over time you have to add to this without loosing that image. A name can take you only so far. If people know you as being that place that costs slightly more but stand behind their work and get the job done right. It will take you further than cutting your options down and working on slim margins and relying on web retail to make a buck - cause its just little bucks and its too easy to get no bucks then have to work at McDonalds and become the aforementioned FAIL person to even do much with computers.
IMO - Hardware is crap - barely worth getting into - Service is where the money is - and if you can't get a reputation for good service and keep it (which is very, very difficult) you might as well pack up shop and go work for Walmart.
I expect to hear stories like this with straight retailers hitting the bench much more often soon as everyone is getting squeezed. I would suggest all hardware retailers switch to services - and or get into clothing as at least the clothing industry still commands decent margins.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
