Many moons ago there used to be several electronics store chains that were truly good at what they did. Back in New England where I grew up, Massachusetts had quite a few of them both regional and national, such as Tweeter, Nobody Beats the Wiz! (which still exists,) Fretter and so on. Even Service Merchandise (which also exists but online-only) had a truly decent electronics section back in the day.

Right now what we have for electronic stores in the US are big-box free-standers, such as Best Buy. The problem with stores like this is that they are very disconnected from the customer base due to their size. Yes, you can get help when you ask for it, but personal service is usually at a minimum and product knowledge low.

Another problem is that the big-box electronics retailers are essentially all the same. Using the now-defunct Circuit City as an example, if you were to ask somebody, "What was the difference between Best Buy and Circuit City?", the answer is, "Um.. one was red and the other yellow?" There was literally no other difference.

Some would say, "What about Radio Shack?" RS doesn’t sell electronics anymore, I don’t care what anybody says. Their primary focus is cell phones and has been for some time. That is what they push more than anything else, and it’s always the first thing you see when you enter the store by design.

What is desperately needed these days are smaller electronic stores. Electronics has had a huge resurgence in the market, and more people are gravitating towards the brick-and-mortar compared to online. The problem is, at least in the US, that our choices for true electronics stores are terrible. We have places that are either way too big, or traditional department stores like Wal-Mart or Target that simply have a "department" for electronics and nothing more. Both are equally awful.

I am 34 years old, meaning I’m smack dab in the core demographic of people that purchase mid-to-high end electronics for the home – but I have nowhere to go to shop for this stuff save for what’s mentioned prior.

The store chains I mentioned at the beginning of this article would typically not sell cheap stuff. Almost everything in the store started in the mid-range territory. This was actually very good to know, because no matter what you bought, you knew it at least wasn’t bottom-of-the-barrel crap and that what you bought was a quality product.

There were several other good advantages to the small-box electronics store:

• You could browse a ton of products without having to walk the length of a football field just to do it.
• For audio products you got a much more accurate representation of what it would truly sound like in your home due to the store’s smaller size.
• The box your product came in was always perfect (hey, it matters.)
• Staff was very knowledgeable about just about every product in the store.

Is it time for the small-box electronics store to come back? I think so.

What do you think?

This article is not about the things we buy online but rather the traditional stores we use to buy our electronic stuff.

With electronics items, you can either go to a store that’s specifically deals in electronics, an office supply store, or a department store.

In the United States, these are the choices we have (this is not a complete list but covers most of them):

Electronics specific

• Best Buy
• Radio Shack
• CompUSA 

Note on CompUSA: Yes, they still exist, but only in very particular areas as there are only 23 of them left, most of which are in Florida where PCMech is based.

Reasons to go to electronics stores:

• They will have electronic items on display that other stores don’t have.
• Better choice of electronic items.
• Prices for most products are similar to what you can buy it for online.

Which do you think is the best of the above three electronics stores? Post a comment.

Office supply stores

• Staples
• Office Depot
• OfficeMax

Reasons to go to office supply stores:

• If nobody else has the inkjet cartridge specific for your printer, an office supply store most likely will.
• Less lines. Faster in and out.
• The parking lots for office supply stores always seem to be better for some strange reason? Hey, it’s a perk. Less door dings is a good thing.

Which do you think is the best of the above three office supply stores? Post a comment.

Department stores

• Wal-Mart
• Target
• K-Mart

Reasons to go to department stores:

• Cheapest of the bunch.
• Stupidly easy no-questions-asked return policy if whatever you buy doesn’t work.
• Whatever you want is almost always in stock and easy to get.

Which do you think is the best of the above three department stores? Post a comment.

Tell us what you think about the above choices, good or bad. If there’s a store you’d like to mention not listed above, go right ahead. Make sure to note if it’s regional or national. Your opinion will help out those who like to hear about store experiences for tech products.

In the United States, Memorial Day lands on Monday of next week, May 25 2009. This holiday is meant to commemorate US men and women who died in military service. I tip my hat to all families who’s fallen heroes served our country.

From a retail perspective, Memorial Day is one of the best times of the year to buy electronics from traditional big-box stores.

All larger US retailers will be geared up for sales. Over the course of the weekend, check your mailbox for circulars as there might be some Memorial-Day-only coupons in there you could use.

My suggestion if you’re at a loss for where to shop is to actually go to the mall. Ordinarily it’s true that everything is overpriced in there, except on special sale days, and Memorial Day is one of them.

If you have the time over the weekend and particularly know where you want to shop in the mall, go there, go to the store on a Saturday and ask if they will be having any special sales on Monday. You might get lucky and find out what exactly will be on sale far ahead of time.

It’s most likely true you study the electronics products you intend to purchase before you buy them. You read web site reviews, watch a demonstration video of it if available, and maybe even print out a sheet with some notes before heading to the store.

You expect, as you should, the employee you encounter who will sell you the item to know the product line.

But there are times when this doesn’t happen. You encounter an employee who knows next to nothing about what he or she is selling. And that’s not helpful at all.

Here are 5 things you can do to make your tech shopping experience at electronics retailers more pleasant – even if you encounter the dopiest of employees.

1. Get the SKU of the item you want first.

Big-box electronics stores all live and die by the SKU because they carry so much product that it’s very difficult to make heads or tails of what’s in stock – unless you have the SKU.

2. Call before going.

Before going to the store, call. When on the line, ask if the SKU is in stock. If it isn’t, you just saved yourself from wasting gas.

Note: For clearance items and/or overstock, don’t be surprised if you hear an "I don’t know". Sometimes items slated for special sales are treated differently in the system and cannot be immediately looked up.

3. Dress for the occasion.

Dressing "corporate casual" will get you more personal attention once at the store. Appearance matters.

4. Don’t engage in small talk.

You’re trying to be nice, so you try to spark up a conversation with the employee you encounter. But dopey employees couldn’t care less about you. If you suspect the employee is dopey, can the small talk and stay on target with what you want to buy.

5. Go armed with a memo pad that has the SKU written down.

You already called beforehand and received confirmation your item is in stock, however it’s not over yet. Write that SKU down on memo pad and bring it with you. If you cannot find the item on the shelf, find an employee, hand the paper to them and politely ask if they have that particular SKU.

This is not a rude thing to do and in fact makes it easier for the employee to find what you want to buy. Even the dopiest of employees know what a SKU is and how to look one up.

In the world of business there are many corporations that do not follow the calendar year (i.e. year begins on January 1) but rather the fiscal year. While it’s true that a fiscal year can start anytime depending on the business, most of them will use September.

As an example, high schools in the United States traditionally use September as the beginning of the year. Car manufacturers also introduce their "new year" models in September (right now you will find 2009 models even though it’s not technically 2009).

In the world of computers and electronics, a ton of new hardware is usually put out there as well. Motherboards, televisions, you name it. Lots and lots of new stuff.

In addition to the new stuff that’s out there, it is traditional that more or less all computer and electronic manufacturers are scrambling to dump last year’s stuff to make way for the new. Whenever anything new is introduced in computers and/or electronics, it’s obviously replacing its predecessor.

And that’s where you can save a buck if you’re in the market to buy.

There’s only one word you have to look for at your preferred computer/electronics retailer, and that word is "clearance". The new stuff is here and the retailers have got to clear the shelves to make room for it.

Typically you will find the best deals of the year right now. Not for the new stuff obviously but for the "old" stuff that’s still new that needs to be sold.

How to find clearance sales

With major big-box electronics retail (i.e. Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.) you will not see the drastic-price-cut items online because the inventory varies from store to store. What this means is that you have to physically go to the store to see how far they’ve slashed the price on certain items.

Typical items you will find on clearance in September:

Laptops

$900 laptops are slashed down to as low as $500 just to get rid of them. Remember, they are new and come with full warranties.

Overstocked peripherals

Premium keyboards, mice, audio gear, etc. Don’t bother looking at the cheap stuff, look at the good stuff that’s been marked down.

Media drives and media itself

Hard drives, optical drives, blank discs, etc. All this stuff is usually marked down this time of year – particularly the hard drives and flash media (USB sticks).

Digital Cameras

The more expensive digital cams are usually slow sellers, so the older models that need to get off the shelves usually have a nice fat price cut on them.

Other stuff

There may be stuff in the big-box store you spot where you say "Wow, can’t pass up that deal!" that you won’t see any other time of the year.

Stop by your local big-box electronics retailer. There’s probably some good deals waiting for you right now.