BFD. In the Chicago ‘burbs, they were just a retail outlet. None of their salespeople knew anything about the software or hardware products. It was a like a Toys ‘R Us, but you had to know what you wanted BEFORE you went in because the help was, well,,,no help at all.
Just my opinion of course.
The last time I shopped at a CompUSA (wireless router) the sales girl who took care of me was quite knowledgeable. She was also quite pumped up over the fact that she'd given her notice and was due to start at the local Apple store the next week.
They did have a service desk, though. I found this helpful when my fan started buzzing, and I wanted to replace it. I found almost the exact replacement but it had an extra lead for variable speed. I thought I could probably ignore it, but I asked the service desk guy, and he reassured me that that would be OK. Of course, he was way out on a limb with that, because technically the fan is part of the power supply, and you're not supposed to mess with it. The consumer literature for the fan is very careful never to offer any hint that it can be used as a replacement for a power supply fan.
Well, anyway, I guess this kind of poking around will soon become a thing of the past.