“We’re getting out of retail,” Bailey said. “It is difficult for a mom-and-pop-type shop, a bricks-and mortar shop, to employ well-educated and experienced people, and pay them well with benefits, when competitors such as Amazon and New Egg are selling items for less than I can get the same items from our distributors.”
In most cases, customers of those large online computer sellers aren’t paying sales taxes on their online purchases, adding to the competitive disadvantage for bricks-and-mortar shops such as Computer Zoo, Bailey said.
The Computer Zoo’s walk-in retail repair service was diminishing over time as customers shifted toward buying tablets and inexpensive “throwaway” computers, Bailey said.
Half to two-thirds of the Computer Zoo’s business came from services provided to small businesses, so Bailey said she will now focus on that segment of her business. “We will still custom-build computers for our customers, and we’ll still repair computers for our business customers,” she said.
The owner of Asset Business Computing said she will relocate the newly renamed business either later this year or early next year. Her late husband Alan Bailey had purchased Computer Zoo in 2007.
For more information, call (937) 435-0500 or go to www.assetbusinesscomputing.com
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