re: #200 wheat-dogghazi-mailgate

It is. I worked at a retail computer store. Markup on cables is ridiculous, and even given that, we were encouraged to push the gold-tipped cables or higher end cables, because that $34.99 printer cable costs about $2 wholesale.

Another cashcow are service agreements/extended warranties. We got bigger commissions if we successfully sold those with a computer purchase.

CompUSA still went belly up, though. As did Circuit City. Worked for both. Best Buy is probably still in business because I didn’t work there. :-P

Two reasons I think they are still in business:
1. There aren’t any other big electronics retailers.
2. When I go into the one in my town, I can find someone who will answer my question, and I’ve had quite a few times where the answer to my question doesn’t involve buying something.