Where should I go to buy computer equipment?

Local Retail Stores

These local stores normally have the most knowledgeable staffs around. They are normally small franchises. They can't offer the kind of selection on the showroom floor that the large retail chains do, but they normally provide far superior service. They normally carry two separate product lines. For the shopper who likes name brands, they usually have names like IBM, Compaq and Apple. For those who are motivated more by price, they also make up a large portion of their business custom building computers and selling the lesser known brands.

I would love to provide you with a list of links to these local retail stores, but I can't. There are just too many of them, and the list changes depending on where you are located. My best suggestion is to consult your local yellow pages.

Retail Computer Store Chains

If you are a computer afficianado and you want to feel like a kid in a candy shop, visit one of these large retail computer store chains. They have a selection, under one roof, that you won't believe. The downside to this super store approach is that their staffs are normally completely computer illiterate. Don't expect to get any usefull answers from them. But, if you are technically knowledgable and just want good product availability at a standard retail price, you can try some of these. Their prices are substantially higher than you would get from the trade shows or the mail order discounters, but they do have a lot of product all available now and all under one roof.

Mail Order Discounters

If you are a fairly sophisticated user and you know what you want, you can save a great deal of money by buying from one of the mail order discounters. These are large warehouse operations who can sell to you at prices substantially below those that you can get from a local retail store. The tradeoff to this lower price is that when you buy mail order, you can't see and touch and work with the equipment before you buy it.

Trade Shows

If you have never been to a computer trade show, you ought to go see one. The ones that I have been to are normally 100-200 tables of vendors offering you product at prices just barely above their wholesale cost. Don't expect to see much name brand product at a trade show. Price is the name of the game, and that means selling the lesser know brands.

A structured approach to problem solving is the key to resolving most technical problems that arise. Most of the rest are handled by taking good notes and either saying "Aha! I've seen this one before." or by asking someone who has.

Distributors

If you sell computers and have a resale certificate, your distributor offers you the best prices around and has a wealth of information in his technical support department. These are some of the most popular distributors.