The Good Guys was an American chain of

consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usuall ...

retail stores The retail format (also known as the retail formula) influences the consumer's store choice and addresses the consumer's expectations. At its most basic level, a retail format is a simple marketplace, that is; a location where goods and services are ...

with 71 stores in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. The company was headquartered in

Brisbane, California Brisbane (pron. , unlike Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) is a small city located in California in the northern part of San Mateo County on the lower slopes of San Bruno Mountain. It is located on the southern border of San Francisco, on the ...

in the

Dakin Building The Dakin Building is an architectural award-winning class A office building on the San Francisco Bay in Brisbane, California. Serving as a corporate headquarters building for several companies of national prominence, it was built from the profit ...

in the early 1990s and subsequently in

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for " tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, located in the East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is primarily located on Alameda Island, but also spans Bay Farm Island and Coast Guard Island, as we ...

until it was bought in late 2003 by

CompUSA CompUSA was a retailer and reseller of personal computers, consumer electronics, technology products and computer services. Starting with one brick-and-mortar store in 1986 under the name Soft Warehouse, by the 1990s CompUSA had grown into a nati ...

. The Good Guys was founded in 1973 by Ron Unkefer on Chestnut Street,

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

. By 2006, all of the company's stores had closed.

WOW! Stores

In 1995, The Good Guys teamed up with

Tower Records Tower Records is an international retail franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when Tower Recor ...

to create one "WOW!" Store in Las Vegas, NV featuring a mixture of Tower and Good Guys inventory & a coffee shop, and included the world’s largest promotional slot machine. Tower's founder Russell Solomon reportedly liked the end result and two more WOW! Multimedia Superstores were opened, one in Long Beach, CA, where Neil Diamond played at the grand opening and others opened in Laguna Hills, and San Mateo CA. By 2006, Tower was bankrupt and Good Guys was being consolidated into CompUSA and thus all of these stores closed.

Re-launch

After all The Good Guys stores closed,

began marketing all

and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

stores as "CompUSA with The Good Guys Inside" in response to

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

's new marketing campaign "with Magnolia Inside". However, this marketing campaign was dropped in an attempt to further separate CompUSA from the Good Guys name, and assist in launching its new Home Entertainment sections in select locations. The Good Guys name once again ceased to exist in 2008 when CompUSA closed its remaining stores. Extended warranties on televisions purchased through The Good Guys or CompUSA can still be accessed through General Electric Extended Warranties.

Hostage crisis

In 1991, one of the stores in the chain located in Sacramento was taken over by four gunmen. This event became the largest hostage rescue operation on home soil in U.S. history to date, with about 50 hostages being held at gunpoint.

References

:*"Good Guys lose suit to block competition,"

The Sacramento Bee ''The Sacramento Bee'' is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, ''The Bee'' has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 2 ...

, December 2, 1987. :
Market Place; Electronics Chain On Roller Coaster
"

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, July 6, 1992. :*"Good Guys bets that the customer is always right,"

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

, November 23, 1992. :*"Good Guys horror still vivid to ex-hostages 4 years later,"

, April 3, 1995. :
Good Guys CEO Discloses Master Plan
"

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...

, July 27, 1999. :*"Good Guys Inc. will drop computers, office products,"

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The newspaper was fo ...

, August 2, 1999. :
Good Guys to spin off web store
"

CNET ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

, January 5, 2000. :
The Good Guys Laying Off 450 Employees
,

, March 2, 2001. :
CompUSA to purchase Good Guys: $58 million deal expected to benefit both companies
,

, September 30, 2003. :
Good Guys quarterly sales fall, sees wider loss
"

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

, June 10, 2003. :
Ex-Good Guys director settles SEC charges
"

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

, April 26, 2005. :
Good Guys to close stores: Stand-alone outlets in California and Hawaii to get the ax
"

, October 6, 2005. :
Tower Records Welcome Video, 1999.
" Specific Marker mentions WOW! Stores and how it was formed, this info was used in the WOW! Section.

External links

The Good Guys, Inc. History
at FundingUniverse {{Authority control Consumer electronics retailers in the United States Defunct retail companies of the United States Defunct consumer electronics retailers in the United States Retail companies based in California Companies based in San Mateo County, California Brisbane, California Retail companies established in 1973 Retail companies disestablished in 2005 1973 establishments in California 2005 disestablishments in California Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area

WOW! Stores

Re-launch

Hostage crisis

See also

References

External links