PC Club was a

privately owned A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

-based chain of computer hardware stores established in

City of Industry, California City of Industry is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is almost entirely industrial, containing over 3,000 businesses employing 67,000 people, with only 264 residents as of the ...

in 1992. The company closed all its stores on July 29, 2008. PC Club operated primarily in the West Coast states. It offered hardware and peripherals for PCs, as well as complete desktop and notebook computers assembled under the "Enpower" brand name.

History

Taiwanese businessman Jackson Lan founded PC Club in 1992 as its first CEO. Following Lan's death in 2005, the company went through turbulent times. Jeff Lan, Jackson's brother, was appointed president of the company in January 2006. On April 8, 2008, Jeff Lan was appointed advisor to a new PC Club chairman, James Cheng, while Sunny Lin was named the company's next president. However, in May 2008, all its

brick-and-mortar Brick and mortar (also bricks and mortar or B&M) refers to a physical presence of an organization or business in a building or other structure. The term ''brick-and-mortar business'' is often used to refer to a company that possesses or leases ...

stores were closed in addition to the company's e-commerce website (clubit.com) during another ownership transfer to NAOC. On May 16, the stores and website were reopened after the company was acquired for an undisclosed amount by NAOC Holdings, a

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money ( leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loa ...

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

. On July 23, 2008, PC Club closed 14 of its locations. Less than a week later, on July 29, the store shut down the remainder of its locations.

Business model

PC Club sold directly to both consumers and local resellers through its

stores and via its website. At one point, they had over 60 store locations in 12 different states, typically placed within walking distance of CompUSA, Best Buy or Fry's Electronics.PC Club Finds Its Niche by Sticking Close to Its Rivals
/ref> It provided live tech support by phone, maintained an online

forum Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to: Common uses *Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example *Internet ...

, and answered questions through

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...

. In-store repairs and upgrades were available at all locations.

Marketing

PC Club promoted itself through mainstream advertising and

word of mouth Word of mouth, or ''viva voce'', is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one ...

. PC Club also had TV commercials in limited areas.

References

{{Reflist

External links

LA Times article: The Strategist Next Door
1992 establishments in California 2008 disestablishments in the United States American companies established in 1992 American companies disestablished in 2008 Companies based in the City of Industry, California Companies that have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Computer companies established in 1992 Computer companies disestablished in 2008 Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Retail companies established in 1992 Retail companies disestablished in 2008