Did there used to be a computer store called egghead?

[niwi7]

Hmmmm just recalling back when i was in like 4th grade (11th now)....my dad used to take me to a computer store called egghead...it was local and had pretty good prices....then they went out of business but they still had a website


did they completely go out of business? or do i have the name wrong...i doubt it was newegg b/c they dont and never did have any stores....it was something with an egg though i am pretty sure egghead

if no1 nos wut im talking about no big deall...but i think they were a chain all across us

thanks

 

[MrDigital]

Egghead was the store, you are correct. When they went under they kept their online store going. I haven't bothered to see if newegg.com is like a restructed Egghead or not, very possible though. I do know that when you go to egghead.com you actually get the egghead store at Amazon...so I'm thinking that newegg never was Egghead.

 

[mosco]

i think i still have some floppy disks the the egghead label on them.

 

[Slammy1]

Egghead had a web site, but they got really bad ratings on RessellerRatings. They opened up NewEgg with an emphasis on customer service, and the rest is history.

 

[niwi7]

are you sure of this?

if so how do u explain the existance of egghead.com today in conjunction w/ amazon

 

[Corporate Thug]

i had an egghead a block from my house but at the time i was in elementary school and didnt know wnaything about computers and never walked into the store

 

[eriqesque]

Originally posted by: Slammy1
Egghead had a web site, but they got really bad ratings on RessellerRatings. They opened up NewEgg with an emphasis on customer service, and the rest is history.

I think this will help Article

 

[lozina]

I remember the good 'ol days shopping egghead for computer games like Kings Quest, Sim City, Pirates!, Civilization.... ah those were the days. *sigh*

 

[dkozloski]

Egghead was a chain of computer stores that also sold on the web similar to Comp USA. They came upon hard times and were bought up along with some other losers like Cardinal Modems by Paul Allen, Bill Gates partner in Microsoft. They couldn't be made profitable and disappeared .

 

[eGAK]

I remember Egghead as my favorite software store (Portland, OR), very limited on hardware (mice & modems), but this was before there was an ISP in this area of the Oregon coast.

 

[capricorn]

Originally posted by: Slammy1
Egghead had a web site, but they got really bad ratings on RessellerRatings. They opened up NewEgg with an emphasis on customer service, and the rest is history.

I was curious if there was any truth to this. I sounded plausible, so I wrote to NewEgg customer service and asked that question. They replied (in one day no less - even their customer service is fast! ). I won't quote the person directly because I didn't ask him if it was ok. However, the short answer is that they get this question all the time, but there is no connection between NewEgg and Egghead. I also asked if that wasn't the connection, then where did the name come from? He said that the "New" part was chosen to support the idea that they try to stay new and fresh with the products they offer. He didn't know where the "Egg" part comes from, but he sent it up the chain to ask. I suggested they put the story on a page off of the main page. I do a lot of business with them, I like the company's attitude a lot, and I'd be curious enough to read it.

-cap

 

[magomago]

I remember back in 1998 buying(well...my dad paid - i was in 5th-6th grade I beleive) computer parts some mass auction retailer

something like "bidprice" or "pricebid"

and they'd put up 50 items of XXX at 30 dollars and if you wanted one you'd bid...and then obviously the price would go up but if the pricew was at 35 and you asked for 1 and someone else asked for 10 at 34 they would get it...

...and I remember it being bought by "egghead"....Anyone know what I'm talking about?

 

[joshg]

I'm pretty sure that Egghead did not become Newegg. They did get "sucked in" by another company, I just don't remember who... I keep thinking something like uBid.com? lol...

 

[capricorn]

Originally posted by: joshg
I'm pretty sure that Egghead did not become Newegg. They did get "sucked in" by another company, I just don't remember who... I keep thinking something like uBid.com? lol...

The article linked to above says: "SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 18, 2001--Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN) today launched its new Egghead.com Web site, powered by Amazon.com's e-commerce platform." So I guess it was subsumed by Amazon.com.

-cap

 

[Dulanic]

Originally posted by: joshg
I'm pretty sure that Egghead did not become Newegg. They did get "sucked in" by another company, I just don't remember who... I keep thinking something like uBid.com? lol...

Go to egghead.com It was amazon, they do still run the site also, but its nothing but another webpage for amazon.

 

[Tret]

But we all know that newegg.com is reign king

 

[Slammy1]

I remember hearing that from a friend, and seeing it listed somewhere. Here's an example:
Newegg <-> Egghead

Maybe there are legal reasons they can't admit it... Or maybe it's just an urban legend .

 

[tokamak]

wasn't there an online store before newegg came around that had a similar following to what newegg has today? you know what i mean, good prices, everyone always recommends them, etc.? anyone have any idea what im talking about?

 

[dkozloski]

Newegg and Mwave are clones.

 

[amdskip]

Outpost.com had free overnight shipping IIRC and we abused the crap outta that. We would order 5 packs of writeable cds for like $7 with the free overnight shipping. Outpost almost went bellyup as they learned they were not gonna make any money doing that.

 

[vegetation]

Newegg and Egghead are most certainly not related. Egghead, as mentioned, was a huge (relatively) corporate owned national chain store. They had local stores but they closed shop a few years back due to poor sales and I think some kind of conspiracy if I remember correctly. Anyways, their web site still operated but it was so poorly organized, you couldn't find anything you were looking for and the prices were ridiculous at a time when stores like buy.com, valueamerica, and such, were stealing all the sales away.

 

[styrafoam]

Originally posted by: vegetation
Newegg and Egghead are most certainly not related. Egghead, as mentioned, was a huge (relatively) corporate owned national chain store. They had local stores but they closed shop a few years back due to poor sales and I think some kind of conspiracy if I remember correctly. Anyways, their web site still operated but it was so poorly organized, you couldn't find anything you were looking for and the prices were ridiculous at a time when stores like buy.com, valueamerica, and such, were stealing all the sales away.

Exactly. Egghead had HORRIBLE prices on hardware. I remember going in to check for deals on video cards when they announced the going out of business sale, they wanted something in the neighborhood of $90 for a Diamond Stealth 2000 (think 2meg S3virge) in the early days of the TNT. All I could think was "You imbiciles are going down the toilet, just give in and sell the stuff at a normal price." Not just video cards either. Modems, harddrives, CD-roms, they were all super overpriced, even at the firesale.

 

[The Wildcard]

Hahaha I remember egghead. I think they used to also ahve this discount card or whatever, like a frequent buyer thingy. Anywaz I think they closed down their stores because they wanted to go to online sales. But i think that fuzzed and i think they go bought by onsale.com.

 

[capricorn]

That's what I remember about Egghead, too. Their prices were horrible. There was a CompUSA a couple blocks away and a Computer City across the street and they still kept their prices high. I went to their going-out-of-business sale, and their prices were still higher. I went in there several times, but I don't recall buying a single thing from them.

-cap

 

[dkozloski]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Egghead was bought up along with a lot of other losers by Paul Allen. I believe they called themselves "The Paul Allen Group". Cardinal modems was one of them. They had a bright idea of supplying firmware upgradable modems but here was always a hardware issue with the upgrade that could only be solved by giving the customer a new modem. They wound up reboxing a bunch of U.S. Robotics modems, sending them out to the customers, and disappearing. Egghead was going to overwhelm the world with sales savvy and apparently used the Seattle Seahawks, another Allen property, as an organizational model with similar success.