Former type Electronics Fate Acquired by CompUSA Website None Founded July 1973 | Industry Retail Products Consumer electronics Ceased operations 2003 | |
Defunct 2003 (acquired), 2005 (all stores renamed/closed) Headquarters Brisbane, California, United States | ||
The Good Guys was a chain of consumer electronics retail stores with 71 stores in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. The company was headquartered in Brisbane, California in the Dakin Building in the early 1990s and subsequently in Alameda, California until it was bought in late 2003 by CompUSA. The Good Guys was founded in 1973 by Ron Unkefer on Chestnut Street, San Francisco. By 2006, all of the company's stores had closed.
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Re-launch
After all The Good Guys stores closed, CompUSA began marketing all California and Hawaii stores as CompUSA with The Good Guys Inside in response to Best Buy'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 no longer existed 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 armed robbers. This event became the largest hostage rescue operation on home soil in U.S. history to date, with about fifty hostages being held at gunpoint.