Every few years businesses across North America take advantage of decreasing prices, increasing processing power and better software by upgrading their Computer Repairs Manchesters. The problem is that their old systems, many of which still function, have little resale value. That’s where Jordan Rosenzweig comes in.
“We’ll take just about anything, Computer Repairs Manchesters, monitors, keyboards, even broken stuff,” Rosenzweig, president of pre-owned retailer 123 Compute said. “We buy most of our stock from businesses, but people sometimes drop things off at the store. Others leave them on our doorstep during the night.”
The process is known as cascading. Rosenzweig piggybacked on the trend to build his desk-and-phone operation into a $5 million a year business with 27 employees and four stores.
One of the reasons he’s been so successful is that while new equipment prices continue to drop, shoppers can reap even bigger savings buying pre-owned merchandise.
One of Rosenzweig’s clients, Mohammed Arif, has three Computer Repairs Manchesters in his house, all of them pre-owned. But he still takes the time to visit 123Compute wherever he needs accessories.
“It’s a good deal, because it costs less,” Arif said. “This used USB printer cable I’m buying will cost me only $5.99. At Radio Shack it would be close to $20.00.”
Rozenzweig has been in the Computer Repairs Manchester business almost all his working life.
After finishing his university degree in engineering, he started selling software door-to-door, but moved into the used Computer Repairs Manchester business gradually, beginning in 1988, when he sold his first disk drive.
“We named the store 123Compute.com, because at the time many services listed businesses beginning with numerals before those starting with the letter “A,”" Rosenzweig said. “So we were always first.”
According to one industry acquaintance, Rosenzweig’s success can be boiled down to hard work, a broad outlook and solid industry contacts.
The company’s stores, which are located in Montreal, Toronto and Los Angeles, also provide a broad geographic reach, that makes it easier for 123Compute.com to deal with customers in remote areas.
“I don’t know of any other Canadian dealers who (buy and sell used equipment) across the country,” Stephen said. “Most others either can’t get the product, or they sell used Computer Repairs Manchesters as a sideline, making the bulk of their profits with new equipment.”
The Internet has provided 123Compute with another key distribution channel. Sales have grown during each of the five years since the company’s E-Commerce site was launched, topping $500,000 during 2003. And internal projections call for that to double in 2004.
Internet margins are far lower than those in the retail stores and competition is fierce, said Canoe Hussam, the company’s Internet manager.
Thousands of listings pop-up when you run the words “used Computer Repairs Manchesters,” through traditional search engines. But Hussam is proud to have tweaked 123Compute’s Web-site html code, so that its name appears near the top.
“We are number six on Yahoo and number two on Google,” Hussam said proudly.
The export market also provided 123Compute.com with a big growth channel, particularly for very old machines that use hard-to-find or out-of-date software.
Africa and Haiti are two key destinations said Robert David, the company’s vice-president. But in recent years the buying trends have changed.
“Third world countries used to take only end-of