Campo Electronics Appliances

I know the old Campo Electronics, Appliances, and Computers is gone but I had to vent. As a company, Campo thought it could hang out with the «big boys» like Circuit City and Best Buy. In the end, Campo went belly-​up trying to beat those two.
I worked at a Campo retail store in the mid-90’s. It started out great and filled a tremendous financial need, but after about a year, things began to change. Experienced managers, who made working at Campo fun and financially rewarding, began leaving and were replaced by more «diverse» management. Our new store manager didn’t deserve the promotion as he rarely opened on time, was gone for hours at a time, hid in the office or warehouse when he was there, and told staff to not transfer any calls to him «unless it was corporate». After opening an hour late one Black Friday, he was fired but only because the Regional Mgr witnessed it first-​hand (employee complaints led nowhere). Unfortunately, he was replaced by someone even worse. Our new store mgr. made it known she was better than salespeople. Successful, full-​time commissioned staff were dismissed and replaced by part-​timers. I guess sales staff who made more than she did were a threat to her somehow. Adults in their 30’s and 40’s who had worked for Campo for years were gone with no explanation and replaced with teenagers. She also made it known to college students like myself that we would have to choose between college or working at Campo. No manager prior to her ever had a problem with our class schedules and the semester was ending in 2 weeks. I expected a change was coming and was prepared by having another job already lined up: shortly before my dismissal, I met a VP with the company who said he was in town trying to find investors. This confirmed my suspicions that the cost of acquisitions and expansions had caught up with Campo. Within a year, this store was gone as was the entire company.