Tiny Computers shuts U.S. stores
Tiny is abandoning a three-year effort that saw the company open more than 40 stores in malls along the West Coast, from the state of Washington to Southern California. The company has already shuttered most of the outlets and plans to close the remaining seven within a couple of months, according to Phil Morris, chief operating officer of the company's U.S. operations.
"In the U.S. we're just watching diminishing sales as a result of a terrible PC industry," Morris told CNET News.com.
Morris stressed that the Surrey, England-based company is not abandoning the U.S. market and said Tiny will continue to sell PCs over the phone and through its Web site. The company had said it hoped to open 250 U.S. stores by 2002. The stores remaining open, for now, are in Auburn and Tacoma, Wash., as well as the San Francisco Bay Area communities of Pleasanton and Concord and Southern California locations in Glendale, Montebello and Ontario. --Ian Fried