Wow, feeling nostalgic. They never had a B&M presence within maybe a thousand miles or more of where I live in PA, and many of their best deals were B&M only, but back in the day, if you were feeling lucky, their MB/CPU combos featuring second (and third?) tier manufacturers like ECS and Soyo et al. couldn't be beat for putting together a system on the cheap and crossing your fingers some caps wouldn't blow.
Some other thoughts re: the posts in this thread:
MicroCenter continues to be a fairly class act.
BB has come 'round from where they once were, which was a regressive clown act, to be a legitimate B&M competitor to Amazon.
CompUSA always kind of sucked, but I do remember standing outside in the cold with a bunch of other sheeple for one of their sales.
Circuit City wasn't terrible, not sure why they tanked but BB didn't.
Tiger Direct was always shady and sucked, though they continue to exist is some sort of form.
NewEgg had its day in the sun and was once my fav go-to, but frittered that away, imho.
Meh. Nostalgia for my mispent youth roaming the vendor landscape sourcing 'puter parts.
We used to walk 5 miles uphill both ways in the snow just for a cable, and it only cost a nickel, sonny boy!