PC Club closes suddenly in Modesto

Two months after a larger company bought PC Club, promising its 37 stores would remain open for business, the Modesto store closed this week.

Behind glass smudged with fingerprints, a sign read: "Sorry. We have closed. Please call 1-888-9-PCCLUB."

An answering machine allows customers to leave messages.

Computers filled shelves and sat on work tables, labels identifying their needs hanging from them. Morning sun radiated through internal security gates, illuminating the vacant computer hardware store.

Inquiries about when and how people can retrieve their property have gone unanswered. Calls to NAOC Holdings, which bought the 16-year-old chain in May, were unreturned.

There were 20 stores open as of the last PC Club Web site update. Wikipedia notes the company suddenly closed its doors Tuesday nationwide.

Computer technicians still were at work Tuesday morning, according to employees of nearby businesses in the NorthPointe Shopping Center at Pelandale Avenue and Sisk Road.

The closure comes two months after PC Club employees survived a roller coaster of financial woes. Stores closed May 13 and the company filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Three days later, stores reopened under NAOC Holdings. NAOC, a vertically integrated home-appliance conglomerate, never disclosed what it paid for the withering company.

Bee staff writer Eve Hightower can be reached at ehightower@modbee.com or 578-2382.

This story was originally published July 31, 2008 at 3:56 AM with the headline "PC Club closes suddenly in Modesto."