Following a day-by-day tactical schedule, store managers marked down remaining inventory, advertised closing sales, and finally furloughed their employees and themselves. In February, when the plan was executed, Egghead Computer, a once-thriving retail chain selling personal computer hardware and software, disappeared from the material world. A mainstay of suburban malls nationwide with 250 stores at its peak in 1992, the Spokane, Wash.-based company was closing the doors to its remaining 80 shops.

But Egghead, founded in 1984, didn't vanish like that 19th-century remnant, Woolworth. Instead, the company reappeared in a virtual venue that many observers expect to be at the heart of 21st-century retailing: the World Wide Web. Renamed Egghead.com, the company's operations are no longer in rent-laden storefronts but on three low-overhead Web sites-colorful, catalog-style markets that sell all things computer-related. It has become in effect a virtual mall, with a flagship outlet for new goods (www.egghead.com), a bargain warehouse for refurbished or discontinued products (www.surplusdirect.com), and an online auction house for avid bargain hunters (www.surplusauction.com).