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.

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