I should preface this blog by pointing out that I'm referring to buying a desktop PC in a retail store on the high street as shopping online still provides a wealth of options for the discerning shopper but in my particular circumstance a lack of credit/debit card proved to be a major stumbling block and I had hoped that one of the major retailers would provide me with a decent PC with a good price to power ratio.

My predicament started around a month ago when I decided that enough was enough and that I would get a PC that I could use to not only surf the web but also play games on, my old laptop simply wasn't up to the task and the people at the local library frown upon you trying to install games on their surprisingly powerful PCs.

As I mentioned earlier my bank doesn’t trust me to have a debit card so I was forced to look around for a PC I could buy with real money and here's where the problem lies; retail chains such as Tesco, Currys and even the ironically named PC world only want to sell you a laptop, some do sell desktops or all in one PCs but only a small selection and none included a dedicated graphics card.

Smaller stores in my area no longer even stock PCs or laptops because they simply couldn’t compete with the big players prices and found themselves switching to PC repairs just to stay alive and now the big players themselves have moved away from these machines as the portable devices market has become more dominant.

It took me over a month of searching nearby towns and even the capital of our fine country before I finally bit the bullet and went to someone with a debit card with the offer of cash upfront and a hearty handshake in exchange for their services so that I could finally got a PC, nothing too fancy just a mid level gaming rig but the whole experience has soured me on large retail chains and for the first time I've felt the effects they have on local shopping.

When I last bought a gaming PC it had a Matrox G400 and at the time it turned out to be a pretty poor choice for playing games but at least there was 4-5 shops that were willing to help me and I cant help but wonder if this lack of options and accessibility is hindering new comers or even casual players getting the most from their PC gaming experience because not only is there less shops but the people who had worked in the old PC stores had a lot more stake in the experience you got from them and quite frankly seem a lot more knowledgeable than your local big electronics retailer.

You can get prepaid debt cards, they're like gift cards.

@Bocam said:

You can get prepaid debt cards, they're like gift cards.

I Know, but the option to buy with cash should still be possible

Where do you live and why are you not buying the parts to build it yourself?

@TheHBK said:

Where do you live and why are you not buying the parts to build it yourself?

Yes exactly.

Change bank if you can't get a debit card with them. I have never heard of anyone not being able to get a debit card before. Anyone can get a debit card, surely?

Don't buy computer parts from a real place.

Never buy a computer pre-built, or at least pre-built from a shitty place such as PC World. What do you think the 'PC' stands for? That's right, Paedophile Cocks.

You are supposed to build it yourself cause nowadays they build pc parts as if they where legos.

I gotta ask why you don't have a debit card.

@buft said:

@Bocam said:

You can get prepaid debt cards, they're like gift cards.

I Know, but the option to buy with cash should still be possible

Maybe so, but the option was still there for you. You didn't have to track down some poor sucker good friend to let you use his/her card.

Get a debit card and buy the parts yourself.

Alternatively, iBuyPower and Origin (careful with that one, though - from what I've been told, their customer service is awful) are decent alternatives if you don't want to build one yourself.

@Three0neFive said:

Get a debit card and buy the parts yourself.

Alternatively, iBuyPower and Origin (careful with that one, though - from what I've been told, their customer service is awful) are decent alternatives if you don't want to build one yourself.

@TheHBK said:

Where do you live and why are you not buying the parts to build it yourself?

I live in northern Ireland and it seems every supplier wanted to charge me a little extra for offshore delivery so in the end the cost saving wasnt as much as i would hope and delivery times varied wildly, quicker and easier to just buy a custome built PC

I went into PC World once looking for HDMI cables for my PS3 (needed one that day). When I asked one of the staff where they were in the store, she instead tried to sell me a VGA cable, saying it was HDMI.

Don't shop at PC World.

@GS_Dan said:

I went into PC World once looking for HDMI cables for my PS3 (needed one that day). When I asked one of the staff where they were in the store, she instead tried to sell me a VGA cable, saying it was HDMI.

Don't shop at PC World.

Ive had similar problems at big retail stores before, its the reason i lament over the loss of smaller specialist store

There are plenty of stores around that sell parts. There is really no reason why you couldn't have just bought the parts and built it yourself, or just have someone else build it for you if you don't know how.

You are seriously over-complicating the matter.

All online retailers you can call although you may be right, credit/debit only. 
The best thing to do is go to computer stores- there's not many but they exist. Frys for one has parts enough to build a computer (at lest they used to). If big retail fails sometimes you have to find smaller places, although I know these are harder to find in some areas but google maps is good for that sometimes. 
 
Sometimes you just have to shop around for all the parts you need but it is possible, just a lot more time consuming. I do agree, its more complicated then it should be but that I assume is because most tech savvy people use the internet for a lot of their stuff.  
Interesting dilemma there. These days its probably best to just get a prepaid card. It would save you time, but you are right it's kinda weird.

I totally agree with your last comment. PC manufacturers need to be a lot better at differentiating and minimizing the number of different SKUs they send to retail shelves, and I do think it scares a lot of potential PC gamers away, because specs are complicated and scary, and nobody wants to feel ripped off because they had to make a decision between one desktop with 6GB of RAM and another with 4GB and an SSD.