Computer City
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Computer City was a chain of United States-based computer superstores operated by Tandy; the retailer was sold to CompUSA in 1998 and liquidated.
Computer City was a supercenter concept featuring name-brand computers, software and related products; at the height of its success the company had over 100 locations in the United States, plus five in Europe.
Computer City was founded by Joe Inatome who had previously built a network of franchise based computer retailers, called Inacomp which sold over $500M / year in computer products. Joe leveraged his vendor relationships at Inacomp to bring IBM, Apple, and Compaq to their first big-box merchandising concept, at Computer City. Mitsubishi provided an investment to help open the initial store, which was privately held by Inatome and Mitsubishi.
Computer City innovated a number of retail concepts that are now common retail practices. The store hosted a professional services bureau called The Graphic Zone, that provided film and graphic services for the nascent desk-top publishing industry, the store operated a cafe which served coffee and sandwiches to prolong shopping visits, and the store featured a product training center that included an Electrosonic Video Wall, with 16 32" monitors which served as digital signage for the store, when training wasn't in session. The store also made heavy use of vendor managed inventory, vendor shops, and CO-OP funded retail displays which are now common practice throughout the retail industry.
Ultimately, Tandy bought the ComputerCity concept and store in 1991 and launched Computer City as a national chain (as well as Incredible Universe). Alan Bush, a Radio Shack executive, was named president of the new company.
The stores resembled CompUSA's super center concepts, but lacked the financial backing CompUSA had. CompUSA, having a larger market share, bought the company, and in the process, shut down one of its smaller competitors. Two types of store models existed, one was a full size store with an in house Tandy Repair Center similar to a freestanding Tandy Repair Center that still service RadioShack stores today, now called RadioShack Service Centers. These stores had sub departments for business sales that would just handle business orders for companies and other organizations, they also offered in store customer training classes for software such as Microsoft Excel, Word, and Powerpoint. Some of these locations were as big as some Best Buy Stores. They also operated Computer City Express stores which had no service center in them, nor did they offer classes.They were closer in size to a large RadioShack store.
In its Westbury/Garden City New York location, Computer City opened right next to its main competitor CompUSA. In King Of Prussia, PA, Computer City was directly across the street from CompUSA, and was in plain sight from CompUSA's main entrance. However, Computer City's entrance opened toward an off-street parking lot. A one time Computer City employee claims that he was told by an employee of the Tandy Real Estate Division that these placements were no accident, such locations were sought out.[original research?]
As both Computer City and Tandy's other venture Incredible Universe were both having financial issues, the computer departments of Incredible Universe were changed to Computer City.
The Westbury, NY Incredible Universe was also within 3 miles of the above mentioned CompUSA and Computer City. This may have hurt both of these Tandy divisions.
This takeover was slightly more successful than the future take over of Good Guys, however, it still signals CompUSA's initial decline and eventual privatization by Carlos Slim.
In some states warranties on items that had been purchased at Computer City were taken over by CompUSA, in other states they were taken over by Radio Shack.
In Canada, Computer City Canada stores were sold from CompUSA to Future Shop of whom in the end liquidated all Canadian Computer City locations
There is an active store in Bermuda by the same name; it was independently founded in early 2000 and has never been related to the US or Canadian stores. [1]
There are also active stores by this name in other parts of the world.
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