Owning Computer Stores in the '90s
Added 2024-03-07 03:40:30 +0000 UTCNext month I'm hoping to make a video interviewing someone who owned several computer stores from 1995 to around 2005 — my Dad.
Dad owned several Computer Renaissance stores, a franchise which grew fairly large in the late 90s. He had quite the operation at one point — a total of four stores and two "warehouses" as we called them, basically large buildings where computers were assembled and tested and inventory for the stores was held. And it did *not* end well financially, it's quite the tale.
Picture 1: Dad standing next to one of the assembly lines in 1999 — likely a bunch of PCs getting Windows 98 installed.
Pictures 2 & 3: Inside one of the stores.
Picture 4: Warehouse inventory.
These (low res) pictures were taken on an early Sony Mavica, maybe an MVC-FD5 or MVC-FD7.
So a call for help: what types of questions would you have for him? I can't guarantee I can cover everything, but I'd love to know what you'd be curious to hear about!
Comments
those were dark times for Apple!
clabretro
2024-04-13 21:30:43 +0000 UTCI worked in Federal Way around 93/94* and am a computer nerd. I don't know how I never ended up in your dad's store. * - Office Depot which also sold computers, including the ever-confusing and seemingly endless line of Apple Performas (6110CD? No? 6112CD? No? 637CD? 630CDPC?
Maggie McFee
2024-04-13 16:31:46 +0000 UTCOh yeah, great question!
clabretro
2024-03-23 02:17:28 +0000 UTCCan’t wait! I’d be curious to know through the years what products he thought were groundbreaking and exciting and whether that panned out to match consumer opinion or not.
James Hannigan
2024-03-23 00:07:09 +0000 UTCYeah great questions! I was also going to ask him who was supplying the OEM parts for the stuff they were building in house.
clabretro
2024-03-16 04:08:07 +0000 UTCVery cool. I haven't looked through all the questions but one thing I'm really curious about is margins on systems built and sold in house. Additionally what kind of accessories or upgrades had the biggest and smallest markup.
Coffee_guy
2024-03-16 02:38:44 +0000 UTCdefinitely! we'll try to go over the timeline of how things were going, when it peaked, in hindsight when he should have slowed down, etc. we have some more pictures and I might even have a brief video!
clabretro
2024-03-14 00:37:16 +0000 UTCha I'll ask him. I remember a lot of 90s cases being like that
clabretro
2024-03-14 00:27:00 +0000 UTCI'd be interested to hear him reflect on his business decisions and what wisdom he can pass on from the experience. Especially what decisions worked out, and which he wishes he could have a mulligan on. (e.g "No one could have seen this coming...", "Everyone thought xyz would be the next big thing, but it just didn't happen.") I'd also be interested to know when business "peaked" and then what led him to decide it was time to move on. I'm also really looking forward to seeing any old pictures, videos and catalog artifacts that have survived!
Callan Christensen
2024-03-13 23:18:10 +0000 UTCDid he find, back in the day, that the inside of Compaq PCs were needlessly sharp? I always found myself inadvertently tagging the inside of the case when I'd get cut each and every time I went into one to perform some maintenance or repairs.
Liquorist
2024-03-12 20:27:44 +0000 UTCgreat question!
clabretro
2024-03-08 18:44:30 +0000 UTCI would love to hear how sales of laptops compared to desktops when those slowly got more accessible 👀 Did that actually make an impact “in the field”? Also, wow, really cool 👀👀
Stolkie
2024-03-08 11:56:04 +0000 UTCSame year!
Matt Stadler
2024-03-07 19:02:37 +0000 UTCI was born in 1988, so a pretty similar story!
clabretro
2024-03-07 18:01:33 +0000 UTCI see a lot of great questions. I don't have more of my own. I'm a 90s kid first PC was a compaq Pentium 1 running windows 95
Matt Stadler
2024-03-07 17:07:32 +0000 UTCgood questions! bigger distributors coming along was definitely a factor, I'll be sure to get his thoughts on that
clabretro
2024-03-07 15:55:05 +0000 UTCgreat questions! he definitely has some "odd situation" stories to tell.
clabretro
2024-03-07 15:53:41 +0000 UTCcool to hear you were around computer building as well! great questions, I'll be sure to ask
clabretro
2024-03-07 15:53:09 +0000 UTCdefinitely!
clabretro
2024-03-07 15:52:25 +0000 UTCAsk about how the emergence of the internet changed the computer industry through the 1990s
Samuel Butler
2024-03-07 14:48:09 +0000 UTCThis is so great I don’t know where to begin with. This backstory on your personal is on itself answering many questions about you; I have been a follower and a patron for a few months now and I can’t get enough of your videos, please keep all of it coming steady, and thank you! Now this story about your dad and his computer stores is on another level. My dad also used to build PCs for low-volume SMB customers, and that’s how I got into computers and programming which is what I have been working on for 30 years. Now we import refurb brand name units and do SSDs on them lol. Questions for Brad: how was the entrepreneurial experience from running the stores? How did the financials work or not work? How many people worked for him? Did he train the techs to do warehouse work?
Alberto Güerere
2024-03-07 12:48:32 +0000 UTCGetting slightly Mr. Robot vibes here 😂 What was the most odd situation that he can talk about in his store? If several than better! 🤣 Was there someone who had a very special configuration? What made it special? Did you just wake up one day and knew that you wanna sell computers? or did you sell something before? Cheers from Germany!
Sgt. Silver
2024-03-07 08:05:09 +0000 UTCI remember the days of buying beige boxes with a computer inside. Those seem to be gone. I too would like to know what happened to the business, what changed in the way we buy computers that people stopped going to these local stores for their gear? I remember going to them, selecting the parts myself from online tests and reviews (Tom's Hardware, anyone) and then taking all the stuff home in boxes and assembling the PC myself. But I can imagine most people just bought the beige box pre-assembled. So what did change? I know brands like Gateway and Dell sold ready-made PCs existed long before, so that was not it. Did people start buying online, or did the market for beige boxes just dwindle away and did people start buying laptops if they wanted a "real computer", and for all the rest use their shiny new smartphone or tablet?
Cedric Roijakkers
2024-03-07 07:20:31 +0000 UTCOoooh good question about anti-virus. He was definitely a "mac sucks" type of guy back then so I'll get him talking about that too haha.
clabretro
2024-03-07 04:49:45 +0000 UTCWow, really neat - I have so many questions! In the 1990s what did he think the useful life of a typical computer would be? Did it matter what brand of computer a person bought? Were brands going out of style vs whitebox/generic builds? Was antivirus software necessary?
Mark
2024-03-07 04:41:48 +0000 UTCGreat questions! We'll definitely cover that!
clabretro
2024-03-07 04:39:16 +0000 UTCAdmittedly I’m curious about what exactly happened that didn’t work out haha
Zed
2024-03-07 04:25:57 +0000 UTCQuestion for Dad (Brad Retro): Did he foresee his operation getting as large as it did? And if he could change anything about how he handled things to possibly keep the operation going, what would that be?
Zed
2024-03-07 04:24:54 +0000 UTCIt was a franchise under a parent company called Grow Biz, they had other non-computer-related franchises as well such as Play It Again Sports.
clabretro
2024-03-07 04:17:46 +0000 UTCI worked in a local pc building shop briefly in the mid 90’s, I didn’t know computer renaissance was a chain, I thought they were local.
John Kiniston
2024-03-07 04:16:15 +0000 UTCAs you'll see, my Dad is a pretty industrious man. Definitely has a drive to "do stuff." Owned computer stores for 10+ years and still somehow managed to work at Boeing as an IT Manager for a total of 30 years.
clabretro
2024-03-07 04:02:42 +0000 UTCOn behalf of A LOT of software developers, I'm always impressed when people get into the workforce and don't get sick of it. At least the career I no longer love pays for the cameras and lenses that bring me endless joy. 🫠
Ross Nelson
2024-03-07 03:59:43 +0000 UTCCan definitely ask that
clabretro
2024-03-07 03:58:09 +0000 UTCI should also add he can talk at length about all that, so that'll be great haha
clabretro
2024-03-07 03:57:07 +0000 UTCExcellent questions! I'll definitely be sure to get him talking about all that!
clabretro
2024-03-07 03:55:03 +0000 UTCDid owning/operating a computer related business change his passion for computers in either direction?
jdotinc
2024-03-07 03:50:43 +0000 UTCNot store performance or sales or anything, just what interested and excited him, what were some of the best and most exciting things during that span? What was the beginning of the end for those stores? Amazon killing everything else off? Internet becoming so popular that things could easily be bought online in general? Race to the bottom on margins (hi Machines!) killing profits? Something else?
Ross Nelson
2024-03-07 03:49:22 +0000 UTCYes! That's exactly what they used. I'll make sure he goes over that.
clabretro
2024-03-07 03:47:25 +0000 UTCHaha, you can call him Brad.
clabretro
2024-03-07 03:47:06 +0000 UTCLiterally my dream job. Question - what software did he use to image all the machines? Ghost?
Brook McKnight
2024-03-07 03:43:48 +0000 UTCHow do we address Mr Clab Retro's dad?
Jordan
2024-03-07 03:41:31 +0000 UTC
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