Missing Link: The first Byte Shop opened 50 years ago
The first Byte Shop opened in California in December 1975. Without this later computer retail chain, Apple might have been forgotten today.
Paul Terrell/private
It's one of the most beautiful anecdotes from Silicon Valley: how Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs showed their Apple I at a meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club. And the next day, the Byte Shop ordered fifty units.
1975 was the year of the microcomputer. It was smaller than minicomputers and equipped with a microprocessor. The legendary Altair 8800 was a pioneer. Clubs, hobby developments, and small companies emerged around it. For the first time, anyone could not only buy a computer – anyone could also build a computer or develop accessories and turn it into a business.
Young specialty stores became an important multiplier in the seventies. They were a meeting point for the growing community. People chatted, exchanged ideas, discovered new books and magazines. Above all, they were the place where you could see and try out the new computers.
Dick Heiser opened the first store for home computers on July 15, 1975, in Los Angeles. The best-known chain became ComputerLand with 800 branches. But the Byte Shop, which helped Apple get off the ground with its first order, is particularly memorable.
Origins as a Sales Representative
The founders of Byte Shop were Paul Terrell and Boyd Wilson. In 1975, they started a sales representative company in Mountain View, which they uncreatively named Repco. They primarily brokered measuring instruments like multimeters along the East Coast: California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Customers included universities and aerospace companies.
One of them introduced Terrell to the Altair 8800. Terrell was immediately enthusiastic, partly due to the low price of only $400 as a kit. He called the manufacturer, Ed Roberts of MITS, and introduced himself as a potential distributor. MITS desperately needed one: until then, the Altair was only shipped by mail on order – and they were very behind schedule.
Terrell and Wilson traveled to Albuquerque to MITS (where they met Bill Gates and Paul Allen). They presented their own portfolio and signed a distribution agreement with Roberts for the Altair computer. They received a five percent commission for brokering MITS products, i.e., the Altair and accessories.
(Image:Â Paul Terrell/privat)
The Byte Shop is Born
At a sales representative meeting in the summer of 1975, Roberts asked them to seek potential partners who would open a retail store. It should offer consulting and repair services in addition to sales: many buyers had trouble with the kit. When they learned that Dick Heiser received a 25 percent commission for his existing business, Terrell and Wilson decided to open a store themselves – especially since the sales representative commission was in addition to that.
The search for a suitable location took some time. It had to be in Silicon Valley, of course, the right size, and above all, in a good location. They found it on El Camino Real, a road that runs from San Jose to San Francisco, parallel to the highway. More precisely: 1063 West El Camino Real, Mountain View, California. Today, a print and copy shop is located at the address.
The store opened on December 8, 1975 – Paul Terrell's birthday. He focused more on the store, which soon became many stores, while Boyd managed the sales representation. The name Byte Shop was borrowed from Byte magazine. It first appeared in September 1975. Terrell discovered it at the airport – and speculated that customers would then think his store published the magazine.
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Of course, others also had the idea of opening a computer store. The Byte Shop made the most of it and offered the brand as a franchise. For a five percent revenue share, interested parties could operate their own Byte Shop. Store number 2 opened in Santa Clara, number 3 in Campbell, number 4 in Palo Alto... and so on. For the Byte Shops, communities like the Homebrew Computer Club were an inspiration – and a source of new customers. So Terrell expected his shop managers to attend the meetings.
MITS required that the dealers supplied offer the Altair exclusively – meaning they should not sell any other computers. Terrell found the rule pointless and ignored it. Especially since he sold twice as many IMSAI 8080, an Altair clone, computers. At the first home computer fair, the World Altair Computer Convention, which MITS invited to Albuquerque at the end of March 1976, the manufacturer put him on the spot: either he adhered to the exclusivity clause or he would no longer be supplied. Terrell refused, and the relationship broke.
