Concept Computer Center
Nacogdoches, TX. 1984 to 1986
Concept was a regional computer retailer with stores in Beaumont, Orange, Nacogdoches, Longview, and Tyler. I was a 20 year old college student in Nacogdoches and I got a job here so I would have party money.
This was back in the day when PC’s were new and very expensive. A system with some punch would sell for over five grand and the powerhouse machines could easily go over ten thousand dollars. Printers weren’t cheap either back then.
Selling computers back in the eighties was not like working at Best Buy today. Ninety percent of the stuff integrated into the advanced motherboard’s of today were expensive add-on products back then. On the Apple II, if you wanted eighty green columns on your screen instead of the standard 40, you had to buy an add-on card. We could sell anything we could find a supplier for, but we had to be the one to make it work for the customer. If you can’t make it work, you can’t sell it in most cases. Luckily for me, I could make anything work. I was the guy the other salespeople would come to to make their stuff work.
I became quite proficient with networking technologies used by 3com (who were big network server vendors at the time) that could integrate an AppleTalk network with an ethernet network, thus putting Macintoshes and IBM PC’s on the same network and allowing for sharing of valuable resources, such as expensive printers and expensive storage space. Very cutting edge at the time.
Here is what I did:
- Worked the retail floor like a hawk, selling anything that wasn’t
nailed down - Was Apple Computer’s authorized representative for our store’s Apple education accounts.
- Expanded position to include all education accounts, meaning IBM shops as well as Apple. This move took me from selling strictly to
elementary schools to selling to high schools and universities. Instead of selling the Apple II and Apple IIc with Reader Rabbit I was also able to move the high end stuff like the Macintosh with Aldous PageMaker. Desktop publishing was one of the “killer apps” at the time - Planned and implemented software shows and technical seminars drawing in new corporate and government customers
