Editing RadioShack (section)

==== Home computers ====
In 1977, two years after the MITS [[Altair 8800]], Radio Shack introduced the [[TRS-80]], one of the first mass-produced [[personal computer]]s.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=McCracken |first=Harry |url=https://techland.time.com/2012/08/03/trs-80/ |title=Please Don't Call It Trash-80: A 35th Anniversary Salute to Radio Shack's TRS-80 |magazine=TIME |date=August 3, 2012 |access-date=February 15, 2015}}</ref> This was a complete pre-assembled system at a time when many microcomputers were built from kits, backed by a nationwide retail chain when computer stores were in their infancy. Sales of the initial, primitive US$600 (equal to ${{Inflation|US|600|1977|fmt=c}} today) TRS-80 exceeded all expectations despite its limited capabilities and high price.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Welsh |first1=Theresa |last2=Welsh |first2=David |title=Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution|date=2007 |publisher=The Seeker Books |isbn=978-0-9793468-1-1 |pages=2–4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-yjr5lAji1wC&pg=PT4 |access-date=February 8, 2015}}</ref> This was followed by the [[TRS-80 Color Computer]] in 1980, designed to attach to a television. Tandy also inspired the ''Tandy Computer Whiz Kids'' (1982–1991), a comic-book duo of teen calculator enthusiasts who teamed up with the likes of Archie and Superman.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/whiz_kids_comics.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102210139/http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/whiz_kids_comics.html |title=Radio Shack Comic Books: Tandy Computer Whiz Kids|archive-date=January 2, 2015|work=radioshackcatalogs.com}}</ref> Radio Shack's computer stores offered lessons to pre-teens as "Radio Shack Computer Camp" in the early 1980s.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://money.cnn.com/2015/02/10/technology/radioshack-computer-camp/index.html |title=My week at RadioShack Computer Camp in 1983 |publisher=CNN Money |date=February 10, 2015 |access-date=February 14, 2015 |first=Andrew |last=Bergmann}}</ref>

By September 1982, the company had more than 4,300 stores, and more than 2,000 independent franchises in towns not large enough for a company-owned store. The latter also sold third-party hardware and software for Tandy computers, but company-owned stores did not sell or even acknowledge the existence of non-Tandy products.<ref name="shea19820913">{{Cite magazine |last=Shea |first=Tom |date=September 13, 1982 |title=All others sell at list price; we deal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EDAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA11 |magazine=[[InfoWorld]] |page=11 |access-date=March 17, 2019 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> In the mid-1980s, Radio Shack began a transition from its proprietary [[8-bit]] computers to its proprietary [[IBM PC compatible]] [[Tandy 1000|Tandy computers]], removing the "Radio Shack" name from the product in an attempt to shake off the long-running nicknames "Radio Scrap"<ref name="deathbed">{{cite journal|last=Lendino |first=Jamie |url=https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2476216,00.asp |title=RadioShack Is On its Deathbed |journal=PCMag |date=February 3, 2015 |access-date=February 16, 2015}}</ref> and "Trash 80"<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.tylerpaper.com/TP-My+Generation/213481/remembering-the-trash80 |title=Remembering the Trash-80 |newspaper=Tyler Morning Telegraph |date=February 10, 2015 |access-date=February 16, 2015}}</ref> to make the product appeal to business users. Poor compatibility, shrinking margins and a lack of economies of scale led Radio Shack to exit the computer-manufacturing market in the 1990s after losing much of the desktop PC market to newer, price-competitive rivals like [[Dell]].<ref name=nytimes_tandy /> Tandy acquired the [[Computer City]] chain in 1991, and sold the stores to [[CompUSA]] in 1998.

In 1994, RadioShack began selling [[IBM]]'s [[IBM Aptiva|Aptiva]] line of home computers.<ref>{{cite press release|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180714021322/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Radio+Shack+adds+hot+new+IBM+Aptiva+MPC+to+name-brand+computer+line.-a015914929|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Radio+Shack+adds+hot+new+IBM+Aptiva+MPC+to+name-brand+computer+line.-a015914929|archive-date=July 14, 2018|access-date=September 17, 2019|date=November 9, 1994|via=Business Wire|title=Radio Shack adds hot new IBM Aptiva MPC to name-brand computer line. }}</ref>  This partnership would last until 1998, when RadioShack partnered with [[Compaq]] and created 'The Creative Learning Center' as a store-within-a-store to promote desktop PCs.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://corpinfo.radioshack.com/investor/annualreports/97/ops_computers.htm |title=RadioShack Computers – 1997 Annual Report |publisher=RadioShack.com |date=1997 |access-date=February 12, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212025433/http://corpinfo.radioshack.com/investor/annualreports/97/ops_computers.htm |archive-date=February 12, 2015}}</ref> Similar promotions were tried with 'The Sprint Store at RadioShack' (mobile telephones), '[[RCA]] Digital Entertainment Center' (home audio and video products), and 'PowerZone' (RadioShack's line of battery products, power supplies, and surge protectors).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lippincott.com/en/news/radioshack-and-compaq-form-brand-alliance-with-the-creative-learning-center |title=RadioShack and Compaq form Brand Alliance with 'The Creative Learning Center' |publisher=Lippincott |date=August 31, 1998 |access-date=February 12, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160224215259/http://www.lippincott.com/en/news/radioshack-and-compaq-form-brand-alliance-with-the-creative-learning-center/ |archive-date=February 24, 2016}}</ref>