Talk:Tandy Corporation/Archives/2013

Tandy 400

Did the Tandy Corporation really ever make a computer called the Tandy 400 (see Strong Bad), the one in early Strong Bad email cartoons on HomestarRunner.com?

There was never a 'Tandy 400'. The closest-named Tandy computers I can think of would have been the TRS-80 Model 200, Model 600, and Model 4 (but never a Model 400), and the Tandy PC-4.

Wait a minute- I heard from a librarian that there was a tandy 400. "The first computer my son had was a Tandy 400," she said. -Tapd260

Why a separate page?

Is there any reason to having this as a separate page, as opposed to merging the information into the RadioShack article? As they are essentially about the same thing, it would make more sense to have a single, more complete article.

Fourohfour 14:31, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Wrong. Tandy and Radio Shack are far from being the same, from 1921 until 1968 they were completely different and unrelated entities. You might as well merge entries for Time Magazine, Warner Brothers, and AOL- you ignore a lot of history. --66.245.216.138 18:03, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

A few Tandy computers have their own entries- perhaps there should be an entry for the Tandy brand, showing all the items made? --Fecund 18:33, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Fourohfour. The two articles should be merged into one. --ric_man 09:40, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree, too. They should be merged into RadioShack. That's something that should be done at one time by one editor, for consistency's sake. Any volunteers? - DavidWBrooks 15:39, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Disagree. Tandy has owned other companies besides RadioShack in the past. 152.15.101.33 20:00, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

I agree. The article for Tandy Corporation (and its history) could very easily be included in the Radio Shack article, as it is one cintinuous company. - AEMoreira042281 02:23, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

I came to this page looking for information about Tandy Computers, i.e. what models were manufactured, and how and why the line was discontinued. I did not know of any of the information in this article, and was very informed. But it's probably best to merge the corporate information with the Radio Shack article. I would like to see more information about Tandy Computers here, unless that's not very important. I have no clue. I hope this post is helpful :) --Danreitz 04:14, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

I disagree. I came to this page looking for the history of Tandy Corporation when I heard from a friend that "Tandy got its name from leather tanning." Now I know that Tandy really did deal in leather, and that it bought and revived Radio Shack while shedding its former business... Definitely the Radio Shack entry should talk about the Tandy brand that it had, and how it was bought by Tandy, still, this entry on the history of Tandy the company needs to stay separate. --Fecund 18:04, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

FYI, and it should probably be worked into this article once the circumstances can be figured out more clearly, but Tandy Leather never quit selling leather. They're still around. google Tandy Leather Factory. from the "Tandy" disambig page: "Tandy Leather Factory, founded in 1980 is the residual portion of Tandy Corporation which sells leather supplies." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.116.67.106 (talk) 18:15, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

According to the Tandy Leather Factory web page, The Leather Factory was founded in 1980, and merged with Tandy Leather in 2000, and the company is still active. IMO, this page should concentrate on the leather portion of these business through the various owners, with the Radio Shack page concentrating on the electronics portion, and each page referencing the other. When I read the article it made it appear that the leather business was defunct. I added a line indicating that the leather business still exists. More info on TandyCrafts is at http://www.answers.com/topic/tandycrafts-inc Sevesteen (talk) 04:34, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Tandy certainly needs to be kept as a separate page. At one time Tandy Corporation was not only the parent of Radio Shack, but Color Tile, Bombay Company, and Pier One. Tandy was very important to the expansion of several retail brands nationally. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dreamshop78 (talk • contribs) 06:57, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

More pre-Radio Shack History

Adding on to my answer above - I came here hoping to find more about the leather goods phase of its history - if anyone can post images of leatherworking goods with the Tandy name, or Tandy shoes, or photos of pre-1963 Tandy retail stores, please add to this entry! --Fecund 18:33, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

There was also at one time a Tandy subsidiary called Color Tile that sold household tile and related products. - Mark Dixon 03:58, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

I removed the citation warnings at the header of this article. Please lets improve the article by contributing more pre-radio shack history —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dreamshop78 (talk • contribs) 05:48, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Incredible Universe and the demise of the Tandy PCs

Incredible Universes were in more places than just Texas. I remember stores in Indianapolis, IN and Columbus, OH.

I'd also be curious to see more details about the demise of Tandy's PC business -- this is the reason I looked up this article.

nobody 22:59, 16 December 2005 (EST)

Also, the entire last paragraph seems entirely schizophrenic. It starts with a discussion of Tandy attempting to entire the big leagues of electronics ends up being a history lesson on two pieces of real estate. Is the post-sale modification of a building really relevant to the history of the Tandy Corp? Though for what it's worth, the Indy store is now the Indianapolis Fry's store. :-)

I'm glad someone else raised this. I'd already thought the same thing; the history of a specific and otherwise non-notable building/branch just didn't strike me as important, I just wasn't in the mood for justifying my changes at the time. I'm going to take it out now. Fourohfour 18:37, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

TechAmerica chain

Around 1997 or so, Tandy/Radio Shack also tested another chain called TechAmerica which focused on electronic parts, kits, wiring, tools, etc aimed at the hobbyist and professional market. It was the entire Radio Shack parts inventory plus many items not carried at typical RS stores, and without all the home electronics and TVs and cellphone accessories.

TechAmerica sold by mail order and had retail stores in Atlanta, Denver, and Phoenix. The Atlanta store was built out of half of an old Zayres (similar to Kmart), to give some sense of scale.

The TechAmerica name was later dropped in favor of "Radio Shack.Com" which was meant to be different than the the "Radio Shack" mall stores.

Regardless of the name change, all three test stores were closed in early 2002.

Here is an article apparently produced around the time TechAmerica began: TechAmerica still a test

Patrick AWA 23:35, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Other Tandy acquisitions

Someone above mentioned ColorTile; another notable acquisition was the Memorex consumer brand, which according to the Memorex article was acquired by Tandy Corp. from Burroughs in April 1982, but sold again in November 1993.

I'd always thought that they also owned Pier 1 Imports, but it might have been just Charles Tandy rather than Tandy Corporation. According to fundinguniverse.com, Pier 1 started as a store named "Cost Plus" (funny, you don't see that name in the official Pier 1 history! :-); Charles Tandy later bankrolled the store and acquired the rights to use the name and concept to open a chain of additional stores, which he sold in 1966 to a group that renamed the chain to "Pier 1 Imports".

Meanwhile, the original store grew into what is now the Cost Plus World Market chain. So, Charles Tandy was the impetus behind both Pier 1 and its main competitor. Kind of interesting.--NapoliRoma (talk) 11:49, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Tandy logo UK.gif

Image:Tandy logo UK.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 08:53, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Trivia

Is this trivia non-trivial enough to move back to article space? RJFJR (talk) 15:46, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

• Fictional chat show host Alan Partridge visited a specially closed Norwich branch of Tandy in the 1995 Christmas special of his series Knowing Me, Knowing You...With Alan Partridge.