Garden Grove to Be One of First Sites for Inacomp-Mitsubishi ‘Superstore’
In an effort to tap the booming home-office market, Inacomp Computer Centers, one of the nation’s leading computer retail chains, has joined forces with Mitsubishi of Japan to create a new group of computer “superstores,” starting in Orange County.
The first of the new outlets, which will be the size of small supermarkets, is scheduled to open in Garden Grove in September.
Rick Inatome, chief executive of Inacomp, said the new stores were conceived as “total small-business resource centers” that would take advantage of the “explosive” growth in demand for personal computers and office products among home-based businesses and other small firms.
“This segment is a very fast-growing portion of the PC industry, and in the distribution business there is a trend toward segmentation,” Inatome said. “You used to go to a generic computer store, but now there’s an orientation toward servicing particular segments.”
Inacomp will be the managing partner of the joint venture, dubbed Computer Supercenters International, and will retain a controlling interest, according to Inatome, who co-founded Inacomp with his father, Joseph Inatome. The elder Inatome will be chairman and chief executive of the new venture, which will invest about $6 million for the initial phase.
Plans call for the establishment of four centers in 1990-1991, and up to 20 over the next five years.
The Computer Supercenters will feature a broad range of computer hardware and software as well as fax machines, copiers, and books and magazines. In addition, they will boast a family drop-in center, a theater for vendor demonstrations, and some small business services such as PC publishing. “They will have a trade-show like appeal,” said Inatome.
Computer stores, such as the existing Inacomp outlets, Businessland and ComputerLand, focus primarily on larger business customers, and the stores tend to be about 3,000 to 6,000 square feet. The Inacomp Supercenters will be 20,000 to 25,000 square feet.
John Russell, editor of the trade newspaper Computer Reseller News, called the company “a major endorsement of the home office market, and an example of how the larger chains are starting to diversify.” Up to now, he said, there had been a smattering of computer superstores, such as Businessland subsidiary Computer Craft, that had done reasonably well. Now, he said, these retailers are ready to “start hitting their stride.”
Mitsubishi is interested in the venture “first and foremost” as an investment opportunity, according to a company spokesman, and also views it as a way to gain some retailing experience. In addition, Computer Supercenters could benefit from the Mitsubishi trading company’s purchasing power around the world. The electronics products branch of the Japanese firm is not involved.
