TECHNOLOGY - June 8, 1993

Computer Retailer: The invasion of the big retailers continues. The Computer City retail chain opens its second computer super store in Orange County today with the launch of a new store in South Coast Plaza Village in Santa Ana.

The Fort Worth-based Computer City chain is a division of Tandy Corp., which last week decided to exit computer manufacturing and focus on its retail businesses. AST Research Inc. in Irvine agreed to buy Tandy’s computer-making assets for up to $175 million.

The Computer City store in Santa Ana is about 30,000 square feet, several times larger than a typical Radio Shack electronics store. It employs about 60 people and will sell major brand computers such as Apple, AST, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Packard Bell, Tandy and U.S. Logic.

The company opened the first of its 23 Computer City stores in Garden Grove several years ago. The chain competes head-to-head with another super-store retailer, Dallas-based CompUSA, which has a store in Fountain Valley.

“We believe the Los Angeles area is an enriched business climate with highly computer-literate consumers,” said Alan Bush, its president.