Its hard to believe now, but back then RS had a general corporate policy of selling everything required, all the way down to installation tools and nuts and bolts. Not just computers but car audio, telephones, what would later be called home theater, any line of business they entered, they jumped in both feet.

Its almost noteworthy what they didn't stock. They didn't stock much in the line of non-electronics raw materials and power tools, so if you made a subwoofer for your car you'd need to buy the wood and saws elsewhere.

It was very popular and was very profitable, at least compared to now. There's probably a greater entrepreneur lesson here that your customers don't "buy things" they "do projects" and every different place they have to visit to do a project probably costs about 50% in sales, or at least a ridiculous number.

In many ways Tandy were the Apple of their day in terms of sales strategies. Not only did they sell systems soup-to-nuts, but they also controlled the retail channel (Radio Shack locations nationwide) and attempted to monopolize service and repair, both things we recognize from the modern Apple model.

My dad still sometimes recounts the story of how he bought a TRS-80, and found that the screws holding the case together were sealed in place with Glyptal. When he wanted to upgrade the system he drilled through the Glyptal to get at the screws, and then placed a few stern calls to Tandy HQ in Fort Worth, admonishing them that once a computer was sold, it belonged to the consumer and the manufacturer had no right to prevent the consumer from repairing or modifying it himself if he so chose.

Tandy listened, and future TRS-80 models were sold without the Glyptal on the screws. Which means, I guess, that some things HAVE changed after all...