![]() Tandy had grand plans for quick expansion of McDuff and in Houston that included a total of 20 stores throughout the area. Houston’s McDuff stores were 10,000 Square Feet (about the size of a Dollar Tree) which was only about 1/3rd of the size of the competitors.Ī commercial from shortly after the first stores opened in Houston. Four more supercenters would open by the end of November brining the Houston area locations to 10. These stores would carry a full line of electronics, and appliances. Shortly after the conversions six new McDuff Supercenters opened outside of malls. By early November the first signs of the new brand hit town as Video Concepts locations in Houston area malls were converted to McDuff. They began searching for an operations manager for a new warehouse. ![]() In the summer of 1986 Tandy made the first moves to expand McDuff into Houston. Customers and staff watch TV at McDuff Electronics in Fort Worth when Congressman Jim Wright delivers his resignation speech, Photography by: Bruce Maxwell from UTA Libraries. Tandy saw this as an opportunity to easily expand their McDuff footprint by converting some Video Concepts into McDuff locations which did not carry appliances and larger electronics. These stores were owned by Eckerd and had been modeled after RadioShack. By 1986 Tandy was in the early stages of expanding to areas like San Antonio, San Jose, CA and of course Houston.Īround the same time as the McDuff purchase, Tandy would also buy a chain of mall-based retail outlets named Video Concepts. McDuff stores were a bit smaller than their competitors at the time, but they made up for this by positioning multiple stores throughout a city. McDuff was intended to help compete with national discounters like Highland Superstores and Federated which carried name brand appliances and electronics. ![]() ![]() At the time Tandy’s largest retail outlet was RadioShack which mostly sold Tandy or RadioShack branded products. In 1985 Tandy purchased a 24 store company to help them enter the name-brand market. By the 1980s the company had expanded to Jacksonville, FL. At some point they seemed to have merged with another company, Scott Appliances, and also operated locations under the Santa Stores name. Early information is scant, but the chain had stores open at least as far back as the 1960s. McDuff Electronics started out as a small chain based out of Memphis Tennessee. ![]()
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