Byte Shop

The Byte Shop was a chain of retail computer stores founded in Mountain View, California, by Paul Terrell and Boyd Wilson in 1975.

[1] Paul Terrell opened up the first Byte Shop at 1063 West El Camino Real in Mountain View, California, on December 8, 1975.

[4] Following widespread interest among prospective franchisees, Terrell established a holding company, Byte, Inc., in March 1976,[3] the same month they announced their third store in Campbell, California, planned for a May 1976 opening.

[4] In July 1976, the store was profiled in an issue of Business Week, recognizing it as a computer hobbyist success story and a significant opportunity for growth through capital investment.

Terrell initially shrugged off the loss of their business relationship with MITS, as IMSAI computers had outsold Altair 8800s at the Byte Shops two-to-one.

[8] Terrell told Jobs that he would order 50 units of the computer and pay $500 each (equivalent to $2,677 in 2023) on delivery, but only if they came fully assembled—he was not interested in buying bare printed circuit boards with no components.

If you give me the parts on net 30-day terms I can build and deliver the computers in that time frame, collect my money from Terrell at the Byte Shop and pay you.

The two Steves and their small crew spent day and night building and testing the computers, now renamed the Apple I, and delivered to Terrell on time.

Terrell's US$25,000 purchase order gave Apple a significant boost in credibility in the computer industry and was a major factor in their early growth.

[17] Many of the original Byte Shop dealers eventually became independent as the personal computer marketplace grew and became segmented by the various uses and applications the PC was developing.