Western Auto
Western Auto Supply Company was started in 1909 in Kansas City, Missouri by George Pepperdine as mail order business for replacement auto parts. The first retail store was established in 1921, and grew quickly as automobiles became more and more common. By the end of the 50s Western Auto was very much like a Sears store, even equipped with Catalog Order Center. Auto Parts comprised only a small percentage of the company's sales by the mid-60's and had all but disappeared by the 70s. In 1987, Sears Roebuck purchased Western Auto and in 1998 parent company Sears sold the remnants of Western Auto to Advance Auto Parts of Roanoke, Virginia.
You can easily recognize the calculators sold by Western Auto as Texas Instruments products. Most calculators were only personalized with a wooden foil on the key plate, the others received a new nameplate.
with permission of the author www.datamath.org
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