Computerware

The first ComputerWare store was opened on California Avenue in Palo Alto in 1985 by Drew Munster and Karim Khashoggi. They later hired Derek Van Atta as store manager. ComputerWare was originally incorporated as Lightning Development, doing business as ComputerWare; later the corporation was reorganized as ComputerWest dba ComputerWare after David Lipson bought the company from the original founders.

The corporate sales department was formed in 1987.

In 1988 a separate Headquarters was set up at 2800 West Bayshore Avenue in Palo Alto to house administrative, hardware repair, corporate sales, and other departments that were outgrowing the floor above the Palo Alto retail storefront.

In May 1989, ComputerWare expanded to two stores with the opening of their Sunnyvale store on Lawrence Expressway near Fry's Electronics. Then three more stores were opened in rapid succession: the San Francisco store was opened in November in the heart of the financial district. Stores 4 and 5 were opened in December 1989 by acquisitions of MacOrchard in Berkeley and the Computer Center of Santa Cruz.

August 1990 brought a sixth store in San Rafael through acquisition of MacGarden. This location was still in the Macintosh-only retail business as the Marin Mac Shop until mid-2010 when it closed.

Two new stores opened in 1992: a seventh store was opened in Dublin in October, and then in November store number eight opened in Sunnyvale on El Camino Real through acquisition of MacShop.

The hardware repair depot was moved out into its own building, across 101 on East Bayshore from the corporate headquarters in 1993.

1994 brought about the last store openings, building the ComputerWare retail chain to its height of ten stores. The San Mateo location opened in March on El Camino Real, and the Walnut Creek store was opened in December. April of that same year also brought about the move of one of the two Sunnyvale stores (the El Camino MacShop location) to Santa Clara, thereby solidifying full Bay Area coverage.

The San Rafael (Marin) store location was reopened for a third time in 2004 under new ownership using the new name C3 Computing Corp, and later as The Marin Mac Shop, before finally closing in 2010.

This former ComputerWare location was still very much like the ComputerWare of lore. The San Rafael location always remained a Macintosh-only storefront until the end. The Marin Mac Shop closed its doors in May 2010.