Federated Group /Atari

[fultonbot]

Hey, does anyone here know anyone  who worked the Federated Group when Atari owned them that might be willing to be interviewed for a podcast?
...or

Does anyone have any interesting stories (usually horror, but they do not have to be horror stories)  of shopping at Federated Group when Atari owned them you'd like to share?

 

[doctor_x]

this is a great topic.. I lived in Plano TX where the was a federated and I recall all of the 8 bit and ST goodness.. I believe they even ran a BBS on the ST with a megafile...

 

Federated is also where my mom purchased for me an XM301 modem.. My first modem and the beginning of an absolutely mindbendingly incredible adventure and line of work.. Due to this federated will forever be a place of lore and awe for me!

 

I look forward to whatever you come across and produce...

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 3/11/2021 at 7:55 PM, fultonbot said:

Does anyone have any interesting stories (usually horror, but they do not have to be horror stories)  of shopping at Federated Group when Atari owned them you'd like to share?

 

Somewhere in the 1983 to 1984 timeframe, my family and I were at the Burbank, CA store.  While my folks were off looking at whatever it was they were thinking of buying, I was in a different part of the store fooling around with the computers, which happened to be sort-of close to the TVs and video cameras.  The store usually had one camera feeding multiple TVs for a single-source videowall effect, and today was no exception.

 

Up near the front, there was something of a commotion going on and it seemed to be taking a meandering but surprisingly quick route towards where I happened to be.  As I was getting ready to go somewhere else, the commotion veered away towards the video section.  Shadoe Stevens, completely coked out of his mind, had managed to get ahold of the camera and began shouting straight into it.  The monologue went something like this:

 

"FRED FUCKIN' RATED HERE FOR AND AT FEDERATED GROUP!  I KNOW YOU FOLKS FUCKING LOVE IT WHEN WE DO THIS, SO WE'RE GONNA BLOW SOME SHIT UP IN THE PARKING LOT!  YEAH!  CHECK IT OUT!  RIGHT NOW!  WOOOO!"

 

This was where one of his handlers managed to wrangle control back and hustle him back out of the front door with only minor difficulty.

 

The message may have been more effectively-delivered if the TVs actually had their volume set higher than 'off' (the store knew better than to unmute them), but he did manage to get the entire store to drop what they were doing and watch him go nuts for a few moments.

 

I do not recall if my parents made a purchase that day or not.

[fultonbot]

5 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Up near the front, there was something of a commotion going on and it seemed to be taking a meandering but surprisingly quick route towards where I happened to be.  As I was getting ready to go somewhere else, the commotion veered away towards the video section.  Shadoe Stevens, completely coked out of his mind, had managed to get ahold of the camera and began shouting straight into it.  The monologue went something like this:

 

"FRED FUCKIN' RATED HERE FOR AND AT FEDERATED GROUP!  I KNOW YOU FOLKS FUCKING LOVE IT WHEN WE DO THIS, SO WE'RE GONNA BLOW SOME SHIT UP IN THE PARKING LOT!  YEAH!  CHECK IT OUT!  RIGHT NOW!  WOOOO!"

 

 

 

That is amazing!

[20ohm20]

My dad bought our first VCR from the Federated in Cerritos, CA in 1980.  I also bought Swordquest Fireworld and another game I can't remember from there on clearance ($4.99 each, IIRC) in '86 or '87.  Shortly after that the store became another electronics store of some kind.  By the mid-90's it became either a Circuit City or The Good Guys!

[pacman000]

Don't have any memories, but I find this video interesting:

 

 

Wasn't The Federated Group a relatively small chain? I thought they only had 50-70 stores.

Edited March 15, 2021 by pacman000

[GrizzLee]

I met Fred Rated (Shadow Stevens) back in the day.  Somewhere I have a picture of him and I wearing these nose glasses at one of the in-store events in the Sacramento area. Even Freida Rated got in on the act. The commercials were a gas...  Don Thomas from Atari was involved with the Federated group at one time as I recall.

 

[zzip]

1 hour ago, pacman000 said:

Don't have any memories, but I find this video interesting:

 

 

Wasn't The Federated Group a relatively small chain? I thought they only had 50-70 stores.

How can your two biggest problems simultaneously be "not enough inventory" and "not enough advertising"?   No point in advertising until you have something to sell the customer :)

 

Shocking that their Christmas strategy was "PRICE WAR!".   Guess Jack only knew one song.

[Goochman]

Another complete financial money pit Tramiel chased after vs truly investing in the business for the long term.  Federated, Transputer, etc......

[Master Phruby]

I don't think I ever saw a Federated Group commercial that highlighted anything from Atari.

 

I'm wrong. I found one for the Atari 400 for $197!!

 

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Master Phruby

[Master Phruby]

Commodore 64 for $397

 

 

[+x=usr(1536)]

5 hours ago, Master Phruby said:

I don't think I ever saw a Federated Group commercial that highlighted anything from Atari.

 

Funnily enough, I'm having a hard time recalling ever seeing any Atari products in a Federated Group store.  They must have been there, but things that stick in my head from them are the Vectrex, Spectravideo SV-318, and the VIC-20 on clearance.

[+Sauron]

One day when I was in 4th grade, I went over to a friend's house and fell in love with his C64, and that's pretty much all I talked about for months. My mother and grandmother decided to pitch in to get me a C64 for Christmas in 1986 and walked into a Federated to get me one. Of course, they ended up walking out with a 130XE instead, as the salesman there convinced them that the 130XE was better. In some ways it was, but definitely not in software availability. While C64 software was getting a little difficult to find by that time, Atari 8-bit software was becoming impossible, and what's worse, I didn't even have a disk or tape drive for my system. Eventually I did get some game cartridges so I could do more than type in BASIC programs from old issues of 3-2-1 Contact and Byte, but it was even a while more until I finally got a disk drive for the computer. What certainly didn't help in all of this is Federated going out of business not all that long after getting my 130XE, as they were the only store I knew about that actually sold peripherals for it.

[1200XL M.U.L.E.]

I remember going to a Federated store in San Jose, CA with my parents in the late 80’s to get my first Wico joystick. Every Atari CX joystick I touched broke and this was going to be my “forever joystick”.

 

I don’t remember much about it having only been there once but I do remember the prominent display of Atari, Amiga, and Mac computers along with peripherals and accessories. It was very dark inside too but displays and stands were smartly lit to look awe inspiring. I don’t remember much else. It wasn’t a store I clamored to go to. The store I really, really got excited about was San Jose Computer.  

[doctorclu]

When I was in the 7th?  grade I able to bike down to Federated on Camp Wisdom in south Dallas.   First it kinda amazes me that I have $70 at the time for spending, but I bought an Atari 800 xl, hoping to try out a more modern Atari computer than my upgraded Atari 400.

 

Ultimately I didn't like it.   So I returned the 800 XL within a few days.   Federated was pretty cool about it.

 

Really enjoyed the times I went in there, checked out the Atari 8-bit and ST computers.   I might still have a Federated pen around here somewhere.

[Zonie]

I got my first VCR there. A really good (but two head) Hitachi.

[pacman000]

This is from before Atari Corp bought them, but it’s still interesting: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-04-28-fi-2440-story.html

 

“Has success spoiled Fred Rated? The fate of Shadoe Stevens, who has played the often overzealous if not zany Fred Rated character on more than 1,000 spots for the Federated Group since 1982, is in serious doubt.

 

And even though Stevens’ big-screen debut as the star of a Dino De Laurentiis film is just months away, he may not be Federated’s leading man much longer.”

 

Apparently Federated was taking bids for a new ad agency, & analysts thought Fred appealed to too young an audience.

 

Also, Federated’s sales started to fall when Circuit City moved into Southern California, where most of Federated’s store were located. I’m assuming that’s why Federated tried to move into Texas, which set them back, & gave Atari the opportunity to buy them out.

Edited March 27, 2021 by pacman000

[Panther]

I worked at the Federated store #1 (West Los Angeles) for a short time.  I was hired as technical support (something they didn't otherwise have) for the Atari Computers, especially since none of the sales people knew anything about them.  Then another manager took over and told me that my agreement was with someone that no longer worked there and that they would not honor it and would only pay me the standard salesperson base pay (i.e. below minimum wage since they earned commission).  I'm not a salesperson, so I wasn't earning commission!  I walked out.  I recently found my paycheck stub from Atari though.  Oh, I did get use of the upstairs floor for the West L.A. Atari Users Group of which I was VP at the time.

[fultonbot]

Thanks!! The responses here are wonderful!

[scotty]

We did not have Federated here in the Cleveland, OH area, but we did have Gold Circle which was owned by the same company.   I LOVED Gold Circle!!!

 

Not Federated, but I used to hang out at one of the suburban Sears stores and play on their 2600 all day.   I got thrown out one day, as I was not accompanied by an adult.  Shortly later, I bought my Atari 8-bit computer setup AT GOLD CIRCLE!!   Sears had the 400 and the 800 on display in the TV and stereo department, and the 2600 back in sporting goods on the other side of the store.   With out elaborating, I am sure any of you reading this who was a kid that had an Atari 800 back in the day was familiar with the 'Oral Fantasies" disk.   EVERY kid had that.  Long story short, I went to the 800, popped the floppy in the 810 drive, pressed the system reset button, and casually walked out the exit door 20 feet away.  I can only imagine the chaos that ensued inside there.   Obviously they did not have elaborate surveillance like they do now.  5 1/4" floppy disks were expensive back in those days, but It was worth it getting my revenge for getting thrown out.   

 

[Xevious70]

On 3/29/2021 at 2:28 AM, Panther said:

I worked at the Federated store #1 (West Los Angeles) for a short time.

Awesome—the one on Pico just East of Bundy! 

 

I know this thread is old, but after seeing it I just had to chime in. So here goes.

 

After seeing Fred Rated's commercials on heavy rotation in 1982, my dad decided to check it out for some home electronics, namely VCRs and VCR camera bundles. He was psyched at not only watching movies but making them as well. So of course I tagged along, the first chance I got. Of course I was totally sprung on Atari and arcade games at the time, but had heard that there was a new console coming out that was going to blow Atari out of the water—Colecovision. It was a buzz amongst my friends in junior high but none of us had seen it in the flesh. 

 

Luck would have it that the day we walked in to the Federated Group, they had one on display, right in the front. Hooked up to a TV and everything, ready to play. My jaw dropped as I saw the demo mode of Donkey Kong right there on the screen—I mean, it was a huge deal 'coz for the first time ever, I was seeing an exact replication of an arcade classic on a home console. Sound, graphics, and everything. Holy shit. That's when I knew that Atari was gonna die. I still loved it to death (and still do to this day), but it just couldn't compete with Colecovision. Needless to say, I sat there and played Donkey Kong forever while my dad shopped. He could've just left me there and I wouldn't have even known. It was so bizarre to witness an arcade game come to life in a retail store, with endless lives and no quarters needed. I was completely entranced.

 

On a later visit not long after, I went towards the rear of the store where the computers were, and on its own little podium sat something I'd never seen before—Vectrex. It was really low-key and nobody else noticed it, so I gave it a shot. The minimal vector graphics glowed on the screen as I played Star Castle, Scramble and Armor Attack, discovering that each one had its own custom overlay I had to attach to the screen. It was weird how the overlays would add a dimension of color to the graphics; I found myself constantly peeling it off and reapplying to see the difference. Once again, 12-yr.-old me was completely glued to the screen, especially with nobody else around. Where's dad? What dad? I felt like I was there for a couple of hours at least. Vectrex was a trip. The playability and small, portable design of the system was awesome, but I kinda found myself yearning for colored pixels and graphics rather than the vector graphics it boasted. Either way, it was cool.

 

Flash forward to about 2004, when a co-worker and I were talking about video games (we're the same age, roughly). He told me his mom had given him a Vectrex system back in the day and he still had it at his mom's house in the attic. "You can have it if you want, I'm not doing anything with it." Good lords. I jumped at the proposition and he kept saying he'd get it, but then time passed and he ended up moving to the midwest and blah blah blah [groan] ...ugh. I hate knowing that it's probably still there, just gathering dust. 

[Zonie]

On 5/9/2021 at 4:56 AM, scotty said:

We did not have Federated here in the Cleveland, OH area, but we did have Gold Circle which was owned by the same company.   I LOVED Gold Circle!!!

 

Not Federated, but I used to hang out at one of the suburban Sears stores and play on their 2600 all day.   I got thrown out one day, as I was not accompanied by an adult.  Shortly later, I bought my Atari 8-bit computer setup AT GOLD CIRCLE!!   Sears had the 400 and the 800 on display in the TV and stereo department, and the 2600 back in sporting goods on the other side of the store.   With out elaborating, I am sure any of you reading this who was a kid that had an Atari 800 back in the day was familiar with the 'Oral Fantasies" disk.   EVERY kid had that.  Long story short, I went to the 800, popped the floppy in the 810 drive, pressed the system reset button, and casually walked out the exit door 20 feet away.  I can only imagine the chaos that ensued inside there.   Obviously they did not have elaborate surveillance like they do now.  5 1/4" floppy disks were expensive back in those days, but It was worth it getting my revenge for getting thrown out.   

 

I just looked that up. Holy shit. Talk about payback!!!

 

[Xevious70]

Quote

With out elaborating, I am sure any of you reading this who was a kid that had an Atari 800 back in the day was familiar with the 'Oral Fantasies" disk.   EVERY kid had that. 

Hmm... ok, count me as one of the kids who didn't know about, or much less have, that "Oral Fantasies" disk. I got an Atari 800XL in 1984 as part of my 8th grade graduation gift. A co-worker of my mom's was able to set me up with a bunch of "cracked" computer games on disk, which was cool, but aside from that, I didn't know anyone else who had an Atari 800XL aside from a good friend of mine, and we weren't hip enough to know how to connect to and navigate BBSs for other hookups. So make that two of us. 

 

So yeah, I looked it up, and dang, that must've been scandalous back then. What the heck is that program? Is it just a slideshow of images?

[classicgamesnut]

     Went to the Federated Group (Ontario, California store) as a kid and played the Atari, Vectrex, and other systems on display as much as I could while staying out of sight of the unfriendly clerk who'd kick me out if he saw.

     On one visit, the clerk wasn't there but an oddity was.  On display with the rest of the computer stock was a new machine by Tomy, the toy company.  It had a keyboard like the other computers, but had a very toy-like appearance.  It was demo-ing "Jungler," a pretty decent port of the arcade game.  Had never seen the game before that occasion, and there's a quirky part of the game where the enemy "worms" get stuck on a dead end and blow themselves up.  That was more than I could handle, and started laughing hysterically...so uncontrollably that some nearby shoppers came and asked me if I was OK. 

     Wish my memory was capable of remembering more important matters than these ridiculous incidents from long ago.

[ZippyRedPlumber]

2 hours ago, classicgamesnut said:

     On one visit, the clerk wasn't there but an oddity was.  On display with the rest of the computer stock was a new machine by Tomy, the toy company.  It had a keyboard like the other computers, but had a very toy-like appearance.  It was demo-ing "Jungler," a pretty decent port of the arcade game.  Had never seen the game before that occasion, and there's a quirky part of the game where the enemy "worms" get stuck on a dead end and blow themselves up.  That was more than I could handle, and started laughing hysterically...so uncontrollably that some nearby shoppers came and asked me if I was OK. 

     Wish my memory was capable of remembering more important matters than these ridiculous incidents from long ago.

Is this what you're describing? 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomy_Tutor