The Software Hard Sell

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The scramble for display space has led to the advent of stores that sell no computers, only software. Softwaire Centre International began franchising soft ware-only outlets in October 1982 and now has 26 stores, with 13 more under construction. Each one carries 3,300 items, including accessory equipment like printer ribbons and books. The company's revenues this year from franchising alone should exceed $2.5 million.

A couple of canny software sellers have now discovered a new way to ease the shelf-space squeeze. Tymshare, a California computer communications firm, is experimenting in four San Francisco-area stores with the electronic delivery of programs to customers. Once the buyer has selected the software he wants to buy, the salesman orders it up from a central computer and electronic impulses in scribe it on a disc in the store. Later this month Control Video Corp. of Vienna, Va., will begin sending video-game programs over telephone lines to game owners at home.

— By Alexander L. Taylor IlL Reported by Dick Thompson/San Francisco with other bureaus