DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM |
Zayre Corporation was founded in 1956 by Stanley and Sumner Feldberg in Hyannis, Massachusetts tracing back to the New England Trading Company in Boston founded already in 1919 by the two brothers Max and Morris Feldberg.
Zayre (Gut), which means "very good" in Yiddish, was started as a discount department store chain.
In 1976 Zayre launched T.J. Maxx, a new off-price chain selling family apparel and home fashions and in 1984 a new warehouse retail concept to the Northeast called BJ's Wholesale Club was introduced. In 1988, Zayre sold their own nameplate to Ames Department Stores, Inc., a rival discount department store chain, and the company renamed itself to The TJX Companies, Incorporated. Ames acquired the bankrupt 392 Zayre stores, closing 74 of them. After some reorganizing in 1990 Ames announced in August 2002 to go out of business and closed the remaining shops in October 2002.
Zayre launched already in August 1975 the CONCEPT series of portable electronic calculators with the introduction of the first CONCEPT 24, probably a rebadged Lloyds calculator. From much higher interest for the Datamath Calculator Museum are the CONCEPT I, CONCEPT II, and CONCEPT III calculators introduced in March 1976 and based on the Texas Instruments TI-1200, TI-1250, resp. SR-16 II calculators. The CONCEPT series was discharged in August 1977 with the clearance sale of the CONCEPT COMPACT calculators.
We recently researched with the incredible Google news [Search Archives] function hundreds of American newspapers and compiled a complete timeline of the Zayre CONCEPT calculators.
Publication Date | Calculator | Advertisement |
Remarks, SRP |
August 17, 1975 | CONCEPT
24 (Version 1) |
First advertisement of the CONCEPT
calculator. |
|
August 31, 1975 | CONCEPT
24 (Version 1) |
Second advertisement of the
CONCEPT24 calculator. SRP $19.88 reg $24.88 |
|
January 4, 1976 | CONCEPT 24 (Version 2) |
First advertisement of the
CONCEPT 24 (Version 2, aka Style 8138) calculator. SRP $18.88 reg $24.88 |
|
March 14, 1976 | CONCEPT 10 | First advertisement of the
CONCEPT 10 calculator. SRP $9.66 |
|
May 23, 1976 | CONCEPT 24 (Version 2) |
Second advertisement of the
CONCEPT 24 (Version 2, aka Style 8138) calculator. SRP $14.99 reg $19.99 |
|
May 27, 1976 | CONCEPT 10 | Second advertisement of the
CONCEPT 10 calculator. SRP $6.00 reg $9.66 |
|
June 24, 1976 | CONCEPT I | First advertisement of the
CONCEPT I calculator. SRP $14.77 |
|
June 24, 1976 | CONCEPT III | First advertisement of the
CONCEPT III calculator. SRP $28.88 |
|
September 12, 1976 | CONCEPT I | Second advertisement of the
CONCEPT I calculator. SRP $9.97 reg $14.77 |
|
September 12, 1976 | CONCEPT III | Second advertisement of the
CONCEPT II calculator. SRP $27.77 reg $32.77 |
|
October 10, 1976 | CONCEPT 24 (Version 3) |
First advertisement of the
CONCEPT 24 (Version 3, aka Style 8161) calculator. SRP $14.00 reg $19.99 |
|
October 10, 1976 | CONCEPT COMPACT |
First advertisement of the
CONCEPT COMPACT calculator. SRP $29.00 |
|
November 13, 1976 | CONCEPT I | Third advertisement of the
CONCEPT I calculator. SRP $10.88 reg $13.88 |
|
November 13, 1976 | CONCEPT II | First advertisement of the
CONCEPT II calculator. SRP $13.88 reg $16.88 |
|
December 12, 1976 | CONCEPT 24 (Version 3) |
Second advertisement of the
CONCEPT 24 (Version 3, aka Style 8161) calculator. SRP $13.88 reg $19.99 |
|
January 2, 1977 | CONCEPT I CONCEPT II CONCEPT 10 CONCEPT 24 CONCEPT 24 |
Blow-out sales!
CONCEPT I, CONCEPT 10: $6.99 |
|
July 11, 1977 | CONCEPT V | First advertisement of the
CONCEPT V calculator. SRP $5.00 reg $6.99 |
|
August 7, 1977 | CONCEPT COMPACT |
Blow-out sales!
CONCEPT COMPACT: $8.88 |
This is probably the most put question to the Datamath Calculator Museum. The answer is not easy, but we have to factor in two figures:
• How many calculators were manufactured and sold? |
The Texas Instruments TI-1200 and TI-1250 were manufactured in the millions and you find them still everyday on flew-markets, online auctions or as common trades between calculator collectors. The SR-16 II is slightly more difficult to find, it was replaced after less than a year by the successful TI-30 / SR-40 calculators.
But the CONCEPT I, CONCEPT II, and CONCEPT III calculators share a completely different story! These calculators were distributed exclusively by Zayre Corporation in a very short time slot between June 1976 and December 1976. To make it worse – from a collectors point of view – was 1976 the climax of the Calculator War and every week cheaper yet more sophisticated calculators arrived in the shelves of the department stores.
As a matter of fact survived only few of these calculators and (as of January 14, 2010) we know:
Texas Instruments CONCEPT I |
|||
Serial Number |
Date Code |
Owner | Remarks |
1006208 | LTA 0876 | Mark Bollman | |
1009972 | LTA 0876 | Robert Hartl | |
1011127 | LTA 0876 | Godfrey P. Miles | |
1015422 | LTA 0876 | KT6LN | |
1019181 | LTA 0876 | Geoffrey Wang | |
1023093 | LTA 0876 | eBay Desired Discoveries | |
1024159 | LTA 0876 | Alexis Dunnigan | |
1002449 | LTA 1076 | lainyscoolstuff | |
1003174 | LTA 1076 | Willy Van der Putten | |
1003287 | LTA 1076 | Stefan Klaes | |
1005386 | LTA 1076 | eBay dswofford2013 | |
1026260 | LTA 1076 | eBay hollys-dolls | |
1025727 | LTA 3876 | Joerg Woerner | |
1028770 | LTA 3876 | Emmanuel Verbeeck | |
1022742 | LTA 4376 | Scott | |
1022805 | LTA 4376 | Joerg Woerner | |
1029014 | LTA 4376 | Bernardo (Bernie) Giraldo | |
1030820 | LTA 4376 | Victor Ford | |
1031248 | LTA 4376 | Joerg Woerner | |
1033570 | LTA 4376 | Scott | |
1035661 | LTA 4376 | Marie Lisa Collas |
Texas Instruments CONCEPT II |
|||
Serial Number |
Date Code |
Owner | Remarks |
1002920 | LTA 0876 | Marie Lisa Collas | |
1009365 | LTA 0876 | Adam Szutter | |
1009472 | LTA 0876 | Ken Meine | |
1011471 | LTA 0876 | KT6LN | |
1013416 | LTA 0876 | Joerg Woerner | |
1003039 | LTA 1076 | Stefan Klaes | |
1004866 | LTA 1076 | Peter Salz | |
1016632 | LTA 1076 | KT6LN | |
1007090 | LTA 1076 | Aaron | |
1017567 | LTA 1076 | Geoffrey Wang | |
1015443 | LTA 1676 | Joerg Woerner | |
1021805 | LTA 2376 | Mark Bollman | |
1026227 | LTA 2376 | Robert Lacoste | |
1008636 | LTA 4276 | Joerg Woerner | |
1027195 | LTA 4276 | Larry Glisson | |
1002208 | LTA 4376 | Marie-Thérèse Perget | |
1003148 | LTA 4376 | Godfrey P. Miles | |
1003382 | LTA 4376 | Aaron | |
1004090 | LTA 4376 | Joerg Woerner | |
1005061 | LTA 4376 | Emmanuel Verbeeck | |
- | LTA 4376 | Rohit Menon | |
1008718 | LTA 4576 | Judith Queen |
Texas Instruments CONCEPT III |
|||
Serial Number |
Date Code |
Owner | Remarks |
0001487 | LTA 0876 | Rohit Menon | |
0002390 | LTA 0876 | Geoffrey Wang | |
0003243 | LTA 0876 | Rohit Menon | |
0003808 | LTA 0876 | Robert Cotter | |
0005060 | LTA 0876 | George Julovich | |
0005066 | LTA 0876 | Kirk B. Muri | |
0005339 | LTA 0876 | eBay: billyxxxx | |
0005993 | LTA 0876 | Joerg Woerner | |
0007770 | LTA 0876 | Daniel McDonald | |
0016075 | LTA 0876 | Joerg Woerner | |
0016359 | LTA 0876 | Mike Konshak | |
0017197 | LTA 0876 | Godfrey P. Miles | |
0017847 | LTA 0876 | Joerg Woerner | |
0017874 | LTA 0876 | Diego D. | |
0019226 | LTA 0876 | Joerg Woerner | |
0002554 | LTA 1076 | João Oliveira |
Fellow collectors - if you own a Texas Instruments
CONCEPT I, CONCEPT II or CONCEPT III calculator, please report us the serial number
and date code from the back of the
calculator for our Database.
If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.
© Joerg Woerner, January 14, 2010. No reprints without written permission.