New Trade Marts To Show Computer Wares

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As computer hardware and software product offering proliferate in the United States, picking the system best-suited for a small company's particular needs has become anything but easy. But late next year, with the scheduled opening of new computer wholesale trading marts in Dallas and Boston, choosing the right equipment may become less bewildering.

The new trade marts are patterned along the lines of those already operating in Chicago and Dallas for the apparel, home furnishings, and gift industries. They permit wholesale and other "qualified" buyers to shop under a single roof for the latest merchandise offered by competing suppliers. The marts will serve, in effect, as year-round trade shows -- allowing shoppers from around the country to view various product options side by side.

"Every time a small businessman leaves his office to learn about computers, he's losing money," says Bill Winsor, former merchandise manager at Texas Instruments Inc. and now general manager of a new computer mart called Infomart planned for Dallas. By spending a day or two at the mart, he notes, a busy manager will be able to compare equipment options and Specialized software.

Proponents of computer trade marts say the impetus for them is coming largely from changes in the computer industry. Declining hardware costs and an explosion of specialized software have expanded the computer market so dramatically that vendors are finding it increasingly hard to reach customers efficiently or economically. And while retail computer outlets may be serving the hobbyists and sophisticated users who know exactly what they need, "there will continue to be complex systems that require complex sells," argues G. Daniel Prigmore, president of FMR Properties Inc., the real estate subsidiary of the Fidelity Group, which is developing the Boston mart, to be called Boscom.

Boscom will occupy a renovated 1.1-million-square-foot pier building on the city's waterfront close to the airport. The site is owned by the Massachusetts Port-Authority, which sees the computer mart as a boon to small suppliers and tourism. Boscom intends to build mart attendance around scheduled market weeks designed for specific categories of users -- accountants or equipment leasing firms, for example. Vendors can either rent exhibit space temporarily or maintain permanent showrooms.

In Dallas, two competing mart projects are moving ahead from the blue-print stage. Boston-based developer Leggat, McCall & Werner Inc. last fall unveiled plans for a 535,000-square-foot regional wholesale and retail market. The company, which has no previous experience in trade mart development, faces stiff competition from Trammell Crow, one of the nation's largest commercial developers and owner of the 30-year-old Dallas Market Center. Just hours after Leggat's announcement, Crow released his own plan to break ground this March for Infomart, a 1-million-square-foot facility which will be national, rather than regional, in scope. Infomart will be next to Crow's existing home furnishings, gift, and apparel wholesale marts, covering 7.6-million square feet of exhibit space on 175 acres near downtown Dallas. These exhibits already attract more than 500,000 professional buyers representing 100,000 firms each year.

The computer marts will be trying to stake out a share of what analysts predict will be a $10-billion to $14-billion market for small business computers in 1984. While neither Infomart nor Boscom intends to do a cash-and-carry business, each plans to offer extensive user education programs to help businesses make informed buying decisions.Out of town visitors may be referred to suppliers in their home towns.

The establishment of the computer marts, all of which are planned to open in the fall of 1983, may also be a big boost for hardware and software companies and computer distributors and systems houses, particularly smaller concerns. Since those who will be visiting the marts will be serious buyers who are in the market, not just "tire-kickers," Boscom's Prigmore maintains there will be "no more efficient way for sellers to meet so many qualified buyers." With competing products right there for viewing, Prigmore says, vendors stand to benefit. "They won't have to get in an airplane and fly all over the country to convince a client he's getting the right thing."