Federated Group

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Federated Group, Inc. began in Los Angeles in 1970, when Wilfred Schwartz turned part of a 25,000-square-foot electronics warehouse into a retail store. The chain helped establish the deep-discount consumer-electronics superstore: big rooms, bigger television sets, and absolutely no reason to pretend shopping for a VCR was subtle.

After an early stumble, Federated regrouped around a 20,000-square-foot Westminster, California, superstore in 1976. It expanded through Southern California and, during the 1980s, into Arizona, Texas, Kansas, and New Mexico. By 1987, the chain had roughly 67–68 stores and was a substantial name in electronics retailing.

City of Commerce, California, was Federated’s longtime headquarters during its independent era. Atari Corporation acquired the chain in 1987 for $67.3 million and moved its headquarters to Sunnyvale, California. The match paired home computers and video games with actual retail floor space—an aggressively 1980s solution to an aggressively 1980s problem.

Losses, rapid expansion, and fierce competition caught up with the operation. Atari put Federated up for sale in 1989; Silo acquired 26 Southern California stores that November, later reopening them under its own name. Other Federated locations were liquidated or closed.

Our Federated Group collection celebrates the fluorescent, full-volume era of electronics retail: wall-to-wall gear, discount swagger, and the noble belief that every living room needed one more component.