Whole Earth Access (19691998) started as a

countercultural A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...

retail store Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. In the early 1990s, Whole Earth Access had seven stores in Northern California. After filing for bankruptcy in 1996, all stores closed in 1998.

History

The ''

Whole Earth Catalog The ''Whole Earth Catalog'' (WEC) was an American counterculture magazine and product catalog published by Stewart Brand several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articl ...

'' was preceded by the "Whole Earth Truck Store", a 1963 Dodge truck. In 1968, the "Truck Store" finally settled into its permanent location in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; ...

. In 1969, a store that was inspired by (but not financially connected with) the ''Whole Earth Catalog'', called Whole Earth Access opened in

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

. The store had the Leopold's Records

Teletype Model 33 The Teletype Model 33 is an electromechanical teleprinter designed for light-duty office use. It is less rugged and cost less than earlier Teletype machines. The Teletype Corporation introduced the Model 33 as a commercial product in 1963 after ...

ASR which connected to the

Community Memory Community Memory (CM) was the first public computerized bulletin board system. Established in 1973 in Berkeley, California, it used an SDS 940 timesharing system in San Francisco connected via a 110 baud link to a teleprinter at a record store i ...

Project SDS 940

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...

.Community Memory Project, 1972-74
at

The WELL The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL, was launched in 1985. It is one of the oldest continuously operating virtual communities. By 1993 it had 7,000 members, a staff of 12, and gross annual income of $2 million. ...

In 1978, two brothers, Larry and Gene Farb bought the Berkeley store on Shattuck avenue. The first store, located in an industrial area of Berkeley, sold various brand names sought after by young affluents at a discounted price. Salespersons were technology-savvy and knowledgeable of their products. Gene Farb managed electronics and photographic merchandise, Larry Farb managed hardware and appliances, Laura Katz (Larry's wife) ran the housewares and clothing departments, and Toni Garrett (Gene's wife) handled book sales and mail order. The store also built some of the computers it was selling, The second store opened in

Marin County Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...

in 1982, and the third in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in 1985. According to a 1985 issue of the store's ''Whole Earth Access Mail Order Catalog,'' (named after, but not connected to the ''Whole Earth Catalog'' which it also sold): Larry Farb commented in 1986 to the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' that, "we've grown up with our customers ..the person who bought wood stoves in the 1970s is buying cappuccino makers today." In the early 1990s, the company opened four more stores in Northern California, contracting debts to finance the expansion. In 1992, its sales peaked at million. In 1995, the San Jose and

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

stores were closed. In 1996, Basic Living Products, the parent company of Whole Earth Access, closed the

Foster City Foster City is a city located in San Mateo County, California. The 2020 census put the population at 33,805, an increase of more than 10% over the 2010 census figure of 30,567. Foster City is sometimes considered to be part of Silicon Valley ...

and

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

stores, and filed for bankruptcy protection. In November 1998, the three first and last stores of Whole Earth Access (Berkeley, San Rafael, and San Francisco) went out of business. Co-founder Gene Farb died three years later, in 2001.

References

External links

1992 Commercial: Whole Earth Access "Apple Macintosh IIsi"
{{Authority control Companies based in Berkeley, California Retail companies established in 1969 1969 establishments in California Mail-order retailers Defunct retail companies of the United States History of the San Francisco Bay Area Retail companies disestablished in 1998 Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Retail companies based in California