Get on line with Laskys - for the best in personal computers

Laskys (or should that be Lasky's) was not a computer company at all, but the company is still worthy of an honourable mention in dispatches for being a stalwart of the home computer industry in terms of retail.

It was established in around 1933 and was known as Lasky's Radio Ltd by the early 1970s, but was bought out by electrical retailer Comet in 1989.  Comet collapsed in 2012, but was re-launched as an online business in 2019.

It was a high-street retailer that for several years was a popular outlet for computer buyers, and this advert encompasses many of the popular machines of the moment.

These include the Apple II at £739 ([[739|1982]] in [[now]]), Commodore VIC-20 for £159 ([[159|1982]]), and Atari's 400 and 800 models - the latter being the better machine with a proper keyboard but for the not inconsiderable price of £499 ([[499|1982]]).

Also shown are the Sharp MZ-80A at £549 ([[549|1982]]) and the legendary Osborne 1 topping out the price range at £1,439 ([[1439|1982]]).

Maybe it says something about the era that Lasky's styled itself as "The Home Entertainment Specialists", perhaps echoing the feeling that computers for the home were still largely a "toy" - even though this advert features several serious business machines.

[picture: laskys_sinc_pracEl_mar71.webp|In a spooky echo of the future, Lasky's in 1971 - as Lasky's Radio Ltd - is also selling a Sinclair product, in this case audio components from the Project 60 range.  From Practical Electronics, March 1971]

A few places on the High Street remain where it's possible to wander in and buy an actual computer at random, such as John Lewis, although these sorts of outlets mostly concentrate on laptops and tablets.

Generally though sales migrated towards dedicated computer shops like PC World, own-brand outlets like Apple's, or mail order/the internet like Dell. Eventually, even shops like PC World retreated first to shared space in Curry's, and then to an internet-only presence, dropping the PC World name in the process.

Meanwhile, Lasky's was also not averse to a spot of co-sponsorship.  In July 1983, together with the Daily Express, it sponsored a competition where eight schools shared £20,000 ([[20000|1983]] in [[now]] money), the prizes being computer equipment selected from Lasky's stores.

The final, at the Westmoreland Hotel in London, required pupils to design and decorate their idea of "a family home in the year 2000 using Atari 800 computers" - presumably using the Ataris to design, rather than requiring them to still be around in the homes of 2000AD[source: "Everyone wins", Personal Computer News, Vol. 1 No. 21, July 28 1983, p. 5].

Also worthy of note is the advert's tag: "Get on-line with Laskys", showing that even in 1982 - where modems were still expensive and something of a luxury and the GPO still called the shots about what was allowed to be plugged in to its network - the concept of being "on line" was already well-established.

