BeamEcho

View the original article at The Globe and Mail Here...

"Some people might say we've gone Hollywood." That's Jim Hoskins talking, owner of the former CP Used. Until recently, the store's home was a rambling red-brick box on Dupont west of Bathurst, where he sold new and used Apple products and had a great Apple service centre - an irresistible draw for students and computer geeks.

Now that Apple has its own humming motherships, Mr. Hoskins decided to sell the main store and showroom, move east to glamorous Yorkville (26a Cumberland Ave., beside the Pilot Tavern) and change the store's name to BeamEcho.

"My wife found the name," he says. "It was Iceland's largest stereo chain in the eighties."

He likes the new tag because it's science-fictiony. (It also doesn't tie him down with the word "computer.") He didn't need the 24,000 square feet any more. Ten years ago, the store was selling computers with clunky CRT monitors. Now, 70 per cent of sales are laptops. Space is no longer a consideration. Walk-by traffic is.