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A little piece of Iowa - complete with a Harvester silo, John Deere tractor seats and walls covered with murals of a cornfield - may seem out of place in subtropical Tampa.
But for a growing cult of personal-computer buyers drawn to the colors of a Holstein, the down-on-the-farm look means Gateway 2000 has come to the big city. The catalog company is opening a Gateway 2000 Country Store at 2907 N Dale Mabry Highway.
"It's a test to see if we can expand our market by appealing to people who are nervous about buying a personal computer from a mail-order company," said Jim Wharton, spokesman for Gateway 2000 Inc.
The store's location - right in the middle of Tampa Bay's computer store alley - promises to heighten already brutal competition among retail chains that get a big chunk of...