When I was in high school, nearly 50 years ago, there was a store down the street that sold Packard Bell and Curtis Mathes, both of which were by then, far removed from their glory days. Their products were often rebranded generic Japanese products, overpriced relative to the stuff you could buy from Panasonic or Sony at that time. Some of it was decent, but no better than that. Curtis Mathes specialized in console stereos and televisions which were even then not even close to state-of-the-art. I thought at the time that both brands were perfect for the Lawrence Welk crowd, being solid but very very conservative. By 1972 that store had gone belly up, I hear because both brands were extremely troublesome. Too bad they did not sell AR, which Packard Bell owned at that time.
And back in those days even the Firestone Auto center sold console stereos and record players and the local Western Auto did too. The first time I was ever in a real audio salon, which was in Portland, Oregon, was a real revelation. I saw KLH and Thorens and Dual and Roberts and Fisher and lots of really great stuff that I could lust after but couldn't afford then. My home town's version of an audio salon was the local Allied Radio Shack and a Lafeyette Radio, which was very interesting and had an owner/manager who hated kids. Those were the days.