"The Sound Store" was a department inside "The Appliance Store" and had about 8-10 stores across the metro Pgh area. I remember one store across Rt 22 from Showcase Cinema in Monroeville and their warehouse store in East Liberty. When I was about 10, I went with my brother to the East Liberty store when he bought his first stereo -- a 55 Watt Technics receiver, JBL speakers, and an Optonica tape deck (high end Sharp.) Sure sounded better than my all-in-one (receiver, tape tape deck, phono) Sanyo thing.
Wanders was also an appliance/audio store that was a competitor to the "The Appliance Store". They had stores in Monroeville Mall, Eastland Mall (when it was a real mall) and at one point had a store in Squirrel Hill on Forbes and one in Oakland -- also on Forbes. I used to buy my Maxell XLII and TDK-SA tapes there. They used to sell 6 or 8 Maxell tapes in a Wander exclusive 15 tape vinyl cassette holder. Just found one and it is in great shape!! Anyone want to buy one? :) Ironically, a friend of mine recently gave me his Nakamichi tape deck, but I haven't even hooked it up to my system as I'm afraid how bad it will sound.
Opus One closed when I was still pretty young, but do remember buying a Teac tape deck there. I remember telling the salesperson how great Bose speakers were, but he really didn't want to get into a conversation with a 12 year old and let it go. I remember him telling me that you can do a lot better for the money. Pretty sure he was telling the truth :)
