When was the last time you saw an independent computer shop like Canada88.com? You can bet it’s been a while. They were once a thing, but mostly have gone the way of the dinosaur. It’s always been a tough racket, in the past or now, and even the big electronic-chains, who usurped the small players, can’t escape the struggle present day.
Customers are unforgiving and the margins…well…they’re thin. You measure them in microns. You’d have to be crazy to get into it.
Here’s a former computer outlet and the signage remains as though it’s still in business, but it’s been closed for a long time. Welcome to “Canada88.com – Alberta Computer Warehouse”, sometimes presented with 9th Ave SE Outlet in the title (since they had two locations). It operated out of an old, former Texaco Service Station and that’s an interesting place to house a business dealing in tech.
Blackfoot Texaco – Canada88.com: a former gas station that was later a computer shop. A little pop-history with Chris Doering & Connie Biggart.(BIGDoer/Synd)
Thanks to “Dale” for sponsoring this and many other posts at BIGDoer.com. Be like Dale…
Now let’s go back to the beginning. Blackfoot Texaco dates to 1966 and when built was located on the corner of Blackfoot Trail (a stretch road that dates to the 1950s) and 9th Avenue Southeast. A firm called the Inglewood Lumber Yard occupied this lot before.
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This was a busy intersection back then and there were service stations on three of the four corners. The Blackfoot Truck Stop and its legendary eatery was a stone’s throw away and is still there today. Mmmmm, breakfast with extra bacon and bottomless coffee!
Historic Colonel Walker School occupied the forth corner and it’s still there too.
Later this stretch of Blackfoot Trail was rerouted (1970s) and Blackfoot Texaco was bypassed on the one side when this happened. This likely resulted in a big decrease in passing traffic and data suggests this was the downfall of the business. The newer section of Blackfoot now runs about a block to the north and is as busy as ever.
As was common at the time, Blackfoot Texaco included service bays. Having an attached convenience store is a common feature today, but not back then. Fixing cars was actually a good money maker then and as a result most gas stations offered this service.
Blackfoot Texaco operated into the late 1970s (confirmed by phone book entries) and recall, this was about the time Blackfoot was rerouted. This change in traffic patterns must have killed them off as the two events happened almost concurrently. Later, several independent auto related businesses operated out the building – a repair shop and a used car dealer make mention. Also a demolition company was listed later on.
The pumps were pulled out once the service station closed and you can still see where the pump-islands were in some of our photos.
Canada88.com – Alberta Computer Warehouse first shows up here about 2002 and operated into about 2006-ish. That’s not long, but that’s the nature of the business. An entry for an Alberta Computer Distribution Centre also shows up for this location about this time and they were a sister company. Also a firm called Alberta Computer Security is similarly shown (in old directories).
Ever since the computer company shut down this old building has been dark. Never once have we seen any activity there – well sometimes a big truck parks in the lot, but that’s about it. We drive by often and have done so regularly for decades, so changes would easily be noted.
The website for this business, Canada88.com, is still up but now hosts a Chinese Newspaper. In the past one could dig deeper and find remnants from the computer business on pages they forgot to delete. Samsung Hard Drives! 40 gigs? I’m in! AOC monitors – we used to have one. Hercules Video Cards rule! “Canon S230 Power Shot 3.2Mega Pixel Digital Camera Retail Box with 16MB compact flash memory card….In Stock NOW!!!!”
You know, we could get into photography. Those abandoned pages appears to have been wiped away now and are no longer found.
Reading all lost pages brought on a chuckle and some fond memories. Those prices! The capacity of things and did we really get by with 128 megabytes of memory? Upgrade your 286 or 386! We reminisce, remembering brands vanished and parts long obsolete. The website was a time capsule and snapshot of computing from long ago.
This was Alberta Computer Warehouse’s second outlet and the other during the time this one operated was on 9th Avenue SW in downtown. It’s a near-straight line from that one to this one on 9th. We recall buying a one gig “Quantum” hard drive from this other shop many years back.
This other outlet seems to have vanished about 2006ish too. Too bad, because they have a good deal on Computer “Spekers” – that’s from a page on their still live (as of October 2025) website. Alberta Computer Warehouse earlier had a second location in the northeast before moving into the old Texaco. The other location was on Macleod Trail once too, but we’re getting off track.
Back on 9th Ave SE, the signage prominently displays Canada88.com in bold red and the Alberta Computer Warehouse part gets lesser billing in blue (that lower lettering is almost completely faded now). This was at a time when having an online presence was a big deal and it was worthwhile to promote it heavily. The Canada88.com website used to make mention of both stores and their second website, AlbertaComputer.com, tied to outlet one, still does the same.
The Canada88.com – Alberta Computer Warehouse building still looks every bit the service station. And more precisely every bit the Texaco Service Station. Those parallel lines of green and the distinctive round signs (long gone, but their frame is still obvious), are sure fire spotting features.
This design of Texaco station can be traced back to the 1930s in the US, but was not introduced in Canada until the late 1950s when the firm entered the market here. In the early 1960s the company came up with something new and more contemporary for the times, however, there was a transition period where both were made. This may be one of the last made in that earlier form and that it’s still so intact is amazing.
Typically the façades of Texaco Gas Stations were also decorated with stars. The stars were everywhere, including attendant uniforms – “You can trust your car to the man that wears the star” – a line from the company jingle (circa 1960s).
Texaco branded gas stations in Canada operated into the late 1980s, when the operation was absorbed by competitor Imperial Oil. Texaco still has a presence in the US.
We’re not sure what the future holds in store for this building but nothing shows up in recent searches for things like redevelopment permits. A disused building rarely lasts long in this city and given this one’s been unused for almost two decades suggests its time may be up soon.
It wouldn’t surprise us to see something happen in the future. There’s not much sentiment in Calgary for old buildings and the mindset is to bulldoze it all and put up something big and shiny. And probably soulless. It’ll happen and you know it.
Time will tell and since we drive by the site often, we’ll keep an eye on things.
We always give the old Blackfoot Texaco a second glance when passing by and imagine ourselves stopping in so an attendant can top off the tank. Check the oil too and maybe wipe the windows. Gas station attendants? There’s a memory. Now we fill it up ourselves, don’t converse with anyone the whole time, the car keeps an eye on the oil situation so we never check it, and we do the squeegeeing.
Know more about Texaco in this country (new tab): Texaco in Canada.
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Date of adventure: January 2018 and October 2025. Location: Inglewood Neighbourhood, Calgary Alberta, Article references and thanks: City of Calgary, Canadian Encyclopedia, Alberta Computer Warehouse/Canada88.com, Medicine Hat & District Genealogical Society and old Henderson Directories.
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