Clas Ohlson company was founded in 1918 by the technically minded Clas Ohlson (1895–1979), as a mail order business based in the Swedish village of Insjön, Dalarna. Initially, only manuals and technical literature were sold, thus allowing people who lived in rural communities to obtain literature that would otherwise be unavailable. He opened his first shop in Insjön in 1926, but it was not until 1989, when the company opened a store in a shopping centre in central Stockholm, that it expanded into the retail business. The first store outside Sweden was opened 1991 in Oslo in Norway and in 1999, the
Bas Clas were pressed at Floyd's Records in Ville Platte, Louisiana (see Floyd Soileau). In 1980 Bas Clas recorded at Studio in the Country with engineer David Farrell, and in 1981 released another single, "Serfin' USA/Physical World" on their new label, Serfdom Records, this time pressing 3000 copies. The label bought advertisements in New York Rocker and Trouser Press magazines, and was listed as "Recommended" in Billboard Magazine, attracting inquiries that resulted in college radio airplay in more than two dozen states. In 1982, author and producer Samuel Charters heard Bas Clas live at Grant Street Dancehall and sent a cassette tape