Last chance to visit a RadioShack store

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Tom

Administrator
Joined
Jan 13, 2005
Posts
51,854
Article here . Many other well-known stores have closed or will close their brick & mortar stores.
 
Tom said:
Article here . Many other well-known stores have closed or will close their brick & mortar stores.

This is a excerpt:
Over this Memorial Day weekend, Radio Shack will close over 1000 stores, leaving less than 70 corporate and 500 Radio Shack dealer stores around the country. So you have this weekend to shop one more time at your local store, if you still have one nearby.

You'll still be able to order online.
 
I've never liked them either. However, for that occasional time when I need a particular type of switch or connector, or the occasional electronic part, they have been the only local supplier.

Joel
 
My favorite store for electronic components and stuff in the 80's used to be Quement Electronics in Campbell, CA. They closed their doors due to competition from the first Fry's Electronics store opened in the Bay Area (followed by several more).

I still used local RadioShack stores for convenience, although my last visit was a couple of years ago; While in the MidWest, the oven at our son's house quit. A quick diagnosis, a trip to the local RS for a component, and the oven was fixed.
 
I liked the Radio Shack of old, where it was largely electronic parts, meters etc. Not that I was the electronic geek that many others here are, but when you needed that one little thing they were like the Ace Hardware of electronics. When fewer people were interested in such things I think RS lost their way, and tried to appeal to both their original clients (the geeks) plus reach out to those that were more like Best Buy shoppers - and they didn't serve either well. The last several years every time I went to RS in immediate need of something, they didn't have it, making it less likely I would return. CompUSA did the same thing.


Online buying can be great, I just found SPDT switches to replace the SPST switches in my fluorescents, exact match, to create high/low switching. But when you need to see/feel something before you buy online is a pain. Almost impossible to find brick/mortar electronics these days.


I think my all time favorite Christmas gift ever was a Heathkit portable phonograph. Was amazing when I finally finished it, used it for years. (Then ruined my hearing when I added a headphone plug and listened to Grand Funk Railroad and others at unwise volume levels  ::) )
 
Aye Scott, I miss the touchy feely when I have no choice but to shop online. The irony of all this online stuff is that amazon has been opening brick & mortar stores.
 
I remember when Radio Shack was like a geek toy store.
I helped my dad build a kit Stereo system from RS when I was young, and Radio Shack was the place to get all sorts of parts for electronics.
I even built my first XT computer from a Radio Shack Kit.

In the last few decades, it seemed that they lost their identity.

 
I agree -- Radio Shack was a decent place to shop for electronic goodies, even when there were other electronics stores around the area, but by the '90s they'd changed their focus so that nearly the only thing I could use them for was certain parts (audio or video cables and adapters, resistors, Minimus 7 speakers, etc.). In 1977 they introduced the TRS-80 microcomputer, and in 1978 I bought one (the Model 1, but at that time the only one). I still have it, along with the computer desk they'd designed for it (with cutouts to allow the various parts to fit with a place for connecting cables).

But, as others have said above, the last few years I could almost never find what I needed in there -- a shame for what used to be a very useful shop for me and many others.
 
I agree that the RS of old was useful for finding electronic devices to build or repair a project. BUT, I always resented that they demanded to have your address and phone number for a purchase, even if you just went in for a couple of AA batteries. I won't miss RS. In fact our local store closed a year or two ago, and the only thing I miss is that no-one has put another business in that building.
 
When I used to fly the Atlantic to visit the US in the 70's, I always visited the electronics department at Macy's. Lots of neat electronic toys (for the kids back home) and toys for adult kids.
 
Punomatic said:
BUT, I always resented that they demanded to have your address and phone number for a purchase, even if you just went in for a couple of AA batteries.
Bingo, they were just plain obnoxious to deal with.

In 1978 I sold my record collection and bought a Heathkit 25 inch tv to assemble. The reason I liked it so much was because I got to do all the adjustments myself. It had a built in dot bar generator and everything. Really cool.
 
I always resented that they demanded to have your address and phone number for a purchase, even if you just went in for a couple of AA batteries.

It was easy enough to just say no, and no more hassle than having to let an employee look over your receipt and compare it to your cart, as they do in Costco.
 
Larry N. said:
It was easy enough to just say no, and no more hassle than having to let an employee look over your receipt and compare it to your cart, as they do in Costco.


Agree. That never bothered me. But it did bother me when time and again they didn't have some little thing I needed that the the RS of old used to carry. Ex: most recently I needed two simple little low voltage switches, ended up at Lowe's for one and auto parts for another. I'm sure I spent more on gas than the switches cost.
 
Won't miss them at all. The local Radio Shack supported HAM radio until the new owner started giving cla$$e$ and te$t$, then he transitioned to cell phones and reduced the electronics section to almost nothing before going out of business about five years ago.
 
I did/do like this vintage STA and STAV receivers. I still have an STA 2000. A true 75 watts per channel of clean sound. Gotta get it to a shop to fix a weird problem though.
 
SeilerBird said:
Bingo, they were just plain obnoxious to deal with.

In 1978 I sold my record collection and bought a Heathkit 25 inch tv to assemble. The reason I liked it so much was because I got to do all the adjustments myself. It had a built in dot bar generator and everything. Really cool.
I went for RS and Heathkit test equipment.  I built a RS tube tester and audio oscillator and I built a Heathkit color bar generator.  My biggest (and most expensive) was a Heathkit O'scope.  I used it for years.
 
Back
Top Bottom