"JCAlan" (jcalan)
02/06/2015 at 10:37 • Filed to: None
4
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"JCAlan" (jcalan)
02/06/2015 at 10:37 • Filed to: None | 4
| 14 |
So Radio Shack has filed for bankruptcy. According to reports, it will ditch everything overseas, close a thousand stores in the US, and sell off what's left to Sprint, who will market co-branded stores with both Sprint and Radio Shack on the sign (You know, like those awful Pizza Hutt/Taco Bells that you never go to.) None of this is a surprise, but leaves me feeling sad nonetheless.
I have been in love with electronics since I was a kid, and always had a desire to open things up and figure out how they worked (a curiosity that no doubt served me well as I eventually grew up to be an auto mechanic.) I remember destroying a VCR by carefully removing every one of those tiny little screws that held it together, all the while marveling and taking inventory of each little belt, gear, and motor that comprised it.
I remember pouring over every page of the Radio Shack catalog. My parents used to tease me by calling it my Bible. I read every description on every product. They sold things that were....interesting. Misfit electronic gadgetry that had no other place to call home. Tiny portable TVs (I still have mine,) "Realistic" branded stereo equipment, and Tandy computers. And while no where else had even considered carrying fuses or strange adapters and switches and wire and such, Radio Shack had drawers and drawers full of them. Think of the possibilities with such hardware available! And toys! Radio Shack was THE place to buy battery-operated toys at Christmas.
And they were a pioneer seller of cellular phones. These amazing 1200 dollar futuristic portable cellular phones that you'd have to be rich to own! I remember drooling over them through that big locked plexiglass cube that housed them in the center of the store. Little did they know that these new devices would eventually take the place of 90% of the electronics sold there, and that an independent seller would never be able to compete in that space.
Over the years Radio Shack tried to change and adapt. I remember several years back when they touted finally dropping the annoying practice of demanding a phone number to buy something. Too late, Radio Shack. (Side note: Doesn't everyone have basically this same practice now with rewards programs?) They dialed back their own generic names that no longer had the cache they used to, and partnered with big names like Beats Audio. But I can already get those everywhere else, so....once again too late.
So really it's just an end of an era. Radio Shack just doesn't fit into the modern world. My kids don't tinker with stuff like I did, they just request new apps. I like the old way better. Perhaps I'm just a bit nostalgic today, but I'm feeling like my childhood just wouldn't have been the same without Radio Shack fueling my creativity.
But there is good news! Every Radio Shack catalog ever is archived and viewable on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Look through them and find that awesome item that you once lusted over!
E. Julius
> JCAlan
02/06/2015 at 10:48 |
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This was before my time, but my family's first computer was a Tandy from the mid 80s.
Tohru
> JCAlan
02/06/2015 at 10:49 |
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I only go to KFC/Taco Bell or A&W/KFC's.
This hits close to home for me, as I was a seasonal RadioShack employee for winter 2005.
Hell, I stopped at the local RadioShack just last week for solder and desoldering braid.
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> JCAlan
02/06/2015 at 10:51 |
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I for one would like to see Fry's and the like move into the space left. There's been a pretty serious ceiling on the Radio Shack model for a while now - component-only stores don't work anymore, small gadget-only stores don't work anymore, and the scale is just not right. Cell phone stores can work on that scale, but a corner shop full of resistors and R/C toys only is an idea whose time is past. A place that has those *and* DVDs, *and* home appliances (like Fry's) is a better solution in the current age for brick and mortar.
nafsucof
> Tohru
02/06/2015 at 10:52 |
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JCAlan
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
02/06/2015 at 11:01 |
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I'm not familiar with Frys, sound kinda like an ABC Warehouse?
crowmolly
> JCAlan
02/06/2015 at 11:05 |
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When Radio Shack turned into a poor man's Best Buy/Cell phone store I knew it was on its last legs. Gone were the days you could go in and find a random diode you were looking for.
Do-Rif-To
> JCAlan
02/06/2015 at 11:07 |
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It breaks my heart, the local Radioshack that supported my engineering team all through college just closed a few months back. There was one employee that was far too intelligent for that job, he'd always get me into talking about exactly what I was doing with the components I was buying. I hope he's been able to find a tech job since they closed. Unfortunately you can't run a store on weekly sales of a single resister or even a big purchase of a $3 DPDT switch.
Nibbles
> JCAlan
02/06/2015 at 11:08 |
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To be fair, their tinkering section has become vestigial. Gone are the days when you could walk in and buy a variable temp iron, multiple gauges of solder, some flux, a breadboard, a few caps and resistors and make something. I went in a couple weeks ago for a matching transformer and had to drive well out of my way to hit a 'Shack that had the part
But if I wanted an RC helicopter, a new phone or some Beats by Dre™, they definitely had my back
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Nibbles
> JCAlan
02/06/2015 at 11:10 |
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It's like a Best Buy but with more stuff you'd like to purchase.
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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> JCAlan
02/06/2015 at 11:10 |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_E…
Think of them being like Best Buy taken to the next level. What Best Buy would be if it actually catered to techs. A place you can actually get motherboards, cases, microprocessors, oscilloscopes, high end stereo gear, prototyping boards, electric motors, 3d printers... R/C toys, DVDs, microwaves, and washing machines. The natural extension of brick and mortar in the modern age is to do one-stop shopping, and they're perfectly geared to that. Get people to come for the capacitor or computer P/S they need to replace, get them to stay for other things of higher margin.
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JCAlan
> Nibbles
02/06/2015 at 11:22 |
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Ya any recent visits there have just been depressing. You kinda look around and think, "Well good for them , they're still trying, but this is clearly a sinking ship."
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JCAlan
> Do-Rif-To
02/06/2015 at 11:23 |
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Ours had a guy that was nearly completely blind, but man he knew his stuff.
wabbalosthiskey
> JCAlan
02/06/2015 at 11:25 |
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So now that "Sprint Nextel" finally morphed back into just "Sprint" the marketing guys are lonely again and want to give "Sprint Radio Shack" a try? Sounds like a winner
If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
> JCAlan
02/06/2015 at 12:05 |
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So where am I supposed to buy weird size batteries now?