RIP Radio Shack

[wr250]

The truth is, the mafia gets paid first, then the government.

Admittedly, the difference between the two is often blurry.

ive often thought them the same...

[Unquenchable Angst]

Miss the place before their last do over. There were 2 here then they built a stand alone  with 5 park slots. I still have a bag and box of odd parts and one of those "Learning Labs" (never unsealed). I remember when they were Allied Radio Shack before Tandy Leather bought them out. I might get some project going out of their parts and if I wanted quantity I would order from Mouser. Allied still exists.

[testing101]

RADIO SHACK SUCKS! In my short lifetime its pretty much always sucked. When I was in HS a few years ago my robotics team would always go to the local Radio Shack  (RS) to legally barrow for scientific purposes whatever wasn't nailed down with the hope that the money we saved on small transistors, nuts, and bolts could be allocated towards our Jack In The Box Budget. Part of where Radio Shake went wrong is clearly the fact everyone went there to legally borrow things. I'd go as far as to say the employees of these stores are the most guilty of this bad habit. If RS were smart they would have put everything behind a glass case. Which brings me to my next point...
Has anyone every tried to get help at RS? If you fail to yourself the favor of walking out in frustration the help you do get will surely be comical. Interestingly enough we all know these employees do nothing all day except wait for a freaking customer... all day! What do they do when one comes? They scatter like bugs under a rock. How big is the back of radio shack anyway? They always run back there.
For those in the bay area... FRYS SUCKS TOO!
Everyone who works there is a meany weeny. They have bad attitudes. Don't like to help you unless you're buying a laptop or a TV. Even then they refuse to listen to your requirements and are determined to navigate you to the POS that's not selling. A for persistence but F for listening to your customer. Additionally, why do they close at 9PM!? Radio Shack closes at 8PM around here and I think that's ridicules but because there's a legit major problem with petty crime zombies stealing pink barbie drones I can slightly understand the need to close promptly when the sun goes down... in most cases well before. But Frys... You have no excuse! Do you know how many data center engineers would be buying crap between 10pm-2am!? Do you!? Do you know how many students would be buying crap between 10pm-6am? You wouldn't even need to keep the whole store open. All they would need is the customer service desk with a runner to go grab inventory and look for knickknacks. So to sum this up... in a perfect world I would love to see a 24 hour electronic/computer store that has a cafe that serves food. Because seriously... I'm sick trying study and test theories on paper at midnight in establishments such as Denny's, Jack In The Crack, Taco Bell, and the 7/11 parking lot.

[Camazotz Automat]

So to sum this up... in a perfect world I would love to see a 24 hour electronic/computer store that has a cafe that serves food. Because seriously... I'm sick [of] trying [to] study and test theories on paper at midnight in establishments such as Denny's, Jack In The Crack, Taco Bell, and the 7/11 parking lot.

Your passion is palpable. It sounds like a business plan that would work in select areas. I would go there and buy potentiometers while eating a ham and cheese catch her on the thigh.

Maybe you should consider starting one up.

(Yes, I remember the day way back when, when Charged Particles cafe was born on BellGab ....)

I find Fry's insufferable. I will never return. (I say that, but who doesn't become desperate when some kind of hardware fails and you don't want to wait for it to be shipped to you?)

Going into Fry's was like going into an Apple Store that has a terminal disease.

All this attitude and ignorance ... just waiting to croak.

[Caruthers612]

Well for all us old Technerds who grew up with Radio Shack the end is here. :*(
All those glory days building ArcherKits, buying crystals for our walkie-talkies and Police Scanners.
Buying all those blank Video Tapes, 8-Track and Cassette tapes. Getting your free battery of the month with your card.
Tracking down Diodes, capacitors and resistors to bring dead things back to life. The little pocket TV's that were so cool.
The turntables, boomboxes, AM/FM Stereo car radios with the install kits. It's all coming to an end.
This picture sums it up. All that big expensive battery eating stuff now all fits in your cellphone in your pocket![attachimg=1]

          Tandy, the mark of quality. 

[Sehnzeleid]

Went there over the weekend to get an 3.5mm auxiliary cable, $15 for an unshielded thread of copper wrapped in fabric. Went on Monoprice and ordered a better quality cable for $4.75 shipped. Hard to shop for anything electronic-related at brick and mortars anymore.     

[zeebo]

Went there over the weekend to get an 3.5mm auxiliary cable, $15 for an unshielded thread of copper wrapped in fabric. Went on Monoprice and ordered a better quality cable for $4.75 shipped. Hard to shop for anything electronic-related at brick and mortars anymore.     

I've picked up great cables (hdmi, audio, network, etc.) online, delivered to my door, for a fraction of the price of local shops.  I forsee one day many of those mini-malls will revert to nice grassy parks, while much of what we buy comes from enormous warehouses whose location is irrelevant to us.

[onan]

I've picked up great cables (hdmi, audio, network, etc.) online, delivered to my door, for a fraction of the price of local shops.  I forsee one day many of those mini-malls will revert to nice grassy parks, while much of what we buy comes from enormous warehouses whose location is irrelevant to us.

There is the difference between us. I see rundown tobacco vape stores and an increase in crack and meth sales.

[albrecht]

There is the difference between us. I see rundown tobacco vape stores and an increase in crack and meth sales.

I've been asking myself that question: how many people are on drugs and how can all these headshops stay open? Let's assume they are even just for pot smokers. How many pipes does one need? Do they go bad? Or is this generation so lazy they won't just replace a screen or clean them out if gummed up? And crackheads and meth-heads? How many pipes must you buy? And glass is cheap so how can the stores stay in business?

[ItsOver]

There is the difference between us. I see rundown tobacco vape stores and an increase in crack and meth sales.

Don't forget tattoo shops.  Gotta have the tats to go with smokes and stuff.

[zeebo]

There is the difference between us. I see rundown tobacco vape stores and an increase in crack and meth sales.

Ok, so maybe a vape/meth park then?  Actually, we already have one of those near where I live. 

[b_dubb]

What's a RadioShack?

[onan]

Don't forget tattoo shops.  Gotta have the tats to go with smokes and stuff.

Nothing says money well spent like a tattoo.

[West of the Rockies]

There is the difference between us. I see rundown tobacco vape stores and an increase in crack and meth sales.

Plus, if everybody buys online CHEAP (with wholesale price often dictated by Amazon), the good manufacturing jobs will dry up even further.  I'd rather pay a bit more and keep the people in the city where I live in their jobs, our public safety departments running, schools open, parks clean, etc.

[onan]

Plus, if everybody buys online CHEAP (with wholesale price often dictated by Amazon), the good manufacturing jobs will dry up even further.  I'd rather pay a bit more and keep the people in the city where I live in their jobs, our public safety departments running, schools open, parks clean, etc.

This is a tough one for me. I now live a good distance from most "mom and pop" shops. Most of them charge more for their wares, I am mostly good with that, but I also incur a shipping charge, and that makes it less and less attractive. Also, small businesses are just dying, plain and simple. The town we do most of our shopping in has lost all of the major department stores. There were two malls, both are struggling to find a way to stay open and it doesn't look good. I can shop at Walmart, sometimes I do, but I hate myself the next day.

[MV/Liberace!]

Went there over the weekend to get an 3.5mm auxiliary cable, $15 for an unshielded thread of copper wrapped in fabric. Went on Monoprice and ordered a better quality cable for $4.75 shipped. Hard to shop for anything electronic-related at brick and mortars anymore.     

how could you have posted this as recently as you did?  i thought all of the stores were closed months ago.

[MV/Liberace!]

There were two malls, both are struggling to find a way to stay open and it doesn't look good.

at least you'll have somewhere to hang out during the zombie apocalypse.

[onan]

how could you have posted this as recently as you did?  i thought all of the stores were closed months ago.

Nope some are still open.

[MV/Liberace!]

Nope some are still open.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CptdTBDkK_g

Radio Shack was so deserving of its demise.

[coaster]

I liked Radioshack. It was the only place I could find cb radio equiptment. We had a Best Buy move in, and the Radioshack disappeared.  Now the Best Buy is gone. Where the hell do I get batteries now?

[MV/Liberace!]

I liked Radioshack. It was the only place I could find cb radio equiptment. We had a Best Buy move in, and the Radioshack disappeared.  Now the Best Buy is gone. Where the hell do I get batteries now?

I can't imagine buying batteries in a Radio Shack.  You really did that?

I loved talking on the CB when I was a kid in the early 90s.  I had a Uniden Washington base station unit in my bedroom which was illegally modified to operate well into the 10-meter band, and I had an Antron99 antenna on a tower outside the house.  What I'm trying to tell you is that I was pure, unadulterated white trash.  I talked to people all over the world on that thing, though.

I wonder how much activity there is today on channel 19.  The citizen's band must sound so clear today vs. 1993.

[coaster]

Radioshack was the battery mecca. I'd spend entire paychecks there when I was younger. I had a base station and a cobra for the car. I'd talk trash to the armchair truckers until some dick stole my antenna in the middle of the night. Good times.
We have a local cber here that streams online. Its nothing but dead air now. Truckers and their smart phones...

[slippingaway]

Just another outfit that lost it's original identity and was transformed into an abortion, courtesy of a pack of clueless suits and accountants who couldn't differentiate a capacitor from an employee on a spread sheet.  Sound familiar?

Ahh, the good old days of Radio Shack are the bye-gone days of yesteryear.  The last time I went into a RadioShack, I went in to get some CR123 batteries for some security equipment.  I put my 2 5-packs of batteries on the counter, and the guy that was billing me out said my total was $40-something.  My eyes got wide, because there is no way in hell I could justify paying $4 a battery, even on the company card. I put back a pack, and then did what everyone else probably does.  Pulled out their smartphone and checked online for it.  Ebay, 12packs of Energizers for $10.00

Trust me, don't buy your cables from box stores.  I've seen what the cost is from a distributor like TechData or Ingram Micro, and it would only piss you off to know that 800% markup is not uncommon for RadioShack, Staples, ect.  The same Startech cable they paid a less than a buck for is gonna cost you at least $7

How does radio shack affect me? It's one less place that will piss me off by saying, "That's out of stock, but I'd be happy to ship that directly to you."

The makerbot revolution will change the face of retail forever. 

[MV/Liberace!]

The makerbot revolution will change the face of retail forever.

heh heh, yes... an often overlooked angle.

[Dyna-X]

The one by me sits in a parking lot that looks like it got carpet-bombed. The store itself is sandwiched between a check cashing place and a bail bondsman. The last two times I visited they were out of stock on the specific thing I needed, so I gave up on them. The staff of course was eager to sell you anything and friendly, but knew nothing more about electronics as say the average person on the street and they seemed entertained on how much I knew.

So in addition to the online route some, I have went the route of creating the "Great Hoard" that is several big boxes of every type of cord, adapter, charger, fuse, light and solid state component you could imagine.  That has created a new issue in that my neighbors come to me at odd hours asking if I have this or that kind of adapter or fuse handy, lol. I generaly oblige, but I don't trust any of them well enough to lend out my Fluke multimeter.

[Zetaspeak]

What I remember most about Radio Shack is that even if I spend less than $5, they ask me a bunch of personal questions at checkout "Dude I just want some batteries for my walkman"

[zeebo]

What I remember most about Radio Shack is that even if I spend less than $5, they ask me a bunch of personal questions at checkout "Dude I just want some batteries for my walkman"

Haha, exactly.  And I always got the feeling they just sold the same ten commonplace items, and the rest of that stuff wasn't even real.

[pate]

This is a tough one for me. I now live a good distance from most "mom and pop" shops. Most of them charge more for their wares, I am mostly good with that, but I also incur a shipping charge, and that makes it less and less attractive. Also, small businesses are just dying, plain and simple. The town we do most of our shopping in has lost all of the major department stores. There were two malls, both are struggling to find a way to stay open and it doesn't look good. I can shop at Walmart, sometimes I do, but I hate myself the next day.

While I am here, I'll take a couple of hot dogs, and an order of American Fries to share around...