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1-10 of 35 messages
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When Radio Shack was Radio Shack!
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by AI2IA on October 26, 2009
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Radio Shack sold and sells what they think the majority of customes want.
They came a long way baby to get to where they got to today.
Scary, isn't it?
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RE: When Radio Shack was Radio Shack!
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by KD8LWP on October 26, 2009
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It is sad they lost their way over the years. It used to be a good place to get electronics, once. But now the quality is very lacking. And the staff are annoying. They should change the slogan to "You got questions? We'll try to sell you a cell phone."
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When Radio Shack was Radio Shack!
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by N6BOB on October 26, 2009
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Thanks for the memories... fun to remember the old High Fidelity gear and radios from my childhood. The electronics stores with parts are just about gone. We had a parts store, not Radio Shack, with-in 3 miles of here but now must drive 50 miles to get parts like power poles. Ordering on line or by phone works well but shipping is costly.
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When Radio Shack was Radio Shack!
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by KB7QOA on October 26, 2009
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Over the last week I've officially given up on 'The Shack'. I needed some RG-58, and all they sell now are overpriced pre-assembled jumpers with ends already attached. Not only do I not want to pay the overhead to have somebody in some sweatshop in China crimp them on for me, I would just have to cut at least one off anyway to avoid drilling a 1" hole to pass it through.
Then I needed a panel mount SO-239 to replace a connector with bad threading on my tuner. Priced it at Radio Shack, and decided to walk out. Picked one up a my local electronics store, A-Gem Supply, for literally 1/3 the price. And some may say it better be gold plated for the premium price, but that is the kicker, the cheaper one was gold plated where the one from "The Shack" was not.
While we as hams may not be the most profitable demographic out there, we certainly gave them quite a bit of business over the years. If I wasn't in there buying something myself, I was pointing others over there for all sorts of radio and TV related items. Now when somebody asks, I send them to one of about 4 different stores, because I know if on the odd chance Radio Shack has it, they will find a cheaper and higher quality item from someone else.
Radio Shack seems to have been trying to re-invent itself over the last 10+ years, and each time they remove more and more of the core that set them apart from other consumer electronics stores like BestBuy. And each time, it appears their short term profitability improves, but long term declines. It used to be that there was at least one ham that worked at almost every store, and they were knowledgeable about the store's entire product line. You could send somebody to them and know they would walk out with the right product for what they needed, from a new CB radio to the right TV antenna for their rural home. Now you're lucky if the same person behind the cash register is still working there 3 months later, let alone they know anything about the products beyond the description on the outside of the box.
Maybe it is pure coincidence, but in my local area the Radio Shack stores moved several times to larger and larger locations during the period when they actually dealt with radio products. Since they've quit carrying those "specialty" items, they've been constantly moving to smaller and smaller venues. To me it seems that it should be obvious that changing the focus of the company has hurt it, not made it better.
RIP "Radio Shack". You will be missed.
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RE: When Radio Shack was Radio Shack!
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by K7AAT on October 26, 2009
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Boy, I miss those old days.... reminds me of the Lafayette and Allied Radio catalogs I also dearly miss.
Ed K7AAT
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RE: When Radio Shack was Radio Shack!
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by KR4WM on October 26, 2009
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On a lark, I looked at my birth year catalog. I nearly cried! All the GREAT stuff in there! Hammarlund, Hallicrafters, Johnson-Viking, etc. I think the reason they don't sell cool stuff like they used to is that people just don't want to build things any more. The name of the game is "instant gratification". No waiting a month while you put something together any more! (Except for maybe an Elecraft, which I built about three years ago.) Whoever designed the website did a really fantastic job, and I like how you can leaf through the pages. Just like being there! Dagnabit! Young whippersnappers! Had to go and screw up Radio Shack!!! I'm going to go turn on my Hammarlund 180 and see what's on...
73, -KR4WM
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When Radio Shack was Radio Shack!
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by KC0VJX on October 27, 2009
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I seem to remember reading that Tandy Leather was a "penny stock" at one time in the 1950's - early 1960's. A $100.00 (A lot of money then) investment in Tandy Leather when they purchased Radio Shack in 1963 turned into a million dollars plus by 1980.
But there were great "Radio Shack" stores depending on the owner-manager and his levels of appreciation. Some were superb parts stores and others were 'merchandise stores' alone.
Those days are long gone. Great memories and interesting catalogs from a day when US electronics/parts manufacturing was dominant. I still remember when "Made in Japan" products (pre-Sony) were held in very low esteem and quality. Today we have "Rat Shack" and the monster Asia/Pacific Rim electronics-manufacturing behemoth.
God Bless Ten-Tec and Elecraft, etc.
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When Radio Shack was Radio Shack!
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by W5FAE on October 27, 2009
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I was fortunate to grow up in Boston, home of Radio Shack. As a young boy(1955), my dad gave me a Superex one transistor radio kit to build. The RCA CK722 that came with the kit was defective. My dad took me to "Radio Shack" in downtown Boston to find a replacement. We found a barrel of them in the middle of the floor. We bought a "handful" for a buck and brought them home to test. We found several "good" ones and we were off and running. This was my first experience with "The Shack".
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RE: When Radio Shack was Radio Shack!
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by K1MMI on October 27, 2009
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I remember about 50 years ago visiting a Radio Shack in Boston, Massachusetts. The store was very, very large in comparison to a Radio Shack store in 2009.
The store was loaded with the latest brand new Ham Receivers and Transmitters and there was a large assortment of used gear.
The Ham Radio Section was so large in comparision to visiting a local Ham Radio Outlet store in 2009.
These days Radio Shack has very little stuff for the Radio Experimenter but in recent months Radio Shack has come thru for me. Fets, Solder Tips for my Solder Gun, silicon grease, 15 pin VGA connectors to build an adapter, RFI chokes, a cable TV amplifier, so I'm still finding Radio Shack to be a useful store at times. It sure beats mail ordering $5 in parts and paying $10 in shipping. But if I am building something then mail order is the only way to go.
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