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Author Topic: I miss Radio Shack  (Read 1451 times)

W5JON

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #15 on: August 17, 2022, 09:04:56 AM »

Yup.

"You have questions, we have cell phones"......
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WX7Q

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #16 on: August 17, 2022, 10:18:48 AM »


https://www.radioshack.com/

Back in the dark ages (1980's) purchased a 36 foot pushup mast, and an Archer TV antenna Rotator. Turned my Moseley TA 33-Jr with ease.

WX7Q
Jim
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KC6RWI

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #17 on: August 17, 2022, 11:17:24 AM »

AT the end they would ask for name and address, that was really something new is those days, take my name so you can
send me a flyer that has parts on sale that this store didn't stock. For me it seemed the owner of the franchise? was it a franchise,
probably made the store work or not work.
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WA9AFM

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #18 on: August 17, 2022, 12:53:50 PM »

For a short time, Radio Shack carried its' own line of amateur radio gear.  A 10m and 2m transceivers and a gaggle of HT's.  Rumor was they were made by Icom.  The line was actually pretty good. 

At the same time, if you were an amateur radio operator and worked at RS, you could put your call sign on your RS name badge.

It wasn't too long after that, the moto was, "You've got questions, we've got blank stares."
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KD6VXI

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #19 on: August 17, 2022, 01:35:36 PM »

If you have a an electronics store in your town you are lucky, but I don't think you have on. In the huge city of Los Angeles, there is one left that fits the bill of parts and surplus, All Electronics. To make it worse they are only open on week days. I remember going thru surplus stores as a younger person and seeing tube amp tuners for consoles, transformers of every shape, all sorts of overuns from the days of prosperity I assume.

You need to get out more.

I used to (last year) drive over the hill from Bakersfield to Apex Electronics.

Damn near a square city block of surplus electronics, movie sets, etc.

--Shane
WP2ASS / ex KD6VXI
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KD6VXI

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #20 on: August 17, 2022, 01:37:06 PM »

RS failed to keep up and technology left RS behind. Like Kmart and Sears, no one of relevance misses them.

We still have KMart where I live.

Two, as a matter of fact.

And two stores that would like to call themselves Radio Shack.  Owned by dueling brothers.

--Shane
WP2ASS / ex LD6VXI
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KD6VXI

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #21 on: August 17, 2022, 01:39:07 PM »

For a short time, Radio Shack carried its' own line of amateur radio gear.  A 10m and 2m transceivers and a gaggle of HT's.  Rumor was they were made by Icom.  The line was actually pretty good. 

At the same time, if you were an amateur radio operator and worked at RS, you could put your call sign on your RS name badge.

It wasn't too long after that, the moto was, "You've got questions, we've got blank stares."

Uniden.  Some of the parts and boards actually have Uniden's name in etched in them.

The later stuff was made by Wireless Marketing.  That was really the end of ham radio for RS.

--Shane
WP2ASS / ex KD6VXI
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KC6RWI

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #22 on: August 17, 2022, 02:53:34 PM »

Yes, I didn't include Apex, I'm up the hill from it, but its more like ww2 surplus and huge expensive test equipment, you probably know
that almost all the monster sci fi movies rented test equipment from that store for movie props.
I haven't been in that store for a year or two.
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AC2EU

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #23 on: August 17, 2022, 02:58:06 PM »

There is some weird on line presence attempt here:
https://www.radioshack.com/

Now they are going to be a crypto exchange!

The crazy left turns like this and the laser focus on cell phones is what killed the shack last time. Just one man's opinion...

Crypto... REALLY?

The Heathkit site is even worse. looks like someone trying to clear useless junk from a warehouse!
https://shop.heathkit.com/shop
No imagination at all.

W1VT

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #24 on: October 10, 2022, 05:13:54 AM »

Radio Shack sold inexpensive TV masts and tripods.  Decades later the stuff still works.
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KD6VXI

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #25 on: October 26, 2022, 12:35:35 PM »

AT the end they would ask for name and address, that was really something new is those days, take my name so you can
send me a flyer that has parts on sale that this store didn't stock. For me it seemed the owner of the franchise? was it a franchise,
probably made the store work or not work.

At the end?  I started working at 'The Shack' in 1991.  They where taking phone numbers then.  We actually had a quota to meet.

And GOD forbid you didn't get the phone number and ALL information on a check or credit card sale.  We fired guys for that!

Radio Shack had franchise stores and non franchised stores.  Most franchise stores didn't have high dollar items on display.  And they also had other things.  For instance, in Tehachapi, Ca. the (still open) Radio Shack also has a animal rescue run inside it, their kids sell girl scout cookies, they replace watch batteries, and they carry things the Shack didn't.

You would NEVER find that in a corporate owned store.  And the LARGE majority of stores where corporate.  But your comment still stands.  The management of the corporate stores made or broke it as well.

--Shane
WP2ASS / ex KD6VXI
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KT4WO

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #26 on: October 27, 2022, 12:55:52 AM »

Near the "end" of our store, they had so few small parts it was
pointless to even check them.
They went from 100's  to a few dozen small parts in maybe a year.
Most parts bins were empty.

You have ?'s .... We have dumb looks.
Most didn't even know where the small electronic parts were located.

When they started the "we require your address/phone" stage....I walked
away for good, so no---I don't miss that.
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AC2EU

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #27 on: October 27, 2022, 07:57:31 AM »

Toward the end, RS was more like a phone store that sold batteries and cable accessories.
The original 'parts walls" shrunk to almost nothing.

So the questions is, did RS lose their way or did the the number of hobbyist decrease which made their business plan untenable?

G8FXC

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #28 on: October 27, 2022, 10:15:38 AM »

Toward the end, RS was more like a phone store that sold batteries and cable accessories.
The original 'parts walls" shrunk to almost nothing.

So the questions is, did RS lose their way or did the the number of hobbyist decrease which made their business plan untenable?

I think it was a combination of the above plus the rise of the internet and eBay... Developments in technology had a big impact on the feasibility of constructing equipment that most people would want. In its prime, Radio Shack were serving people who might otherwise have bought Heathkit kits. A desirable radio would have been built primarily out of discrete components and you could realistically buy most of the things you would need from a Radio Shack store. Then the levels of integration went up and things went surface mount - just about feasible for home construction, but much more demanding.

The rise of the internet in general and eBay in particular has also made it far more difficult for a High Street store to make money. Radio Shack wanted to sell me resistors in bubble packs of five - and relatively expensive. These days, I go on eBay and buy a pack of several hundred - and far cheaper per unit...

Martin (G8FXC)
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VE3WGO

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #29 on: November 01, 2022, 04:15:17 PM »

In Canada Radio Shack had a complicated history.  I remember it at least from the 1970s.  It was owned by Tandy, who eventually spun off its Canadian arm in the mid 1980s.  Then it was sold to Circuit City who finally sold the whole chain to Bell Canada in 2009.  Now it is called The Source.

Mainly Cell phones, Stereos, TVs, computers, clock radios, and even some parts!  Over the past few years I have bought a laptop, a roll of solder, a new soldering iron, connectors, a pack of assorted resistors, and some spools of wire there.

So it's not really dead now, just different.

"Only in Canada, eh?  Pity."

73, Ed
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