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Author Topic: I miss Radio Shack  (Read 1452 times)

KA6S

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #30 on: November 12, 2022, 02:15:34 PM »

Just to reply to the guy mentioning stores in Los Angeles - I grew up in Glendale where we had at least 4 independent electronics stores besides the Radio Shacks!  However - for components - there is still a place on Lankershim called Apex Electronics - it has been there better than 50 years.  Still open last I checked 2-3 years ago.
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KC6RWI

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #31 on: November 13, 2022, 08:08:53 PM »

That was me, in Glendale, still am there, although this section is called La Crescenta, Welcome to the forum.
I work in Los Angeles and years ago, there was a store called ITC electronics, they had so many surplus assemblies, All sorts of amps, tuners, tv parts and tubes, so much surplus from factory overruns, I assume.
In fact there was All electronics in LA and a few more blocks was ITC.
There were TV repair "supply"  shops, and you needed a number just to get help, very busy places.
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KA4ETV

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #32 on: November 16, 2022, 05:41:30 PM »

I miss Radio Shack …… That’s all for now.

Oh man do I ever miss RS! Wish those days were back. Now you have to order everything Used to wait for that catalog when I was a kid.
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KF0QS

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #33 on: November 19, 2022, 11:02:21 PM »

I worked at the local Radio Shack in the early 70's (two summers and two Christmas seasons).  They asked me to quit college in order to become an assistant manager of the store (it was a company-owned store).  I almost (stupidly) decided to do that, but my father talked me out of it.  I did much better going to college.

I really did enjoy all the cool stuff we had in that store.  I still have my Optimus-1B stereo speakers, which are actually very good quality speakers.  I loved being able to sell fancy stereo equipment, and bargaining over the price, but my heart lay in the real hobby stuff we sold (we always had one of those general coverage receivers, I think it was a DX-150 or something like that).  I was already licensed (Advanced Class) and was polite but amused when the CB'ers would come in and try to act all "technical".

In more recent years, I would still go down to the two local Radio Shacks to buy components (both are gone now), but I can guarantee you that the company didn't make much money on that kind of thing.  Top-of-the-line stereo equipment also fell out of vogue, and that used to be one of their big money makers.  That's probably why they switched to trying to be a cell phone store, but got run out of the market by Best Buy and all the cell phone providers like Verizon, etc.

We do have a Ham Radio Outlet locally, and it's fun to go in there and browse occasionally. 

The catalog I really miss is the old Allied Radio catalog out of Chicago and the Amateur Electronic Supply catalog out of Wisconsin.  I used to wait for both eagerly.  DX Engineering has a pretty nice catalog that I'm glad to get.  There are lots of odds and ends in there that I don't see anywhere else, and it's not as impenetrable as a Mouser Electronics catalog.  I try to buy some stuff from DX Engineering every year to make sure I keep getting their catalog.
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KC3TEC

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #34 on: November 20, 2022, 01:10:14 PM »

The saddest thing about stores like radio shack that i miss is being able to locally purchase components( even if the price was a bit higher)
With the evolution of electronics migrating to smd much of hobby building fell by the wayside.
Supply and demand issues caused many stores to close and dispose of non or slow moving merchandise.
Online ordering being the biggest recourse. Why have a store order and markup a price when customers could cut out the middleman?
With our hobby and homebrewing ,sourcing components economically is a monumental task.
Prebuilt equipment!
Unless you are doing high volume sales, in order to make a profit over material and cost of wages, you need tp price an item high.

Its the cost of used or repairable equipment that annoys me.
Electronics are the fastest depreciating category with automobiles following a close second.
But our hobby is a narrow one so when any component can be considered a ham radio part, the price immediately skyrockets.
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N4MJG

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #35 on: November 20, 2022, 02:23:51 PM »

I  do really do miss  RS too they colse it door about 4 or 5 years ago in Tullahoma Tn


73 Jackie
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JACKIE GREEN

KD6VXI

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #36 on: November 27, 2022, 07:13:27 AM »

That was me, in Glendale, still am there, although this section is called La Crescenta, Welcome to the forum.
I work in Los Angeles and years ago, there was a store called ITC electronics, they had so many surplus assemblies, All sorts of amps, tuners, tv parts and tubes, so much surplus from factory overruns, I assume.
In fact there was All electronics in LA and a few more blocks was ITC.
There were TV repair "supply"  shops, and you needed a number just to get help, very busy places.

All Electronics is still open.  I'm not sure about a storefront, but I've been a customer of theirs since the 80s.

I was a San Diego brat.  We had California Industrial and another store that escapes me at the moment.  Then along came Murphy's Junk.

I remember being asked if I would help California Electronics load up their stuff.  The original owner died and his kids didn't want much to do with the 'crap' he left behind.

A Chinese speaking gentleman had 8 Connex Boxes dropped at the site.  We loaded up EVERYTHING except HP and some hand picked equipment.  The HP had export restrictions, and other stuff was pulled aside they where not allowed to take to China.  We got to keep 100 lbs of stuff for our help.

This was in.... 1993 or 1994.

Last time I was in the place one of the kids was still there (we are talking maybe 20 years ago) smoking meth out of a pipe in the back room. Didn't care that someone was in the store.  Didn't care that someone could see him.  It's closed now.

Murphy's Junk, however, is a great place to buy stuff!  Just down the road from the California Industrial stores old location they have a TON of stuff, both inside and outside.  I've purchased everything from small parts to complete Harris 8877 amplifiers and more power supplies for them (4Kv at 1A CCS).

He's recently opened another store in Iowa, I believe.  A lot of CB stuff, but also Astatic mics, etc.  And Mike still owns the place.  Great guy to work with.


--Shane
WP2ASS / ex KD6VXI
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N9FIY

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #37 on: December 01, 2022, 04:08:17 AM »

well i am kinda lucky, there is one about an hour from my house in Rushville IN. it happens to be on the way to my sons house in southern IN. when i stop i load up. at one time there were 2 in my town.
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KK4GMU

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #38 on: January 01, 2023, 07:34:57 AM »

In Ocala, Florida, the is a store that is much like Radio Shack of the '60's with a twist: Nightfire Electronics.

https://www.vakits.com/

Quote
"NightFire Electronics LLC was founded by an Electronic Engineer to be a source where other Electronic Engineers, Technicians, Hobbyists, Teachers, Students, and anybody else could get a useful assortment of SMT & Thru-Hole components at a reasonable cost. Along the way, we decided to design our own PCB circuits and offer them at a great price. Our goal then, and still is today, is to put together a meaningful collection of electronic kits made of passive parts centered on an active component and offer it at a great price. We have been doing just that since October 2000."

One focus is Arduino projects; another is bluetooth components and kits.  The bulk of their sales is wholesale mail order.  But their retail store is as large as or larger than most radio Shack with component parts occupying hundreds if not thousands of peg board hooks.

Radio Shack's mistake was trying to become a mainstream consumer electronics store rather than continue to cater to the electronics hobbyist.  There were many branches of electronics hobbies that the Shack could have transitioned to or remained in including radio controlled cars and planes, science experiment kits and equipment, radio communications, antennas and related accessories.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2023, 07:43:07 AM by KK4GMU »
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AI5BC

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #39 on: January 01, 2023, 08:31:16 AM »


Radio Shack's mistake was trying to become a mainstream consumer electronics store rather than continue to cater to the electronics hobbyist.  There were many branches of electronics hobbies that the Shack could have transitioned to or remained in including radio controlled cars and planes, science experiment kits and equipment, radio communications, antennas and related accessories.

Add robotics, microcontrollers, and telemetry to the list. Radio Shack is like amateur radio and 8-track tapes, out of date, irrelevant, and stuck in the 60's no one has any use for. You want parts, there is Mouser and Digi-Key.
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WA3SKN

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #40 on: January 01, 2023, 10:35:25 AM »

I miss Lafayette Radio Electronics!
Radio Shack was good, Allied was fair, but Lafayette was the best!

-Mike.
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AB9GO

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Re: we still miss Radio Shack et all . .
« Reply #41 on: January 18, 2023, 05:33:15 PM »

Dick Smith had some stores in the USA back in the mid 80's.  DSE had some cool items you couldn't find anywhere else.  Build several of the DSE kits and I still have the OskerBlock watt meter I purchased there and it still works well and is accurate!  I miss them too along with Radio Shack.  I would love to have back all the $$$$$ I spent at Radio Shack and Microcenter over the years!!


We still miss Dick Smith Electronics.
Back in the day, it was widely liked by electronic enthusiasts.
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K7LZR

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #42 on: February 20, 2023, 02:47:58 PM »

.....RS failed to keep up and technology left RS behind. Like Kmart and Sears.....

Perhaps but even if RS had stayed abreast of technology and sold the latest everything I doubt that it would have saved them. With eBay, Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Costco, etc., poor Radio Shack likely wouldn't have a chance..... 
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W9WQA

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #43 on: February 20, 2023, 05:38:27 PM »

we all  coulda,shoulda spent a little more time,AND  money there and kept them alive...

AND btw,we cant do much to advance the state of the art today, except to support the mfgrs who do,  BY BUYING THEIR PRODUCTS.!!!

most hams i know are still hanging onto 20/30 yr old junk radios and have money stashed in ira's waiting to die and leave it to kids with cellphones.

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W3WN

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Re: I miss Radio Shack
« Reply #44 on: March 15, 2023, 05:23:14 PM »

we all  coulda,shoulda spent a little more time,AND  money there and kept them alive...
< snip >
We did, actually.

Bad management, untrained or poorly trained staff, corporate swerves, an ill advised decision to effectively become Cell Phone Shack... on top of the rise in online shopping and related availabilities...

We didn’t leave RadioShack.  RadioShack left us.
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