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eHam Forums => Company Reviews => Topic started by: SWMAN on August 16, 2022, 06:03:17 PM

Title: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: SWMAN on August 16, 2022, 06:03:17 PM
 I miss Radio Shack …… That’s all for now.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: W6SWO on August 16, 2022, 06:16:35 PM
I do too man!  When I was a kid in the 60's and 70's, I rarely went by a RS without stopping in.  Looked forward to each catalog and drooled over the stereo gear and radio gear, which at the time was pretty good stuff.  I bought so much stuff from them to build projects, speaker enclosures, terminals, tools, and ham gear.  My first radio was an HTX-202 that I still have.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KE8UVC on August 16, 2022, 06:29:29 PM
I miss having a place you could walk in and pick up random components. Those days are pretty much gone.  I still have a handful of the old 'radio kits' for kids from Radio Shack.  Remember the ones with the 'spring' connectors?  Good times.  My first key was a Radio Shack kit with a plastic/sheet-metal straight-key.  I still have boxes of old Radio Shack components , RS-276 diodes, triacs, rectifiers, etc. I should find a use for them, or give them to a museum.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KM0U on August 16, 2022, 06:51:57 PM
The only ham store in this area closed about two years ago, Radio Shack evaporated as well, now for something as simple as a PL-259, some RG-8x, or various small parts or connectors the only way to get these items is via the web or driving 300 miles to the nearest store.  You folks that have local ham stores, do your best to support them. . . when they're gone, you'll miss them.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: K4GTE on August 16, 2022, 06:58:58 PM
Radio Shack is back, on line and some stores. But it's not the Radio Shack of the 60's and 70's..........
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: SWMAN on August 16, 2022, 07:00:12 PM
0U,
 You are right, I miss my neighbor Texas Towers that were right down the road. But now we have a HRO just down the street where Texas Towers was. I wonder if HRO had anything to do with TT going out of business when they moved in ?
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: G8FXC on August 17, 2022, 01:20:04 AM
Fully agree - it was good to be able to go to a local shop to buy components. When I was a teenager in London, we had several independent shops within a few miles selling components. Tandy, as Radio Shack was known round here, came in and put all those independents out of business. Then, some years later, a home-grown competitor, Maplin, sprang up and put Tandy out of business - still selling a wide range of components over the counter. Eventually, the internet won out and Maplin followed Tandy into bankruptcy.

I don't know if it was the same on the west side of the big pond, but Tandy were an infuriating company for stock policy here. They always jumped very early onto new, emerging technologies, but overpriced them terribly, sold nothing and eventually abandoned them. I remember early on in the microcomputer era, my local Tandy bringing in Intel 8080 CPUs and all the associated components - all bubble wrapped on cards hanging on the display racks. I desparately wanted a computer and spent hours gazing longingly at those packages and reading everything I could about how to use them from Intel. But they were horribly expensive and way out of my range. Evidently most others thought the same, because they hung on the racks for years, the packaging getting more and more faded, until they were offered for virtually nothing in the spring sale - but, by then, the world had moved on to Pentiums!

Martin (G8FXC)
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: VE3WGO on August 17, 2022, 05:36:30 AM
I miss RS too.  In my hometown, as a teenager it was a bike ride away.  I built my first code practice oscillator from the 1970 Handbook circuit, and got the parts (transistors, perf board) and a free battery from the battery-a-month club.

RS had the "nerd nook" at the back of the store with racks and panels holding hundreds (thousands?) of experimenter parts.  They also had the "lifetime guaranteed" vacuum tubes for all your older radios or TVs...  I guess the tubes outlived the company.

I still have a couple of the old RS bookshelf speakers, and they actually sound pretty good as external speakers on my transceiver.

73, Ed
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: W6JAK on August 17, 2022, 06:28:00 AM
I miss Radio Shack, Heathkit, Lafayette, and all of the small electronics and science kit suppliers found locally or advertised in the back of Popular Science or Popular Mechanics.  They died by way of microelectronics, microcomputers, gutting of high school shop classes, etc.  However, electronics DIY is still alive but in the next-level form of software programming, robotics, and other forms of computer control using SBCs such as Raspberry Pi.  My grandkids give me hope that scientific and technical curiosity isn't going away.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: AI5BC on August 17, 2022, 06:41:34 AM
RS failed to keep up and technology left RS behind. Like Kmart and Sears, no one of relevance misses them. 
Title: Re: we still miss Radio Shack et all . .
Post by: VK6IS on August 17, 2022, 06:42:18 AM
we still miss Dick Smith Electronics,
- which eventually incorporated the Tandy group,
as Radio Shack was known round here,
and which was eventually acquired  by Anchorage Capital Partners,
which then wound up in an long running law suit.

back in the day, it was widely liked by electronic enthusiasts.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KA4ETV on August 17, 2022, 07:43:56 AM
Yep, those were the days!
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KC6RWI on August 17, 2022, 08:03:03 AM
 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: K3UIM on August 17, 2022, 08:04:46 AM
"Like Kmart and Sears, no one of relevance misses them."
Evidently you've never had to use the outhouse!! :o
Nor read the best seller, "Dash To The Outhouse", by Willy Maket!
Charlie
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: N0ETR on August 17, 2022, 08:10:45 AM
I live in Ottawa Kansas and there is actually a Radio Shack 30 miles to the west in Osage City. Haven't been in it, but have driven by several times. I miss being able to stop in after work, in Kansas City, to pick up electronic components. I hate ordering online because the shipping costs more than the parts.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: W5JON on August 17, 2022, 09:04:56 AM
Yup.

"You have questions, we have cell phones"......
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: WX7Q 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
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KC6RWI 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: WA9AFM 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."
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KD6VXI 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
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KD6VXI 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
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KD6VXI 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
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KC6RWI 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: AC2EU on August 17, 2022, 02:58:06 PM
There is some weird on line presence attempt here:
https://www.radioshack.com/ (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 (https://shop.heathkit.com/shop)
No imagination at all.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: W1VT on October 10, 2022, 05:13:54 AM
Radio Shack sold inexpensive TV masts and tripods.  Decades later the stuff still works.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KD6VXI 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
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KT4WO 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: AC2EU 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?
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: G8FXC 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)
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: VE3WGO 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
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KA6S 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KC6RWI 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KA4ETV 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KF0QS 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KC3TEC 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: N4MJG 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
 N4MJG
SKCC 7305 SINCE 2005
NAQCC 5233
OMISS 11548
General  LIC SINCE 2007
PREFER EQSL
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KD6VXI 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
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: N9FIY 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: KK4GMU 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: AI5BC 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: WA3SKN 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.
Title: Re: we still miss Radio Shack et all . .
Post by: AB9GO 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: K7LZR 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..... 
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: W9WQA 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.

Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: W3WN 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.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: W1VT on March 15, 2023, 06:03:32 PM
The only example I know of a big nationwide retailer that managed to  adapt to a major change is Woolworths.  They had to close down their stores when their customers stopped shopping in cities like Hartford, CT.  There is zero retail left in Hartford.  When I first came to CT you could go Christmas shopping in Hartford at stores like G Fox.  They tried discount stores but they couldn't compete against companies that sold stuff at lower cost.
Fortunately they were able to sell shoes.  A lot of shoes.  In 2021 Footlocker sold 9 billion dollars worth of shoes.  Little specialty shoe shops in malls.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: VE3WGO on March 16, 2023, 06:36:21 AM
we can't lay all of the blame on these retail stores....  we helped in their demise. 

Online shopping enabled a world where the goods are made somewhere else, warehoused somewhere else by mega-corporations (Amazon, Costco, Alibaba, etc), and shipped from lands far away so they contribute nothing to the local economy.  No local storefront or employees are needed at all.  It has almost completely replaced the local product development, manufacturing, distribution, and retail economies.  So yea, maybe your "downtown" will disappear soon.  No wonder the younger generation is so depressed.

Somebody else is doing the interesting stuff, while we sit on our fat keisters and tap our touchscreens to spend our borrowed money...

Reminds me of lyrics from the song "Don't Look Now" by CCR:

Who will make the shoes for your feet?
Who will make the clothes that you wear?
Who'll take the promise that you don't have to keep?
Don't look now, it ain't you or me.
Don't look now, someone's done your starvin';
Don't look now, someone's done your prayin' too.
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: K1FBI on March 16, 2023, 10:02:11 AM
The only example I know of a big nationwide retailer that managed to  adapt to a major change is Woolworths.  They had to close down their stores when their customers stopped shopping in cities like Hartford, CT.  There is zero retail left in Hartford.  When I first came to CT you could go Christmas shopping in Hartford at stores like G Fox.  They tried discount stores but they couldn't compete against companies that sold stuff at lower cost.
Fortunately they were able to sell shoes.  A lot of shoes.  In 2021 Footlocker sold 9 billion dollars worth of shoes.  Little specialty shoe shops in malls.
The majority of that City's population has a thing for sneakers. When I was a kid my Mother took me shopping at all the great stores in Bridgeport and New Haven. Now you try your best not to even pass through those Cities.

As far as Radio Shack goes, last weekend I was running around everywhere trying to find 16 gauge wire. My Wife said to me: Don't you wish there was still Radio Shack...
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: W1BR on March 16, 2023, 12:11:50 PM
When I was a kid we had G Fox on Mainstreet in Hartford....  Kresge's across the street...  G Fox was known for their 12th floor Christmas display for kids!  Model trains running... toys galore.  Those days and memories are long gone.  Fox even had a mezzanine that catered to coin and stamp collectors.  As a very young kid I could ride the train or buses between Windsor Locks and Hartford to visit all of those great stores.  Would not dare do that today!!
Title: Re: I miss Radio Shack
Post by: N4MJG on March 16, 2023, 12:30:31 PM
Do we all miss them too ? me too miss them as well !


73
Jackie
N4MJG