Goodbye Radio Shack

Went to my local Radio Shack store this afternoon to see what discounted items might remain on the shelves. Radio Shack entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week and many of their stores will be closing. Everything had been pretty well picked over, including my favorite department with all the switches, relays, LEDs and semiconductors.

I did find some SanDisk 8GB Class 10 Ultra SDHCs at $5.98 Ea, so bought one as an emergency backup for my gadget bag.

Being north off 55 Years Old and being fascinated with electronics most of my life, I will very much miss Radio Shack. In the late '60s, a trip to Radio Shack with my brother was a huge event. We'd spend our meager savings very carefully, buying jacks, wire, switches and other gear to cobble together hi fi equipment. My model railroads have been built entirely with Radio Shack switches, pushbuttons, lamps and plugs. Unfortunately most people don't seem to have an interest in this sort of hobbycrafting anymore.

Anyway, if your local store is closing, you may want to stop by and see what's there.

Last time I was in they offered to sell me an HD cable for $47; bought the same one down the block at Orvacs for $15.75. I'm staggered they last this long.

Agreed wev; even their "sale" prices were far too high. Radio Shack's corporate management never figured out how to compete. I feel sorry for Radio Shack's employees and took the time to wish the store staff well in their search for work.

The Radio Shack I know and love died 25 years ago. No big loss today.

Radio Shack used to be my go-to store for most of my bread boarding parts. Transistors, semiconductors, etc. I still have a cross reference manual to convert other part numbers to RS numbers. Sadly for me they decided to downsize in that area and drift into other areas... which became overpriced. I can't remember the last time I was into RS and what I was looking for. Ha!

480sparky said:

The Radio Shack I know and love died 25 years ago. No big loss today.

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I agree they lost their way long ago. They have been long considered an also ran for 20 + years.

I remember going with my Dad to use their tube-tester when our TV was on the fritz. I bought the 100-in-1 electronic kit, plus other DIY kits. Crystal radios continue to fascinate me to this day, since they convert radio waves into enough energy to power the earphone. Powered by the radio waves themselves. I had a free battery card that let me get one free battery every month. It was a fun place to go on my bike in the mid-70s.

I agree they were great up to about 1990, my dad and I used to build custom speaker cabinets, at one time they had a great selection of raw speakers. Remember Lafayette before them? They had a lot of great stuff too. Another fond childhood memory is my dad building Heathkit stuff. He built a tuner, amplifier and a couple TV's.

As a TV engineer in the 70's I bought a lot of parts and pieces for all sorts of personal projects. They really went to the wayside 20 years ago when Circuit City and Best Buy came on the scene. They never even tried to compete. They carried many of the same things but never came close to the prices. There was something recently I could not find anywhere local but Radio Shack. Was the first time I had been in there in years.

Now all they want to sell are cheap R/C toys at Christmas and the hot, trendy cell phones.

wev said:

Last time I was in they offered to sell me an HD cable for $47; bought the same one down the block at Orvacs for $15.75. I'm staggered they last this long.

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I'm staggered you paid 15.75 for an HDMI cable.
Have you looked at "monoprice" yet?

Blacktop said:

I'm staggered you paid 15.75 for an HDMI cable.
Have you looked at "monoprice" yet?

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Needed it that day, I was tired, and it came with a free bag of popcorn.

Rick M said:

I agree they were great up to about 1990, my dad and I used to build custom speaker cabinets, at one time they had a great selection of raw speakers. Remember Lafayette before them? They had a lot of great stuff too. Another fond childhood memory is my dad building Heathkit stuff. He built a tuner, amplifier and a couple TV's.

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Heathkit is another brand I hate to see having gone the way it did. Though just now, I went to the obvious URL for a Heathkit web site, and found something that seems to hint at an attempted revival. I guess I'll have to check back now and then, to see what, if anything, comes of it.

Anyone remember Tandy leather?

Here in the uk, radio shack was better known as Tandy, I remember shopping in there in the late 80,s. but it disappeared off the high street along time ago.

Now I shop in a place called maplins, which more or less sell the same things.

This thread made me remember the second computer I had, a Tandy 1000 (even had a hard drive!). The HD didn't want to start right off, and a guy I knew that had the same set up told me that he would tap the hard drive with a screwdriver handle, and the drive would start right up!

So I did that, left the box un-fastened, and whenever I turned it on, used the screwdriver as he suggested...it would work fine for that session.

I called it my......wait for it...........................................................my "Tandy Whacker Computer". LOL

480sparky said:

Anyone remember Tandy leather?

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paul04 said:

Here in the uk, radio shack was better known as Tandy, I remember shopping in there in the late 80,s. but it disappeared off the high street along time ago.

Now I shop in a place called maplins, which more or less sell the same things.

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The same here only now lack of patience and dexterity mean i dont buy the fiddly stuff any more but used to love tandy.

We still have Tandy Leather in Arizona. Heathkit was another outfit I bought from a built their kits. Still have a few. In fact my Amateur Radio gear is made up of some Heathkit stuff. Good kits with great instructions. Then too many people became "appliance" operators. Oh well that's probably what some "scratch built" people called me because I used a kit. Ha!

paul04 said:

Here in the uk, radio shack was better known as Tandy, I remember shopping in there in the late 80,s. but it disappeared off the high street along time ago.

Now I shop in a place called maplins, which more or less sell the same things.

Click to expand...

I remember Tandy, never went in or anything, just remember them being on the high street when i was a kid, didn't realise the connection with RS. I find Maplins on the expensive side tbh