The Death of Radio Shack

[Babybearjs]

  Well... decided to look up radio shack tonight.... they are all but gone.... the website is in "Clearance" mode and all they seem to have left are parts.... so sad.... so now all some of us have is places like Digi-Key and other online suppliers like that.... so, if you need anything they still have, grab it quick.... you'll get a decent price.... wonder if they will ever come back?

[twocvbloke]

It'll be like the Tandy stores (our branch of Radio Shack) here in the UK, bought out and turned into something completely and utterly unrelated to the original business, in our case, it went from electronics & components suppliers to a mobile phone reseller (Carphone Warehouse)...

[TelePlay]

Hadn't had the need or the urge or the curiosity to look for a Radio Shack for many months, ever since the one about a mile from me closed.

Just using the online "find a radio shack near me" search, all that came up were "Authorized RadioShack Dealer" stores and none have information on what is being sold at these stores.

All are existing stores of many product varieties from drug stores to hardware stores and none are closer than 30 miles from me so I'm not taking a road trip to see what "Authorized RadioShack Dealer" means.

This is what shows up, I'm the green flag, as locations of "Authorized RadioShack Dealers" within 100 miles from me. End of an era.

[LarryInMichigan]

Their website is still active, but the nearest store shown on their store locator is at least 50 miles from me.  Perhaps if Radio Shack hadn't charged surreal prices for many of their items and mistreated their customers, they would have done better.  About 28 years ago, I tried to buy a box of diskettes (remember those?) from a Radio Shack store.  There was no price posted on the item.  When I brought it to the cashier/manager, he first asked for my name and address for their mailing list and became quite angry when I refused to give it to him.  He then scanned the item at about three times the going price, and when I told him that the price was very unreasonable, he snapped back that I would have known that they had been on sale the previous week if I had been on their mailing list.  I rarely attempted to buy anything from Radio Shack in the years following that.


Larry

[Pourme]

~

Our Radio Shack is a "authorized" dealer, meaning it is a franchised privately owned store. This one is located inside a also privately owned drug store. I'll have to check to see if they are still in business, I haven't been there is a very long time. As a former manager of several company owned Radio Shack stores, I believe the internet brought on the demise of Radio Shack.  At one time RS had parts on the shelves you couldn't find anywhere else. Now you can order that and more on the internet at tremendous savings. I have gone to RS and put things back on the shelf and ordered online instead.

Radio Shack is a retail enterprise who's time is over.

Benny

[TelePlay]

Radio Shack is a retail enterprise who's time is over.

Dates back to a time when curious young people knew what ARRL meant, learned code to get the HAM license and built their own tube transceivers from scratch (a schematic or kit) in a small room or corner of a room filled with radio equipment known as their shack. Always admired those inventors with their equipment and strange arrays of antennae strung over their parents homes. There were about 6 shacks within 10 blocks of my parents home.

Not sure what young people do today other than chat with SIRI.

[RB]

Rat Shack has been dead for a long time.
They just did not know enuf to lay down.
I used to buy all...???most of my parts from them.
They never did carry everything they listed on the backs of their components.
Always had to source the remaining parts elsewhere. quite a dis appointment imho.
Anyway, with Frys, amazon, etc... it is ok to lose RS.
mostly a TOY shop towards the end anyway...

[Dan/Panther]

If they had continued to run as Radio Shack did back in the day, they might still be viable. But NO...they had to jump on the cell phone bandwagon. That made them lose the hobbyist do it yourself customers, and since they can't compete with Apple, and Samsung, they hung themselves.

A bit of trivia.
The only word not in the extensive Radioshack Electronics dictionary was..........Radioshack.

D/P

[AE_Collector]

Wait a minute..what about my "Battery of the Month" card?

Seriously, RS vanished in Canada years ago. Turned into "The Source". I think that is an electronics store though I don't know for sure since I can't ever recall being in one.

Terry

[Babybearjs]

yeh, its no big thing they are all but gone... I only but 1 item from them as they seem to be the easiest source for E-10 Sockets. (no, not tools, light sockets) anyway, I made some really nice soffit lights using E10 sockets and 18 Volt lamps... now that this source is gone, its going to be hard to find the sockets. I also fitted my low voltage lighting out side with the sockets also......Oh.. OK.... damit.... LAMPHOLDERS....   anyway now I have to try to find them else where....

[TelePlay]

. . .  anyway now I have to try to find them else where....

Yeah, the dreaded question each time I approached the cash register: "Need any batteries?"

Anyway, I digress. Sockets are easy to find online, and a lot cheaper. Below is an image from this source

     http://shop.miniscience.com/navigation/detail.asp?id=MINIBASE

and a screen shot of the "No Longer Available" even online Radio Shack socket showing the RS pricing.

Need bulbs? Once source for many types (sizes and voltages) is Bulb Town

     https://www.bulbtown.com/category_s/328.htm

Even with shipping and the wait for delivery time, online has what you want for less.