The last time I was in a Radio Shack was last fall. I wanted an antenna switcher, to switch my outside antenna from my TV to my stereo. $19.95. The very same thing was $4.95 at Home Depot!
This means the death of the hobby, people now want to buy R-T-R smart phones instead of building one from scratch or a kit. I guess someone is going to tell me that no one build kit phones anymore because you can get one with more and better features already built. I remember when it was common to climb the pole outside to use the party line, you had to ask Clair the operator to connect you to whoever you wanted to talk too.
Those were the good old days and the internet killed the local Radio Shack store and the party line. Those of you who chose to buy everything online, and RTR, it's your fault for not supporting the local guy.
Everything is going to the dogs!!
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
From Mr. Beasley: "No, it will be a Starbucks or yet another women's clothing store. The demise of a retail establishment seldom results in an improvement."
Right you are! There was a small electronics "hobbyist" store close to work that I used to frequent- until they closed over a year ago. Now there is a "massage" parlor there- just rubs me the wrong way!
I am old enough to remember going into a Radio Shack as a kid and staring with wonder at that wall full of parts and those how-to project books- I built several and learned more about electronics then when I was in junior high than I remember today- but that era is so long gone, it resides in the dust heap along with 45 rpm records.
The old type Radio Shacks inspired countless thousands of kids to become technically-skilled and many moved on to fulfilling jobs that built upon those simple skills learned from buying project materials at the Shack. Today, the grandchildren of those kids have no interest in the "how-does-it-work" aspect of their various electronic toys.
Radio Shack- for all it was and was not- used to be a cool place to go- long ago! (sigh).
Cedarwoodron
jrbernier Radio Shack has been getting smaller each year. They basically abandoned the kit builder and parts supply just like model railroad suppliers - Everyone want's 'RTR' - Right.
Radio Shack has been getting smaller each year. They basically abandoned the kit builder and parts supply just like model railroad suppliers - Everyone want's 'RTR' - Right.
Pretty much right, yes most everyone wants HQ RTR. Thats where the majority of the sales seem to be in MRRing - yes there is still the old guard wringing their hands over the lack of the production of new runs of kits, but the train shows have kits by the box load for cheap. Good? Bad? It just is. People are busy and building a Model Railroad takes a lot of time so not having to assemble a few hundred freight cars saves a lot of time.
Anyway, yes, I remember persusing the Radio Shack catelog when I was a teen in the 70's looking at the sterio equipment - GOOD, BETTER, BEST and later the TRS80 computers thinking how cool, and they were monochrome with 8" floppy disks which really were floppy. Then there was the battery club. Yes, I used to love to buy the kits and solder together resistors, transistors, capacitors and get a thing that flashed lights in different orders, learned how to build power supplies and basic electronics. I guess Radio Shack wouldn't survive forever on those things and as some have noted, have tried to survive recently as a cell phone store. On the radio report about RS closing nearly 2 thousand stores, they said there isn't much profit in selling cell phones.
Eventually I will need to get some electrical components, but I still have my set of 6 heat sinks and a soldering iron I got at Radio Shack that I use to keep from melting ties when I solder track.
Memories!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
This is something of a bummer. Not that I bought all that much from my local RS, but just like the LHS, video stores, books stores, etc.... I've always preferred, when looking for something in particular, to go into a store and examine items while holding it in hand. Then decide on buying or not. Online purchasing is too often hit and miss. I work for a very large international online retailer and see both sides of online shopping. Both as the supplier and as the customer. I wish I had a quarter for every customer return that is stated 'not what the customer expected', and seeing absolutely nothing wrong with the item. I would have a swimming pool full of quarters and could retire.
Times are changing...no doubt. Good or bad...I wonder.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
MisterBeasley It's not sad. It's exciting to see how things are changing and what will happen next. The world is evolving. Many old timers cannot handle it. Go with the flow. Rich A valid point. Perhaps we'll get an LHS in that storefront in town. Or an ice cream shoppe. No, it will be a Starbucks or yet another women's clothing store. The demise of a retail establishment seldom results in an improvement.
It's not sad. It's exciting to see how things are changing and what will happen next. The world is evolving. Many old timers cannot handle it. Go with the flow. Rich
It's not sad. It's exciting to see how things are changing and what will happen next. The world is evolving. Many old timers cannot handle it. Go with the flow.
Rich
A valid point. Perhaps we'll get an LHS in that storefront in town. Or an ice cream shoppe.
No, it will be a Starbucks or yet another women's clothing store. The demise of a retail establishment seldom results in an improvement.
Just because it's not an improvement to you, doesn't mean its not an improvement.
I'm sure there were people (not me) who were unhappy when that Popeyes in my town closed and was replaced by a Nando's and made other people happy (me).
richg1998Go with the flow.
When in need of model railroading supplies I miss the old hobby shop. When going thru a stack of big box 2x4s in search of at least one that's not split, warped, corkscrewed or soaking wet I miss the old lumberyard. When lucky enought to find the fastener required at the big box, but then having to buy a blister pack of 24 when only two are needed I miss the old hardware store. "Only dead fish go with the flow."
regards, Peter
The Canadian Radio Shacks stopped selling that stuff several years ago and from what I'm reading the US stores are going the same direction. At first I thought it was a shame but after walking into a few "Real" Electronic stores I realized RS was a bit of a rip off and the selection was minimal at best compared to these places. Internet suppliers are also a better source!
I think once you get over the demise of RS and look around you will be a hppier person!
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=5959
If one could roll back the hands of time... They would be waiting for the next train into the future. A. H. Francey 1921-2007
I remember when Radio Shack was a single Boston store on Tremont St, up near Eric Fuchs train store. That was before Tandy bought them and made them a nation wide chain. The old store used to have lots of surplus stuff, loose in cardboard cartons, stuff for amateur radio (this was before CB) and TV antennas and rotators. They had their own line of Realistic HiFi equipment, no class to it, but the price was right and it sounded just fine to my ear. Once they even sold British Army surplus rifles for $19.95 each. Shopping Radio Shack (and nearby Lafayette Radio) was fun. Lately it's been less interesting. About all I go there for is parts, they still have a few. I'll miss them when they go. We lost the Littleton Radio Shack years ago. The St Johnbury one doesn't look all that healthy, it's in a dying stripmall, and the Lancaster one is sorta part time.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I've been buying my electronic supplies from AllElectronics.com for years, now. Even with shipping, it's still cheaper than driving the mile to the RS in my town.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
There have only been two Radio shack stores in my county. One in the south part where I live and one in the north part. Both places are not even close to being "the big city".
The one here still carries lots of the electronic parts as before.They have added flat screen TV's, washers, dryers and fridge's. As well as cordless phones and cell phones. With of course a good supply of RC vehicles. Which sell real well. The people working there know what electronic parts are and where in the store they have them. The one thing they do not carry is liquid flex. Go figure? Some times they were out of items, but would get them back in stock with in a few days. So, I wonder, if maybe some of the stores are independently owned?
Ken Price
Ken G Price My N-Scale Layout
Digitrax Super Empire Builder Radio System. South Valley Texas Railroad. SVTRR
N-Scale out west. 1996-1998 or so! UP, SP, Missouri Pacific, C&NW.
mlehman I can't say a whole lot positive about the Shack's direction in recent years. Every time I go in, it seems they have discontinued something else I used to get there, which is rather discouraging. On the other hand, I'm rather struck by the lack of appreciation of the impact on the hobby. If it was a LHS, there usually is a chorus of lament to go with the chorus of "they had it coming." Sure, it was a pretty sparse buffet in recent years, but it was something close by in a lot of cases. Now that's going away. And that's not good. I wonder if mine (two blocks away) will survive?
I can't say a whole lot positive about the Shack's direction in recent years. Every time I go in, it seems they have discontinued something else I used to get there, which is rather discouraging.
On the other hand, I'm rather struck by the lack of appreciation of the impact on the hobby. If it was a LHS, there usually is a chorus of lament to go with the chorus of "they had it coming." Sure, it was a pretty sparse buffet in recent years, but it was something close by in a lot of cases. Now that's going away. And that's not good. I wonder if mine (two blocks away) will survive?
Yeah, the "good riddance" is a bit curious when a national chain is dropping a thousand locations but somehow it's big enough news every time a hobby shop closes to start a thread about it. Radio Shack shuttering that many stores is...real news.
That said, Radio Shack always seemed a bit like an artifact of a different age. And they seemed to have entirely too many stores. It's like...Gamestop has roughly one store for every 10,000 people in a given town. That's a multi-billion dollar industry. Radio Shack seems like it's got a store for every 5,000 people and an industry that, how to put it, isn't really around any more. That just seems unwise.
Radio Snit has been circling the drain now for many years. When I was a kid, they had electronic project books, the necessary components (sometimes the "pimply-faced-kids" even knew something about them), some OK DIY stuff for hi-fi, and some excellent hi-fi component which were re-branded pieces of well-respected manufacturers.
Nothing but less and less expertise, product selection, and usefullness from these clowns for years; Glad to see them go. Maybe a good restaurant will open in their former location.
cedarwoodron I just can't seem to figure out why I would bulk order (online) 100 bridge rectifier diodes or capacitors, without the requisite number of car lighting projects to do. After all, those tank cars, flat cars and box cars are rarely lit when running !
it is sad news,
I gave up on radioshack a long time ago. I do my buying at a regular electronics supply store. The store is the same size as radioshack, but is filled with every component, plug, and tool you could want. I picked up a nice temp controlled soldering base and pencil there a few years ago and have never been disappointed with it. I can get various different tips or the whole pencil if I want. You won't find those at RS. Yeah, they have cell phones there too, but there's only 2 of them and they're on the sales guys.
I was in 2 RS stores today for miniature switches. Needed 4 & each had 2. The one clerk has been there for a while & knows the store & is very helpful...guess it depends on the store.
Lol. Been there quite a few years ago.
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
I won't miss Radio Shack. I usually have to visit the four Shacks in my area to get what I need. I visited a radio shack a while back and helped a customer who was being helped by a sales rep find what he needed. Then I helped two more customers before I left. When I was paying for what I needed the rep asked me if I wanted an employment application.
No surprise, R.S. has been slipping for a long time. The local hobby shop is long gone and the local lumber yard and hardware store were big box steam rolled. Sad.
joe323 cedarwoodron Thing is...you walk into the mall and there are 3-4 kiosks located in the centerway throughout the mall- T Mobile, Metro PCS, etc. selling all kinds of cell phones, accessories and- their accompanying usage plans. Then you come to Radio Shack- as a mall lessee, they invested in their corporate retail interior, maintain an inventory of all sorts of ancillary retail stuff that no one buys, and then they hire know-nothings as sales associates, who try to sell you that Sponge-Bob desk phone for your kid and a 5G cell phone and plan for yourself at a price higher than those several kiosk "store-ettes". How long do you think they will stay in business? My once-a-month small electronics parts purchases will certainly not help their overhead! They are trying to sell into a headwind of discounters! On the other hand, the late, lamented LHS serves(d) a discrete clientele, and the employees- from merely breathing the air in that store- have some substantive knowledge of what they are selling/were selling- and to knowledgeable customers, at that! Big difference, but in the end, the tyranny of the marketplace wins out over all. So, back to the online world for yet another facet of our hobby's needs and wants..... Cedarwoodron Also factor in that while many MRR's still purchase electronic parts most of the general public does not. I suspect that those of us who do need parts do a lot of our shopping online though All Electronics or Ebay.
cedarwoodron Thing is...you walk into the mall and there are 3-4 kiosks located in the centerway throughout the mall- T Mobile, Metro PCS, etc. selling all kinds of cell phones, accessories and- their accompanying usage plans. Then you come to Radio Shack- as a mall lessee, they invested in their corporate retail interior, maintain an inventory of all sorts of ancillary retail stuff that no one buys, and then they hire know-nothings as sales associates, who try to sell you that Sponge-Bob desk phone for your kid and a 5G cell phone and plan for yourself at a price higher than those several kiosk "store-ettes". How long do you think they will stay in business? My once-a-month small electronics parts purchases will certainly not help their overhead! They are trying to sell into a headwind of discounters! On the other hand, the late, lamented LHS serves(d) a discrete clientele, and the employees- from merely breathing the air in that store- have some substantive knowledge of what they are selling/were selling- and to knowledgeable customers, at that! Big difference, but in the end, the tyranny of the marketplace wins out over all. So, back to the online world for yet another facet of our hobby's needs and wants..... Cedarwoodron
Thing is...you walk into the mall and there are 3-4 kiosks located in the centerway throughout the mall- T Mobile, Metro PCS, etc. selling all kinds of cell phones, accessories and- their accompanying usage plans. Then you come to Radio Shack- as a mall lessee, they invested in their corporate retail interior, maintain an inventory of all sorts of ancillary retail stuff that no one buys, and then they hire know-nothings as sales associates, who try to sell you that Sponge-Bob desk phone for your kid and a 5G cell phone and plan for yourself at a price higher than those several kiosk "store-ettes". How long do you think they will stay in business? My once-a-month small electronics parts purchases will certainly not help their overhead! They are trying to sell into a headwind of discounters!
On the other hand, the late, lamented LHS serves(d) a discrete clientele, and the employees- from merely breathing the air in that store- have some substantive knowledge of what they are selling/were selling- and to knowledgeable customers, at that!
Big difference, but in the end, the tyranny of the marketplace wins out over all. So, back to the online world for yet another facet of our hobby's needs and wants.....
Also factor in that while many MRR's still purchase electronic parts most of the general public does not. I suspect that those of us who do need parts do a lot of our shopping online though All Electronics or Ebay.
I have been doing that for at least ten years.
Many get stuck in a Tme Warp and have no idea the world, model railroading, the economy is evolving.
Today, change is a constant and rapidly moving.
Joe Staten Island West
mlehmanI can't say a whole lot positive about the Shack's direction in recent years
When I got my amateur radio license in 1963, Radio schlock was considered scraping the bottom of the barrel. I don't have one here in town, the closest is a good twenty mile drive to find they have nothing anyhow. Maybe if they gave me a reason to have concern, and convice me I shouldn't use Jameco or DigiKey, or Allied. If I need something in a hurry, then it's a thirty mile drive to get there. Not radio shack, obviously. Not into gaming or cell phones.
Just My . The area you live in has a direct roll in whether the RS is going to make it or not. It is not much different than a LHS closing in a area. There may be four people where you live, that has used the RS, in one day, compared, to fourty in another state. That is what they go by. It's not really all that hard to figure out. I live in the Chgo area and one four miles from me still has all the Electronic, that were carried before. It really helps to know exactly what you want though. That is also easy, look it up in their free on-line catalog and it will also tell who has it in your area and what it costs. There are more Electronic Suppliers out there, than there ever was,LHS's. Some people just have to be lead by the hand, to help them to find anything on their own, now-a-days, and they are usually sitting right in front of it and it's free.
That's All Folks
Frank
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
My LHS does sell..commonly used electrical switches, LEDs etc in the train dept
We have a place called You-Do-It Electronics nearby, but not as close as several Radio Shacks. I'll go to RS for a resistor or a capacitor, but half the time I don't find what I want. More than likely I'll get that stuff online.
If I owned an LHS, on the other hand, I'd buy bulk orders of common resistors and sell them for a dime each.