That started in the 80's, when they gave us quotas on how many of their credit cards to get applications form (didn;t really matter if they were approved or not). hey wanted us to get everyone who came in for their free battery of the month to fill out a credit card application!
Corporate lost all direction. Manager of my store, second one I worked at (changed after the summer when I went back to college, to work at a closer store) had all of the various stereo equipment and speakers wired up so we could demo anything, any combination of components, to a customer. His boss, the district manager, one day told him to rip it all out, the ONLY system that should be hooked up and funtion was whatever they were featuring in the current sales flyer. Nothign else. Come inventory time, we had two huge boxes of all the RCA cables, coax cables, switchboxes, and amps in the back - my boss sai he wasn;t counting any of that stuff and if I wanted it, I was welcome to it. I supplied family and friends with TV and stereo hookups for YEARS and never emptied the boxes.
I joke that the last person who worked for Radio Shack that actually knew anything quit when I quit, but it's not far from the truth.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I can't say I really miss Radio Shack. I remember going into my local store once in the early '90s looking for male RCA plugs. The workers had zero idea what I needed. In the late '90s while in college I had an opportunity to work at a Radio Shack (totally different location). I sat through their employee orientation and came to realize why Radio Shack was starting to struggle, and why they couldn't hold onto people. The entire training was about hard selling customers, how to talk them into the extras they didn't really need, and just how low your base pay rate was (all commission jobs). They actually said there was very little need to know about the actual products you were selling as the typical customer didn't know either. I attended their new employee orientation, but I never worked a day for them (or shopped there again for that matter).
Mike
I was in R.S. about once a week. Started teaching my 2 1/2 YO grandson switches and lights on 12v. by letting him (Help). He is now almost 5. can wire all the simple controls on his train set. Yes, By-all-means I need a source for these things.
That's exactly the problem. It's one thing when you are a consumer products manufacturer and you buy a milion resistors on spools at a time. But when Joe Maker walks in and wants two 1K resistors - the time it takes the counter person to ring up the order isn't even covered by the profit margin on those resistors. Let alone the rent, electricity, etc. Radio Shack was already marking those resistors up to a ridiculously high profit if expressed in percentage, but 500% markup on a 1 cent resistor means selling it for 6 cents. Wow 500% - yeah, but it's 5 cents of profit, that's all. Unless they sell a million resistors, there's just no money in it.
Available profit is insufficient to fund a brick and mortar electronics store.
I now use https://www.allelectronics.com as my primary source.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I vote for Radio Shack was still reasonably good (NY tri-state) till the mid/late 1990s, as the cell phone (and later smart-phone) "boom" had not yet fully taken hold. They did do electronics in that era, and several Radio Shacks at the time had those big mesh satellite dishes by the entrance. Also the bookshelf speakers (Realistic IIRC) were surprizing good and reasonably priced - I still have a set in stored in the attic.Way back in my memory, as a young kid I recall going to Lafayette Electronics with my Dad in the 1970s - the "flagship" Syosset store - which seemed pretty huge (of course, I was smaller back then so everything seemed huge). I remember it being well organized and stocked (unlike the remnant stores of the Canal Street "Radio-Row" by the 1980s - mostly 3rd rate consumer electronics junk by then), but it apparently was closed in 1981, according to the wiki article: Lafayette Radio Electronics. Heh, from that article: "Lafayette-Circuit City fell due to competition from other New York area electronic retailers such as Newmark and Lewis, Trader Horn, The Wiz, Crazy Eddie, and PC Richard". Except for PC Richards the other stores listed closed completely or became small niche web-tailers...I recall a year or so ago some clickbait article where they took a Radio Shack advertising circular from 1990 or so, went thru the individual items on sale (clock, calculator, phone (wireless, but not celluar), digital thermometer, radio and so on) and showed how all those functions could be done on a smart phone. Oh well, I guess.
irishRRI miss Radio Shack. I live outside of Milwaukee and I used to be able to go there for all my small electrical needs.
You might want to try American Science & Surplus on Milwaukee's south side. You never know what you'll find there -- which is both a plus and a minus. And what they do have might or might not have instructions. What they always have is the most interesting array of customers. The sorts of folks Homeland Security would be interested in chatting with.
As regards Radio Shack -- agree with those above that the RS of old was an entirely different experience. And it had competitors.
Dave Nelson
irishRR I miss Radio Shack. I live outside of Milwaukee. Does anyone else know of any good resources for my small electrical project needs? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
I miss Radio Shack. I live outside of Milwaukee. Does anyone else know of any good resources for my small electrical project needs? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
Have you tried googling radio shack and searching for local stores? I searched for locations in the 5301 zip code and a number of locations appear. These are not “radio shack” stores per se, but are “authorized” RS dealers. I think that some of them are independent stores. What they actually carry is another matter, but it doesn’t cost much for a call to ask if the have what you need.,
If you're ever in the Twin Cities, stop by Ax-Man Surplus, located on University Avenue in Saint Paul. They have a huge selection of used electronics: resistors, capacitors, inductors, switches of all types, transistors, vacuum tubes, power supplies, motors, etc.
https://www.ax-man.com/collections/electrical-components
They also have an iron lung, oscilloscopes, and other stuff that is worth a look. It is a unique place.
I miss them even though the one in town was mostly phones.
Unfortunately, as the small stores can't compete on the big ticket items they go out of business. And the local Walmart/Target/Lowes/etc just doesn't carry most of the small stuff that I need.
Paul
Hi,
I miss the "old style" Radio Shack and its predecessor Allied Radio. Back in the early '60s, I was a builder of Knight Kits, and they were a great education.
When I say "old style", I mean when you could go in one and find all the electrical parts and supplies a hobbyist could want. But then in the early 2000s, they turned into cell phone and toy stores - forcing me (as an example) to go shopping on the Net or at the big box stores.
Sadly, if they maintained the old style format, they would likely have gone out of business anyway. The demand for such stuff, and the folks that "build their own" has diminished greatly............ Ha, if there ain't an "app" for it, forgetaboutit!
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
I don't miss them at all. Radio Shack in Canada became a joke in their last few years. They had next to nothing useful on their shelves from a modelling perspective. Once I discovered Digi-Key I never went back to RS.
Unfortunately Digi-Key has gotten quite expensive in the last two or three years so I don't shop there anymore either.
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Yes I miss RS. Fond memories from the 1970 s building kits. And remember the battery of the month club?
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
And now that I think about it, I wasn't model railroading when I used to go there, (70's, early 80's) it was usually for stuff needed to hook up a radio, or tape player in a friends car or truck.
Recently, I went to the last RS in my area looking for a decent soldering iron, and looked around at other stuff I might be able to use, as at this time, I was modeling trains.
They really didn't have much. Not even any small gauge wire I could use, like 30 ga.
Mike.
My You Tube
Yes, I really do.
.
Especially on a day like today when I really needed some rosin core solder and a project box.
As far as where to go to buy stuff now... make a trip to Orlando, for any reason, Walt Disney World will do, and then go to Skycraft Parts and Surplus on Fairbanks. They have everything.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Me too. The local Radio Shack was about four miles down the road, couple miles more was a quality lumber yard and past that a short ways was a well stocked hobby shop. They're all gone now and with them the ability to see, touch, feel and measure a product before buying. Like the old song says, "you don't know what you've got till it's gone."
Regards, Peter
I think we had a Heathkit store. I googled and yelped and I can find nothing but cell phone and big screen stores near me.
There was a big independent electronics store that lasted until maybe 3 years ago.
There wasn't much in the last iteration of Radio Shack, it was mostly cell phones, speaker and bell wire and a few connectors.
China ebay sellers can get stuff here in 2 weeks or 3 months. I bought some microbrushes, thought they arrived and accidentally thrown out, ordered some more from a different seller. The first order hadn't arrived and did not until 2 weeks after the second order arrived.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
No.
Rich
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.
Back when Lafayatte Radio and those others existed, Radio Shack was better, too. Heck Radio Shack was better in the 80's when I worked there, they had a large selection of components. But that was when they started phasing that stuff out, each new catalog had fewer and fewer components.
We once had a couple of electronic stores around, they truly had everything, and usually in stock unless you wanted something really odd. But those are all gone. Some places have Fry's, but they are starting to go the Radio Shack route and drop the electronic components from inventory.
I buy enough stuff through Amazon that it pays to have Prime, so if I need something now I usually just order from Amazon. I bought several of those assortment packs of reistors, capacitors and so forth so I have a stock of those things now. If I don't need it instantly, I can usually find the same items cheaper on eBay, just doesn't get delivered in 2 days. Let's face it, hardly anyoen does the time of experimenting at home that needs a source of electronic parts in the local neighborhood. Overly complex and competition from other things like video games have killed the market. That's why I like the smaller 8 bit microcontrollers like used in the Arduino, they are completly understandable. The modern 32 bit ARM core ones? Yeah, forget it. Same with computers. It's well near impossible to program a modern Intel or AMD CPU with assembly, there's probably 10 people in the world who understand the full instruction set. Up to the 8088 in the original IBM PC, it was easily doable and even writing programs that interacted with MSDOS was easy, after Windows, the complexity expanded exponetially and it now mostly beyond the reach of a casual hobbyist.
mbinsewi If your near Milwaukee, check out this store: https://www.industrialelectronics.biz/2009/ Mike.
If your near Milwaukee, check out this store:
https://www.industrialelectronics.biz/2009/
Not yet. I stocked piled electronic components when I was young and had the cash. I had a number of old timer electronic shop around town and could walk or ride my bicycle to. Radio Shacks did not enter my life till I could drive.
i often went to Radio Shack, but I was often disappointed that they didn't have what I wanted.
i'm more than happy to find what I want and so cheap on ebay. In fact, you can often find obsolete parts, as well as long discontinued model railroad stuff. i'm willing to wait.
i don't miss driving to various stores and not finding what i want
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
Still have a pretty good one here in Lake Placid Fl. Not bad for a small town
Attuvian One of those guys might be able to clue you in. Oh no! They bring up memories of the old build-your-own radios like Heathkit and Hallicrafters sets! Let's see if Mel jumps in here. . . . John
One of those guys might be able to clue you in. Oh no! They bring up memories of the old build-your-own radios like Heathkit and Hallicrafters sets!
Let's see if Mel jumps in here. . . .
John
Radio Shack has an on-line store for quite awhile now. I still use them from time to time:
https://www.radioshack.com/collections/in-stock-online
You can still find stores in some states.......but the on-line store has everything.
Take Care!
Frank
Yes, I miss Radio Shack, and Allied electronics, and Lafayette Electronics, and Heath, and all the local stores that began folding their tents with the demise of the vacume tube.
That said, now that the entire interior of electronic devices are solid state, the hobby electronics stores are obsolete.
Yes, I miss Radio Shack. I even miss the older one even more. I bought everythng I needed there, but the newer one with the phones didn't have as much as the older version. Perhaps they should have stayed out of the phone business. :-)
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =
My local Industrial electronics store is huge and offers everything I could want. As soon as I say it is for a model railroad I get 40% off. Don't miss radio shack at all.
I went to buy my bus wire there years ago and I asked for 14 gauge wire, we went to the back where they had these six-foot spools of the stuff. He said if you can use 12 gauge in green and black, I'll give you roll ends 300' of black and 300' of green all for $30.00, sold I said. I have a lot left over for the next layout. I only used 125' of each colour on this layout.
My Dad use to build Dynaco stereo amps and tuners back in the sixties. It is where I got my first soldering lesson.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."