Radio Shack

I saw this on Friday but wasn't surprised. In the UK, the shops were known as Tandy although a lot of stuff was still branded Radio Shack or Realistic.

It was a mecca for Amateur radio equipment - transmitters and receivers. Kits of all descriptions and components. The staff were knowledgeable and helpful. It was a DIY paradise for electrickery.

The Tandys here were closed many years ago (1999) and the shops sold off to a mobile phone emporium (Carphone [bleep]).

They even produced the TRS80 range of computers (and more!) but like quite a few organisations, model shops especially!, demand waned and they became no longer profitable with their specialties. None of the Radio Amateurs I know, myself included, practice the hobby anymore and I can't see any youngster here wanting to do the RAE exams and Morse code tests that we had to go through. It doesn't compete with mobile phones and the interweb!

Every year when I visit Chicago, I have visited Radio Shack. I couldn't resist as I walked by the store but was met by disappointment on entering. The previous summary was correct - a toy store and mobile phone shop. I don't remember seeing a "Radio" of any description.

This has applied to a lot of specialist stores here. Jessops was the only national camera retailer but the advent of cameras on mobile phones killed off their sales!

It is the times we live in.

batjac wrote:

Admin wrote:I'm sure most of you have heard that Radio Shack has filed for bankruptcy and is closing 1784 of its stores. They are planning to sell between 1,500 and 2,400 of their stores to hedge fund Standard General, which will partner with Sprint to operate about 1,750 stores.

The store closest to us already has everything 30-50% off.

http://qz.com/340292/here-are-all-the-stores-radioshack-is-closing/

See if you're local store is on the closing list

*** SIGH ***

The store in Center Point, AL is closing.  This was less then 200 yards from my front door when I was a kid.  But, I confess that I gave up on Radio Shack back in the early 80's.  They haven't been a "radio shack" store since then.  I remember when the stores were full of real electronic components that you could actually build stuff with.  When they became stores that just sold cheap toys and cell phones, I gave up on them completely.

The Sorrowful Mark

I hear ya' Mark. At some point in the late 90's they completely closed-out their replacement speaker stock. I picked up a pair of 4" full-range "automotive app." drivers.. with 16oz. magnets.. rated at 40w RMS along with a pair of Piezo tweeters rated at 100W all for around $25. I built a pair of bookshelf cabs for them at the time.. and they're currently part of a surround system I have in my workshop. They still sound fabulous!  



I provided connections for both; RCA and Phono plugs.. also RS parts.



"All" of the stores within 100 mi. from me are on that list... It's not quite as tragic as a LHS closing.. but still; most of the products I have bought there over the years still work... and I have many.

Apologies to others, Ian, Radio Shack is now closing a good number of stores across the US, going out of business I'm afraid. I rarely poke my head in the local stores any more. They no longer sell the stuff I am interested in, and the stuff they sell I have no interest in. It is part of a bygone era just like the home computers that came on the scene, and vanished overnight.

They actually got quite interesting in the stuff they carried in the last couple years or so, modular electronic components for making musical synthesizers, microcontrollers for anything you can think of, all for the hobbyist, I was just getting re-interesting in their wares and now this.  

I used to love riding my bike to their store to check out TRS-80's and the latest chips to put things together.  I've made random phone dialers, voice synthesizers, count-down timers for rocket launchers, and so on from their stuff...

I find it strange that every time I've been in there it's loaded with people looking for cell-phone related stuff.  I suppose they should have focused on that, as unfortunate as it is.

Oh ya, I built huge speaker boxes for my car from their manual and cones too, still have the instructional book

True, but I can buy the same stuff cheaper elsewhere. And yes, through the years I've bought speakers from them to repair various things over time. Lately all of that has dried up, at least here in Clovis NM they don't carry much in speakers. I've gone on line to buy speakers. Except for some components, I've bought most my stuff from Digikey, Jameco, B.G. Micro and various clearing houses. They started drifting from the electronic parts business in the 1970's. To make up for what Radio Shack lacked, I'd buy from other electronic supply stores. Those I'd frequent in the 1980's are mostly gone now. Seems no one repairs or builds stuff these days.

Bought an interesting pocket AM/FM radio kit from E-Bay for $8 shipping included, of course from where else but mainland China.





Assembled it in an evening, was a little tricky to solder in a surface mount IC. Instructions are in Chinese, but I could make out the parts list table and component values are marked on the circuit board. Got two coils switched, so band is off, but once I swap, will have a functioning radio. Quality of the sound amazed me. They've certainly improved over the all transistor ones of the 1960's - 1980's.

Admin wrote:
http://qz.com/340292/here-are-all-the-stores-radioshack-is-closing/

See if you're local store is on the closing list

Yep, all of them in Columbia, SC, about 8 or 10 of them are closing. I get stainless steel 2-56 screws, nuts and washers there, as well as solder, switches, heat shrink, and lots of little things. It's 3 minutes from my house.
Rusty

They were called Tandy in Oz too.  Died out many years ago, but mainly due to a superior local mob called "Dick Smith's".  Started by none other than Dick Smith!  They still exist (just), but are just as you describe Radio Shack over there.  We do have another Ozzie mob called JayCar http://www.jaycar.com.au/ who still cater for the serious electronics enthusiast.  They're still expanding it seems.  I like to peruse their shelves and dabble in a little electronics construction.  Recently designed and made myself some tiny LM317 based variable voltage regulators to place in my r/c models so that I could use higher voltage LiPo batteries to power Rx and servos.  It's getting harder to find the stuff to make your own circuit boards though.

C'est la vie.