RadioShack: America's Technology Store No More - Retail Archaeology Dead Mall & Retail Documentary
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 พ.ค. 2017
- In this episode of Retail Archaeology we take a look at RadioShack.
-Download the music featured in this video from Jason Heine of Heine House Entertainment @ jasonheine.bandcamp.com/
-Check out the rad music video for the song "Window Shopping" featured in this video @ • W I N D O W * S H O P...
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That's what happens when you turn your store into a cellphone store and have generic overprice electronics like 40 dollars for an HDMI cord.
I know a lot of people will blame online shopping but it come down to bad decisions, high prices and bad inventory, etc
Every time I went in for an LED, resistor, capacitor, etc, They try bundling in a cell phone. I started just getting my components online after that.
ModPallet agreed
Yep, I went in one time to get Octal Flip Flop Latches for a project I was working on and they asked if I was building a bomb, like WTF, it's one of the most basic pieces of digital logic and multiplexing. Train your employees about the basics if they are going to run an electronics store!
Yup! And they were SUPER pushy when it came to cell phones. Other stuff in the store they had NO CLUE about. If I would go in looking for a part of any sort, the clueless looking employees they hired didn't have knowledge about anything and even something as simple as a power plug adapter, they would try to plug it in backwards when it was super obvious what they were doing was wrong and wasn't going to work. It was just sad. A Radio Shack that I frequented in Menomonee Falls had a really nice guy (Steve) that greeted me by name when I came in and he knew everything about their products. As soon as they started switching over to the cell phone thing they fired him and replaced him with know-nothing teenage employees who were horrible to deal with. THAT was part of why they have now gone under.
One bad decision was slashing their line of electronic components and mainly keeping analog and radio stuff in that area. Only old people are really into the radio stuff, and old people don't like to part with money. Had they kept those sections and kept up with all of the latest digital hobby stuff, they might have had a chance. I'd rather go to a store and buy something for more rather than get it online cheaper but have to wait.
I believe when radio shack changed from the store that had neat electronics and speakers, computers, etc. to basically another cell phone store with annoying workers. This was the true downfall of radio shack
you ar right, just another phone store with unqualified personnel
BustedknuckleNatrona A friend of mine was a manager at a few Radio Shacks from 2001 to around 2010. He had some technical knowledge...build a computer.... hook up an A/V system...whatever. At the end of the day he was a cellphone salesman that assisted a few people per day with cables and adapters and managed a bunch of idiots for employees. I saw the writing on the wall back then.
BustedknuckleNatrona and overpriced
I bought a receiver (RCA) and two speakers (RCA) at the Shack in 2004 and they are still good.
♪♫♬ Internet killed the radio shack ♪♫♬
The internet killed a lot of things, It has ruined our lives
My Receipt from the last day was 57 ft long, I walked with $3,500 for $60, i felt so guilty, like i was robbing the place. R.I.P. Radio Shack.
Anthony O'Koren 😲
How Radio Shack lasted *THIS* long is beyond me. 2017 is the year of the retail apocalypse.
jriley1992 true! A bunch of brands are ether closing stores or going bankrupt.
Because everything can be bought on-line, often with free shipping, a couple of clicks with th emouse and it's on it's way.
Wouldn't be surprised if even Walmart kicked the bucket at this point.
Wally World going out? Yeah, doubt that. That place is like a cancer that won't die. The second they start selling major kitchen appliances and a higher volume of IKEA-level furniture, that'll be the only physical store left in America. They're already trying to go into the used Video Game market.
and it's cheaper online.
radioshack Created in 1921. So Radioshack survived the Great depression but it couldn't survive 2017? Wow, that's sad.
Gisselle Penaloza And the 2008 recession
Gisselle Penaloza, I think that there are a lot of things at play that led to Radio Shack's demise. I'd say a big part is that leadership basically went for quick, easy money in cell phones from fickle customers at the expense of their loyal customer base of tinkerers and techy guys and girls. They had a niche with the original customer base- there wasn't any one else (that I can think of anyway) and they gave up that niche for the quick money while basically having to compete with a cell phone retailer on every corner. Another nail in the coffin was we have become a throw-away society. If something breaks, we trash it and buy something new. There are also just not as many people interested in tinkering anymore. While management decisions are such a huge part of their demise, they also had a perfect storm of other factors working against them. They at least had a good run.
mgomez207 right, it survived the depression AND recession but it couldn't survive 2017? What A world!
Good points. I might be showing my age but I also remember other electronics stores too such as Olson's, Lafayette, Camer-Radio in Pittsburgh and so on. I'll be 51 in July.
probably means that 2017 will be the mega depression!
This is sad. You used to be able to go into Radio shack and they had every electrical component you could think of like capacitors of all sizes, dip switches, circuit boards, I/O controllers, ROMs, etc. You could literally build a motherboard for a computer or anything else. I think they dropped that when they changed their stores around and started carrying more things like radio control cars. It used to be a no brainer for an electrical engineer.
Yeah I needed a Dual 1/8 Headphone Jack spliter and they were the only authentic store I saw online which I knew that had it. Bought it online using a gift card. Can't wait to get it!
The capacitors, dip switches, circuit boards...that stuff isn't going to sell very hot these days. A lot of people are blaming Radio Shack for changing up their inventory and focusing on cellphones instead, but what are they supposed to do when sales take a complete nosedive (the sales fell first, then the changes happened). How often did you honestly walk into a Radio Shack per year, over 10 years? They can't survive when the average person barely walked into their store more than 1-2 times in five years.
I will miss it because of memories as well, but even in the 90s, it wasn't exactly the best and only place for electronics (great for components though). You could get better PCs elsewhere, and for cheaper.
For sure. I'm looking at opening my own hobby shop in the coming years once I get my electronics certification and my General Radio license. Can't legally do any tinkering for profit on a Technician license.
They alienated their core customers by switching from a ham radio and electronics store to a cell phone shop
And satellite radio shop
Brian South i know if i need a resistor or a diode i need to cross the border to mexicali there they have a store called steren is like the old radio shack, i remember that in the past mexican people crossed to buy electronics here in the usa now we have to cross the border to buy electronic components, yes we can buy them online but some times i just only need a resistor or a diode and i dont want to wait a week or two only for a single and cheap electronic component.
They should have converted to an anti drone / anti spyware store.
Exactly. Instead of selling phones they should have tried selling diy cell phone repair kits with replacement batteries or touch screens or maybe even offer an in store phone repair station. In my local town the cell phone repair shops seem to be making good profit
They didn't abandon the customers as much as times changed and the ham / electronic enthusiasts moved on. Who needs to use a ham radio to talk to the other side of the planet when you can call someone or send them a text in another hemisphere and it doesn't even cost you anything extra? It's a hobby that ran its course and there wasn't much market anymore for the kinds of things that they sold plenty of back-when. Another example, people used to replace their own car stereos and speakers. That's another thing that has pretty much ended. Radio Shack sold lots of stuff like that - long ago.
I remember when Radio Shack carried parts for hobbyist tinkerers and repairmen for various electronics, like radios, stereos and VCRs, and kits to make radios... and then as the years went by, their inventory changed to match what you could easily find anywhere else and there slowly became no point in going there for anything.
Bingo. Ages ago when people built their own electronics, Radio Shack was essential. It's nothing more than a cell phone store now...
Unfortunately, this generation has little interest in hobbies like this anymore. I have conducted several classroom surveys and almost universally, I find that they have the same hobbies; gaming, social media, and sports. They're obsessed with collectivism and conforming. I have never seen such a lack of diversity in interests and hobbies, but unfortunately, they don't seem to understand that being the same makes them a dime a dozen in the marketplace.
I built so many of their "P-Box" electronics kits, and did so many other projects with custom IC's they sold. I repaired my own stereo gear and rebuilt speaker's with the speaker parts they also sold. Shame they gave all that up, they lost a lot of customers especially in trying to get into cell phones at a time the market was saturating.
They would just leave me alone, I would go to the back of the store where all the "geek" stuff is. Many times I was able to get something up and running by going to Radio Shack. People just don't try to fix anything anymore.
There won't be any major chain to replace them. People can get what they need online, without dealing with clueless employees, However, the company California based Steren Electronics is very similar to what Radio Shack was in the 80s, but no. They have hundreds of retail locations in Mexico. There are actually expanding there. No telling if they will expand in the US,
12 years with the company, and I no longer need to defend their position(I was fortunate enough to find other employment in '14). RadioShack made some very poor ceo choices after Len Roberts. The company kept its over bloated store count increasing its operating costs, this along with its own highly profitable store bands losing market trust due to poor quality in-turn didn't allow them to keep paying their employees to be experts at what customers needed and wanted. It also didn't help that most of the things people absolutely needed from them were priced so high that in a lot of cases was insulting to customers. In short RadioShack lost its customers trust and respect. So long and Goodbye.
b33sma11 I cash sum that up in 3 words: Good f**king riddance. ☺
And that's even assuming they still actually sold it in the stores. I know even before the bankruptcy hit, I'd see less and less of the components and kits that where really the only thing that was worth going there for, and when that basically dried up, they shot their foot off and did nothing to stop the breeding. As like you said if it was something that was sold in other stores in the area, basically all the other stores had it for cheaper.
Radio Shack was ones a geeks dream. Then some exec got the brilliant idea to get into the cell phone business, limit small electronics, be more gadget focused. Yeah how'd that work for you RS?
Such a great video! Really enjoyed.
This is Dan Bell. Thanks!
This is Dan Bell. Wouldn't mind if you did videos like this :)
This is Dan Bell. Ayeeeee
I went by a closing store a month ago. Even at 50 percent off , a lot of the items were still over priced. It's no wonder they went belly up. Without a discount , all their items are absurdly expensive. Especially in the age of amazon.
what are U talking about I just bought a $500 scanner for $150 brand new in box !!!!!!!
Pico so true!!!
Mark Plott you still paid to much
That's how store liquidations work. The "50% off" price is based off the full MSRP, which the stores would have never sold it for to begin with. So a "50% off" price can easily be MORE than what the store would have normally sold it for. The companies that do the liquidations just hope people will think they are getting a deal. As time goes on, and the final business day comes, the price cuts get deeper. At some point there's a few days when you can get still find decent merchandise for a good deal. After that, there's mostly junk left.
Sean Gibbons I went there yesterday. Evening was 90 percent. I guess I missed the boat. The only thing left were cables that no one really needs. :/ oh well !
Worked there in the late 90's. Even then it was clear that the company was in disarray. It was miserable.
However, I did learn to play the keyboard. :)
Johnny Pope hahaha every employee did! I remember a black Friday they invested in some mm candy radio or something. They thought people would be rushing in to buy! Not a single customer.
It's probably on close out right now, the same one, ha ha ha ha.
8:20 ..."The 80s called, they want their store back."
I love the music you used. I was born in the late 70's and it reminded me of the music at the department stores and elevators in the big buildings.
"The 80's called! They want their store back!"
RIP RadioShack 1921-2017
bad thing is they don't even sell the good stuff like they did in the 80's. Stereo stuff/suppies etc.
Connery Cateni I live near a RadioShack how is it even alive
You know yours is closing right?
really? interesting!
@ Hartzal - their speakers and stereo EQP and boom boxes were top notch. I even have a Realistic Digital shortwave receiver its reall great.
Radio Shack has ALWAYS been insanely overpriced on everything. I went in the Shack we have here, and I could save 90% at the time by simply walking out of the store and buying the same item new from Amazon or off of ebay. And now that they have "90% off" on everything is hysterical. That's what they deserve.
And you realize that you are ripping off 90% of the Amazon's shareholders? Bezos should be fired and in jail for life for stock manipulation and wire fraud with the scheme known as Amazon.
OMG what are you on, I'd stop taking it if I was you it's not doing you any good.
@@Steveos312Amazon has its value from AWS, not selling stuff.
They meet every definition of a tier 1 isp without actually selling Internet connections
Gamestop is next...
Hopefully. No one will miss Gamestop. Starbucks can go away too.
when we kill Starbucks the hipsters will have to do something useful for once
Yeah Hipsters might actually have to find a job instead of leaching off StarBucks wifi all day.
I sincerely hope that both these companies fuck off and kick the bucket as soon as possible. Gamestop is an absolute shell of its former self, and Starbucks is just too prideful for its own good, literally opening brand new stores next to previously established locations that have been there for ages already
I used to love gamestop about 10 yrs ago and now its just sad with what its become. I buy 98% of my games from ebay auctions. I used to go to Gamestop left and right but now its waaay too overpriced now.
Best Buy is next. They are super over priced as well. and they have terrible customer service
YaGirl Uneek they have awesome deals on t.v's but everything else is priced horribly over.
Agree. They have 5 stores in my area and they are are all the same. Nobody to help customers but several groupings of blue shirts standing around chatting about the latest concert or video game. I have not been there in 3 years and doubt I will ever step foot in another.
YaGirl Uneek true, you can't ask the employees anything because they're clueless
jloomis7 I agree some of us Americans are fucking clueless we expect someone to know everything when they work at regular job. it's like I make regular income but you expect me to know what the pope eats for breakfast.
I agree with you. I also know that some people work those jobs to pay the bills and are not "into" whatever they are selling. They do try to help, but more often than not, have told me "I don't know", which is better than BSing me.
80s Radio Shack is still way cooler than imploded bankrupt phone store Radio Shack of today.
They brought upon themselves their own demise. Ironic that they were making fun of the 80's Radio Shack and didn't realize they were shooting themselves in the foot.
It went towards another demographic.
Radioshack was the place to go to adapt anything into anything else. They thought they were staying relevant becoming an out of the way place to pay too much for things in a flooded market. They'd have made a killing as a hobbyist electronics store. People are increasingly interested. Raspberry pies and soldering irons are where they would make the big bucks.
INNOOOOO DDDDD,: !!!!
SO SAD, I FREAKING BOUGHT MY iPOD CLASSIC IN RADIO SHACK IN THE MALL ! UUGHHHH
Tiberian Fiend -yeah....they sold that armatron....arm robot thing....and...coin finders..(metal detectors) #armatron
.
Technology left Radio Shack behind.
Lol
It seems like an oxymoron to me that we live in a "high tech" world and yet a retailer that specializes in tech of all kinds could not succeed in this environment.
I used to love looking at their paper catalog ...
Yeah, paper catalogs from ANY company should still be printed by ALL companies. Why?
Looking through a softcover book that shows EVERYTHING THEY SELL puts everything in one nice neat package that you can peruse through without even needing to leave your house.
Also, printing paper catalogs introduces you to things that you never knew existed before, that the company does supply, that now that you know it exists, AND somebody stocks it...............you want it.
I've done that with Lillian Vernon, and Miles Kimball, and The Vermont Country Store, and Redhead, and Cabelas, and Uline, and Sam Ash, and Michigan Bulb, and..................
Most of it is all online now . B & H Photo still has a great paper catalog .
They lose a ton of business . Not everyone has a computer / internet .
Paper catalogs can't update their price on a moment's notice or show the items the store just got in. Paper catalogs cost a fortune to print and can't keep up with the times.
I used to love looking through them but now I would never trust a catalog as much as i would a visit to a website to confirm the current price, and whether they have it in stock. I've got some old catalogs and I like looking at them on some websites that feature them, but as a modern way of doing business they are obsolete.
My wife gets paper catalogs in the mail, sometimes 6 or 8 show up in one day. In this day and age it's a total waste. I actually have a couple of old catalogs from Radio Shack and Lafayette and yes it's good to browse through them and relax, but only the old ones for the nostalgia. As a modern way of selling your stuff to customers I bet 90% or more don't spend more than a few moments flipping through a paper catalog. I also like looking at old Life and Popular Science magazines but instead of buying musty old copies for 25 cents or a buck I download them from Google Books and I have at least 100 on my iPad to browse wherever and whenever I like. No cost and zero weight, can't be beat.
The sign that says, ' Radio Shack Everything Must Go '
@ 01:03 is something to get and stash away for your children, because it will be worth a few bucks down the road.
I grew up with the 60 in 1 board!
I could never recall the name!
Our Radio Shack never had anything. I went in there for a headphone adapter and they said sorry we don't have that but we could order one in for you. I told them I could do that at home myself. Welcome to 2017. He wasn't to happy with me. Great video I subbed a couple of days ago.
$200 for a VCR wow, prices dropped big time over the years.
radio shack
I only have 2 memories of RadioShack I was about 5 years old and my mom bought a phone at radio shack in 2004 or 2005 I thought it was a phone store that sold remote control cars
So they're really going away this time huh? I swear the past 15 years they have went out of business like 3 times it seems. I worked part time at a Shack during college in 2009. I remember they would throw out old stock that wasn't moving, right into the dumpster.
Like Kmart, They've been dying for like 20 years. They'll be gone soon though.
atomicpuppet kmarts gone in south Texas.
atomicpuppet I know, I swear they already went out of business and closed all stores a few years ago, maybe it was just the ones around me.
Alyssa ExplainsITALL Yeah man, here in San Antonio a bunch of places have been disappearing
atomicpuppet Did you take some of the old stock? I know I definitely would lol
I've always found Radio Shack to be a horribly depressing place I HATED going to (much like Sears), but it *is* a little sad that they didn't quite make it to being 100 years old.
This is depressing
To me, their nosedive started when they abandoned the electronics enthusiasts and became a cell phone dealer instead. I remember trying to ask some questions of the sales guy, but he was preoccupied with selling and activating a new cell phone. I waited for 15 minutes, got tired of waiting and left... That store was closed just two years later. Never abandon your core customers.
Sears Outlet, Hometown, Appliance Showroom, and Appliance and Hardware Stores have been spun off into another company. They have a separate CEO and everything.
I didn't know the outlets were separate, thanks for watching!
So that explains how my town is now on its FOURTH Sears location since the 1970s (failed Main Street store, failed appliance store, failed K-Mart conversion to Sears Essentials, yet now a Sears Hometown has somehow popped up)
Ghawk they still are struggling
That is mostly due to the fact many people on Sears board of directors are also on the Outlet board of directors.
My radio shack is not closing, It might be one of the last ones. They seem pretty successful though it's a combination sprint and radio shack and they have insanely amazing customer servis one guy offered to look over my circuit schematic for a project i was working on due to me worrying about lipo battery safety, and asking some pretty basic stuff.
I saw a Radio Shack sign today, but the inside was just a Sprint store. Strange.
I will miss RadioShack; I always had a good experience shopping at my local store in FL. I bought my AV Cord Switchboard, a Swiss Army multipurpose tool that was free with a purchase of some large amount of AA Batteries, my budget RCA Digital Camera that broke after 10 years that was replaced with a GoPro Hero 2, and almost all my desktop keyboards. It was either RadioShack, Staples, Office Depot, Kmart, Sears, Target, Dollar Tree, and Home Depot to get everything I would ever need. To me, I prefer Customer Service; and I don't mind paying $1.20 more to avoid having to find someone who is not interested in helping a customer, or get told, "sorry not my department".
Turnt Marshfellow same, mine has a sprint store in front and a ton of components in the back
Sprint is keeping some stores for phones but all RadioShacks and stuff will be gone.
They are gone by the end of the month, unless it was sold to someone else and changing the name. Amazon was considering buying a lot of the storefronts.
I also rememeber when I was a kid, they had a tube tester as did the local K-Mart
Every place had a tube tester then including just about every drug store. I worked at a Zayre, we had one there too. Funny thing about Radio Shack, they sold regular and 'lifetime' tubes. The 'lifetime' tubes cost just about exactly double the price of the regular ones, which I figure was to allow them to cover the cost of one free 'lifetime' replacement. I doubt seriously that there was the slightest bit of difference between the tubes themselves.
Zayre? You must be from New England. And I remember battery testers too. Local drugstore had one.
We had Zayre in Ohio, too. My dad used the tube testers often, as he would repair tv's and build his own Heathkit stereos.
You must be as old as me. 64 yrs. No one alive remembers the "tube tester" but us!
I started working at a Shack in late '84 and it still had a tube tester, but it was gone in a few months.
I can remember the "good old days" back in the 50's & early 60's making the frantic run to the Radio Shack before it closed for the night so we finish some ham radio project or the other. Back in the day that it was a RADIO store. My last purchase was in the early 80's when I bought 15 "150-in-1"(?) electronics labs for a high school level electronics course I was teach by teleconference.
The 80's wanted Their Store back.
on the last day of RS in oklahoma, i went there, bought all components, breadboards, heat shrink tubing, solder, soldering irons, wire, tools, clips whatever. what would have costed $500 just cost me $50!!!
im a DIY, scrapper, salvager, and builder.
besides, RS became a cell phone store.
Thanks for the nostalgic intro and vintage ADs. I walked into a Sears the other day (12/4 ). It surprisingly was clean, no one was there, but it added to the emptiness. Kind of depressing.
Our Radio Shack just closed down about 2 weeks ago. I can remember going there last year after the new management took over and they seemed pretty enthusiastic about it, even telling me that they could get me anything I needed. I laughed inside because I was like what? Cell phones, overpriced batteries and cables Made in China? When they closed the store here it went from liquidation to closing pretty quick, they sold everything, even the shelves. Radio Shack was a good concept back in the day, it offered people ideas and a basic supply of things they could use to build technology, but it was very generic and overpriced. Once you knew what you were dealing with you went elsewhere. In my opinion Cell phones and overpriced electronics is what killed themselves off. Of course, the economy is bad too and people are more stupid which doesn't help either.
our radio shack here in canada closed years ago and some new store called the sorce is now in it,s place witch sucks i lovd radio shack ussed to but batteries radios and whatever i needed they had it bring back radio shack
they did it to themselves. they should have stayed a hobby store/ diy electronics store.... but nahh they went BOOOOOOOST MOBILE and look at them now lol....
Radio Shack killed themselves they used to sell electronic parts Ham radios you name it. my nephew's in the stem program and he loves Electronics and of course I can't buy him anything from RadioShack because they turn into a cell phone store.
yowza yowza They never had great parts selection, and they changed their selection every year, which was too frequent for parts, and not frequent enough for stereos and other frequently updated electronics.
***AGREE VERY SAD DAY!!!*** Tons of fond memories! I still have the 150 in 1 and 65 in 1 Electronic kits. As a kid I use to like to go there and look at all the things including transistors, capacitors, resistors etc etc. I even still have my Mach 1 speakers!!!! My father got me many things there for Christmas. My father being a electronics engineer & physicist (working for USAF) - made it extra special ssing my father going there getting me interested in the electronics field. RADIO SHACK will go down in history & in history, our minds, & hearts. Thanks for sharing !!!!
So apparently General Wireless decided at the last moment not to liquidate Radio Shack and keep at least 70 of their most profitable stores open and Radio Shack will be now a predominantly online store, also they're allowing 435 franchise stores to continue leasing the brand name, so Radio Shack is not dead, the parent company doesn't know what they're doing, which explains a lot of the failure. They did close 1100 stores yesterday.
now there are about 30 left. my boss told me that the company gon close about 5 more soon. it's over lmao
80% off is still more expensive than walmart! Last time I went to a radio shack was to purchase a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter and it was about 500% mark up. I told the manager of the store "this is not fair markup, you are robbing people of their hard earned money". He agreed. I left.
Zachary Morrow Kinda ignorant to tell the poor guy "YOU are robbing people of their hard earned money" when I'm sure he didn't set all the prices and has no say in what happens to the pricing of inventory. Be a little more educated next time brother.
Kind of ignorant of you to think by saying "you" I was speaking directly to the person working at the store. I mean...I'm certain he wasn't actually Mr. RadioShack. His name tag said "Steve". But in all seriousness, when communicating frustrations, such as I did, to an employee working at a store, it is understood that the customers frustrations are not directed at Mr. Employee of the store, rather the company as a whole, that would be a very "Uneducated" thing for anyone to do. The employee was smart enough to not respond with "Hey buddy! I don't set the prices, I just enforce them". And if you would read my post again, you will see that he actually agreed with my statement, meaning that he knew I was talking about RadioShack, not him.
Agreed with a lot of the posters, Radio Shack lost its image.
Sure, the days of Amateur Radio being mainstream are long gone, but I think there was still a market for brick and mortar electronics, can't tell you how many times I've rushed into a nearby radio shack just before close, or right when it open to get some obscure AV cable, Relay, roll of solder or some other component...
Guess I might be in the minority, but I'd fathom most people would have trouble finding that stuff retail these days... Most people probably don't repair their own electronics anymore, but I sure know a lot of people that install their own car stereos and the like... Where can you pick up something as simple as a roll of solder, and heat shrink these days?
Yay Amazon... :(
Damn it. If I won the lottery I would have totally bought RadioShack and designed all of these new learning kits that have to do with touch screen technology, holograms, time travel via laser and noble gasses, among other things. Just the same old fun beginners learning kits, but with new modern devices.
Beam me up Scotty.
The thing is people are doing just that now. Just without the massive overhead of 1000's of close together local stores. This is the same issue Gamestop is facing (Yeah put them on deathwatch unless their Think Geek experiment saves them. You can design those wonderful hobbiest kits. Then offer them for sale via Amazon. You can have a special hobbiest parts store online. Amazon has become the stripmall for the virtual storefront that the small special interest product maker can thrive with.
Amazon does not and will never come close to a real brick and mortar store.
They have been starting to experiment with some sort of "Amazon Fullfillment Center" concept. Basically a sort of reverse of the UPS and FedEx stores. You order it online and pick it up at the local storefront faster than the normal 1-3 day delivery. Plus they are starting to put some Amazon Specialty stores in MAlls. My local mall just got one. It's like an Apple store of sorts selling Kindle Fires and those creepy Alexa spybot things.
Never say "never" to what Amazon can or can't do. They are trying all sorts of things. Some may pan out, some may not. They are like Google. Unlike the majority of retail CEOs, Jeff Bezos isn't an idiot.
I remember my uncle would spend hours at this store and me and my grandmother would have to pull him out of there
I fucking despise Radio Shack. Making fun of the 80's when in reality it was the greatest period in the USA of all time. Everyone was having a good time, made good money and had tons of fun. Fast forward to 2017 and there's no jobs, everyone is poor and life is total shit.
Kenshin Himura perfectly stated.
Yeah the 80s were great! Cocaine wasn't frowned upon as much, Crack became super popular, AIDS began spreading like wildfire and it was the best Era in music ever! lmfao jk the 80s were the end of the easy living lifestyle we enjoyed here in America since the 50s. As we were getting through the 90s everything went downhill and after 9/11 everything was just ruined.
Amen
"The 80's sucks for cars" Not true at all. Some of the best, most fun cars were produced in the 1980s. Imports, of course.
Agree! The 80's was such a blast however as a car enthusias the car were plain appliances boy was the 80's great!
I had one of those electronics kits as a kid, you could actually make an AM radio broadcaster. that was my favorite thing.
+jeffw1267 Kinda wish I was around back then to experience RadioShack in its prime. All that stuff sounds really cool!
RIP RadioShack 1921-2017, because 2017 is the year of the retail apocalypse and more people are shopping ONLINE than ever before!
"Is it live or is it Memorex?"
(Most of my friends & I are musical entertainers. We always had fun with that commerical.)
Hank you for sharing. Cool store!
Radio Shack put themselves out of business with their bullshit of selling customer info
Cool video man. Growing up in the 90's it was depressing watching the fall of RS. I remember browsing all the cool components and thinking of stuff to build. Then it turned into some crappy Best Buy Light stuff. Oh well.
At least Best Buy has some competitive pricing. Not the case with Radio Shack. All overpriced. I remember about ten years ago I went into a local one to buy a toy RC car for someone on a whim but it was priced so high and the same model available elsewhere for much less that I left in disgust - only to be first stopped by a salesperson hammering me to purchase a cell phone.
I'm so glad that I found your channel today. I think that there is still one store in my area, and I want to try to get some photos before the end of the month. I have many, many fond memories of shopping in Radio Shack as a child and receiving remote control cars for Christmas. My favorite one of all time was an R/C Audi Quattro. Man, I loved that thing! I remember our Realistic stereo components, CB radios and scanners, just tons of memories. It's really sad to see another icon of my childhood just disappear.
Thanks again for posting this.
I loved Radio Shack, grew up loving it and worked at a Radio Shack as a young man in the '90s. They used to have great Short Wave Radios. I had several of those Radio kits as a kid in the '70s.
You had a USB gizmo as a Kid? Dang I'm old!
Thanks for this video, I shed some tears.
Bummer, my Pro-43 scanner lowers it's antenna in shame
Lmao
I used to be a big electronics builder. I was sad to see Tech American fall by the way side. I knew then Radio Shack was in trouble. Radio Shack was my home away from home. I still have lots of Radio Shack items that are still working today. Back in the 80's they were top quality. I still use my Stereo bass booster, and 10 band graphic equalizer, PC1, and Alarm clock, bought in the early 80's.
Thanks for the great video. I used to buy all kinds of things from Radio Shack from 1980 all the way up to one month ago. I even got my very first computer from Radio Shack. The TRS-80. Such fond memories this has sparked. Thanks again!
I worked at RadioShack for 2 years in college 2004-2006. I could tell almost immediately that the store was doomed to go out of business. They had some archaic business practices and inferior products with expensive prices. The only thing that kept them going all these years was wireless sales. I made a killing by selling cell phones / wireless plans. The real stake in the heart of my store was when Best Buy opened across the street.
Consider yourself lucky to have worked for a store that was part of american history
This is the future of Apple stores just wait..
true that screw Apple
This is the ultimate future of every business, nothing lasts, everything is finite.
keith Haralson erm Wozniak said Apple still on bussines in 2075
+ULTRA RARE SABRA
Yeah but you can make it last for a while if you're smart. Beretta has been going strong for almost 500 years
Apple is Chinese crap that's just over priced
I've always hated Radio Shack. Not only the stores, but the employees always hover around you like vultures. You can't even search for something without them asking over and over if you need help. Best Buy is sometimes just as bad.
Or be forced to give you entire personal information to buy a pack of batteries. Or worse yet, be behind someone doing the same and taking 10 minutes to do a transaction that should take no more than a minute to be in and out. Then be hard-pressured to buy a cell phone that you don't want, and even if you did want, you would sure as hell not buy it there.
Jay M lol true. You need help, man?
Their employees were stupid too.
As a young man I blew several checks on Radio Shack merchandise, my first component system made by Realistic. There was always a time that I needed cables or some gadget that I couldn't live without. But times changed, cell phones took over and their stereos went away, gone were the catalogs and beloved electronics that audiophiles and hobbyists used to love to buy. Stores like Circuit City, Best Buy and Silo had more merchandise, especially the space when HDTV became popular. Later came online stores and Radio Shack became the store version of MTV, not living up to its name and a shell of its former self. I'll still miss the memories as I still have my gadgets of a time not so long ago.
what is the music playing at 9:57 please. thanks!
Another part of my childhood - gone.
mervyns?
roblesjant I miss that store
Farewell Radio Shack!
I love this channel! I remember going to radio shack when I was a kid to buy special cables for hooking video games and also buying those special batteries.
I remember that Bring Back the 80s commercial, best commercial!
Radio Shack isn’t dead, but they’re still in business as of now. Radio Shack also has an online store, and there were a few locations elsewhere if you can find a Radio Shack near you and they’re still in business.
I currently work at a closing Radioshack. From the company emails it seems radioshack is still sticking around but just barely. when I took the job at radioshack I knew that I would lose it due to bankruptcy. Feel free to ask me questions.
eric smith I guess we mostly sold random as adapters. Just stuff you need to get your a/v equipment set up. And i guess batteries.
I used to go to radio shack all the time since I have one right next to my house, AND there was also one right next to the high school and college I went to. Unfortunately all 3 of them closed down. It used to be super convenient for me to just walk over there and get the part I needed. Its sad to see them go, but understandable seeing as their project components were really the only thing useful and reasonably priced they had
Were you inspired by dan bell? I love his dead mall series, but you have your own style and I really like it. Keep up the good work!
My memories of radio shack was walking in to their small store, being the only one in there, feeling watched by the employee, and not really finding anything that I needed. I did use it for a few projects, but apart from that, the store didn't carry anymore of it's cool gadgets. When they converted into a phone store it reduced the layout to about half of what they originally carried. My favorite memory was seeing a store open up in our downtown street where college kids and everyone in town will go to just hang out/eat/walk around. This same store closed within months
Impressed with the commercials you were able to integrate into the video. And I absolutely remember the 1976 Radio Shack catalog with that picture of Arthur Fiedler of the Boston Pops, on the lower right corner of the cover, to lend some legitimacy to their stereo systems.
I never understood Radioshack. To me they sold everything you could get everywhere else, but at a premium. This is how I saw it as a kid at least. Correct me if they had good deals.
It's when they started losing product differentiation is when the appeal was lost. They used to make a lot of unique stuff that had a competitive edge, such as police scanners, computers (before windows standardized), and even audio equipment. They were price competitive products so people actually were motivated to go to their stores. That all changed somewhere in the mid 90s.
COME ON BEST BUY! Ohhh buddy.... soon you gonna be on the old chopping block too!
Mmmm...Your years of ripping off customers and arguing your way out of warranties are OVER!
MrFang333333 best buy is pure filth
Yeah i miss circuit city even though they had slight terrible customer service, it was still my go to place to buy electronics as a child
That golf game is AWESOME. I remember that being the top of the line golf game with its course layout guide, etc
Hello everyone, I worked in a Radio Shack store when I was around 20 years old, at that time Radios Shack opened stores in Mexico and since then I have been a fan of electronics and electronic devices, I got the job, they still sent us the merchandise from the distribution centers by Tandy Radio Shack with articles direct from the US The person who interviewed me for the job came from Texas and was in charge of opening stores here in Mexico, I worked at Radio shack until 1995. I really liked working there, I even dream from time to time that I get to work there and I meet my coworkers, without a doubt working there marked my life forever, today with almost 50 years of age I am proud to have worked for Radio Shack, I still have my employee badge, Shack radios represents a lot of the technician's culture or hobbyist in his garage, that time where building and manufacturing something with the electronic components of this store gave that sense of science and education that is not seen much these days.
Corordial Greetings
J.Ramón Zavala O.
The 1980's didn't want it's store back.
Mark's Journey lol
I'm in the UK we lost Tandy as it was called here, way back in the 90's, almost overnight it seemed,very sad they were expensive but handy if you needed a lead of basic component, I thought they would last in the US though, sad to see them vanish completely.
My first Multi-meter came from Tandy in the 80's & is still going strong
Dont know why this came up in my rotation, but glad it did. I find the videos intriguing which is why I just subscribed. Looking forward to see what you have next.
You have a new sub! Looking forward to watching more of your vids.
My local Radio Shack isn't closing down.
It's probably one of the franchise locations. I heard there are a handful of franchise locations that are going to try and go it alone. They recently got updates to their point of sale software so that it will continue to work without needing to connect to RadioShack's network/servers. Thanks for watching!
Same
And the parking lot is half full but there is only like 6 parking spaces
Same, but mine is inside of a pharmacy
Oh man, the Cue Cat. They were a proto-QR code scanner. In theory a good idea but ahead of its time, and impractical in a wired world. Now that we carry QR code scanners everywhere we go today, though...
The Cue Cat had a serial number chip in it, and every time you scanned something into your computer, it also sent the serial number to your computer, and this info was sent to the company that made these, thus they knew exactly what was scanned by each owner (even if they didn't know who each owner was). It was like a supermarket affinity/loyalty card, or browser cookies that tell the Corporate Overlords everything you buy/every website you go to. See the Wikipedia article for CueCat.
I never got one when they were giving them away, but I found a couple "just to have" in case I ever need an odd barcode scanner.
I remember CONSTANTLY seeing their adverts in Parade Magazine as a kid. Like they were trying to push this thing that was gonna be revolutionary. Of course I've never seen a Cue:Cat in real life, ever. So I guess it didn't end up being the technology game-changer they wanted it to be.
You could use them as a regular barcode scanner and it would not send any information over. Back in the day we used them for scanning in USPS barcoded labels (they weren't directly printable back then) to populate into our shipping database. Nifty little device that was practically free doing the job of a $100 barcode scanner in those times.
Back in the late 90's, Radioshack gave me a free Cue Cat when I was there picking up a power supply for a Nintendo 64. It sat at my computer and collected dust. I didn't see the point at the time.
I remember the cue Cat : ) LOL !!
Nice show. Watched and Thanks for sharing your wonderful videos
I remember as a kid, I had two things from RS I loved-the stuffed animal with the radio inside, and the genie bottle.
My opinion of Radio Shack has mixed feelings. When they started business on a national basis they sold a multitude of small parts mostly made in Japan or Taiwan. The quality was no where as good as American made but prior to the internet you could usually find a component that would work, and cheap too! As the years went by the inventory changed to mostly higher end stuff like cell phones and stereos. The small components inventory went down the tubes and competition finally did them in with their lower prices. Does anyone remember the Trash-80 (TRS-80) days of early PC computing when they had systems in their stores where geeks could use for free? Seemed like most of the geeks that knew how to use DOS liked pink shirts and black ties. Bad idea since the TRS-80 used a proprietary OS that was slightly different from the Microsoft version. There was just no reason to go to RS anymore. It lost its appeal by marketing things people bought cheaper elsewhere. Conclusion: Bad management, bad marketing, and no foresight.
Well to be fair, their Tandy line of PCs had some useful value to some. But once Windows became the de facto standard, PCs became more price driven as they were not really distinguishable between themselves anymore. So, no, customers had little reason to go into one just to look at a PC that would cost a lot more than elsewhere for the same specs.
Can you do Sports Authority?
Jose Carrillo y Kind of late now
RadioShack closing hits home for me a little bit. My grandpa was a regional manager for a chain of RadioShacks (actually in Phoenix!) and it's where my dad got his first job and then later met my mom while he was working there. He always had tech retail jobs after that (like in Comp USA and Circuit City and Best Buy, then more recently Apple), most of which have also closed. It's like a bit of my family history going away. Without RadioShack, I might have never existed. My dad did manage to snag a lighted RadioShack sign from a store liquidation to put up as a wall decoration, it's actually pretty cool!
Very neat channel love it man !!
Radio Shack has sucked for so long especially where I live, they it is good that they are going away. They had no clue about even the scanners that they used to sell. Good rittens
Jordan Gallacher Riddance*
Good kittens.
Good mittens?
Good shittins
Good sit-ins
wow, all ours closed years ago...
I worked for R.S. for about 8 months after I separated from the Army (2016). I thought the company had already been gone by this time, til i saw an ad on Indeed. While working here, I could already see the eventual closing of the brand. People would often come in and say "oh, i can get this way cheaper at Wal Mart or online", cutting of hours, and managements effort to tell you to keep trying your hardest to up sale overpriced merchandise. The plus side was the Sprint employees who were at my store were really good company and always cheerful. In the end I ended up closing my store in April of 2017 by packing, breaking down, and handing over my store key. Thankfully knowing the Sprint guys helped me get a job with them (who's benefits and pay are waaaay better).
Awesome video. I have fond memories of Radio Shack through the years. My Dad used to shop there, and as I type this we have an outside aerial antenna on our house, yep bought from Radio Shack.. sad to see them go..
This video made me really sad.
I'm sure it will be back. Somebody will buy the name similarly to Circut City.
Malaysia's Berjaya Group bought the RS name for Malaysia's market. Seeing how even the local mum and pop store sold components cheaper and places like Aliexpress exist, the Malaysian operations are also winding down. The past year, I've been to some 3 clearance sales.
We had Tandy in the UK.
I used to love that store when I was a kid. It seemed like a high-tech wonderland to me.
Thanks for the video. I have many fond memories of radio shack myself and bought various electronic parts occasionally until they closed the ones in my town a couple of years ago. One note, Tandy and Radioshack may not be complete dead as far as the names go. Often the names get revived a few years later by another company for use. I expect Circuit City will be back soon, at least as a product brand. Danelectro (a musical instrument company) has done this. Polaroid has done this too. A few years from now you will see some Chinese company selling Radio Shack stuff.
today is May 31st. rip
Die Rat Shack Die! They really brought it upon themselves. They could have been a contender.
They could have been a contender, they could have been somebody. Isn't that a movie quote?
On the Waterfront. Excellent acting in it.
Maybe if Radio Shack had leaned more into PC-building market instead of just trying to be another cell phone store, they would still be around today. That's exactly the type of clientele they were originally founded for.
What a bone-headed move that was
That science fair wiring board is very cool. I had an even older one, but all the wires were missing, so I started pulling strands of copper out of some old coax cable, and tried using that... hilarious because I had to made sure that all these bare wires wouldn't touch each other as I tried to wire up something from the manual... like a giant game of operation.... lol.