I Toured A Radio Shack!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ต.ค. 2024
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I was looking for zip cord and noticed a Radio Shack in my search results, so I had to pick up the camera and grab some video.
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Intro music provided by one of these;
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John Deley & the 41 Players - Heat Wave
Doug Maxwell - Psychedelicacy
Big Blues by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommon...
I miss that place. Bought countless things from there. Scanners, shortwave radios, ham radios including my first HT. The HTX-202. Antennas, coax, batteries, resistors ham power supplies. Ham radio books and Morse Code cassette tapes.
Police Call?
@@AA0Z Yes That too! And forgot to mention CB radio.
Worked at a radio shack for a few years. I was the only HAM in the district and that fact had other stores sending me customers. We were also the only store that I knew of that still had such a large amount of drawers full of components. Unfortunately RadioShack had to rely on phone sales to survive and while doing that, they cut the sales spiffs for phones in half leaving me less than motivated. Cellular sales were the downfall of RS (or maybe the only reason it lasted as long as it did). I once found 250 foot reel of RG8 in the back that was not on the inventory. Manager let me keep it. Score for me.
On another note there was a double homicide in my store back in the 70s (it was a RS at that time as well) years before I was even born. Took a year to find the bodies and the case was never officially solved... That store got a little creepy at times.
I was a multi site store manager for RS up until the doors closed forever. At one time you could actually survive on a RS managers salary but all that changed over the years. Quality managers and experienced, knowledgeable staff all left. We were left hiring folks that literally could not find any other job, with few exceptions. As noted below, reliance on razor thin profit margin wireless sales killed the business. I have some good faded memories of RS, back in the day but those memories are blurred by the events leading to RS's demise. One memory I will share of the "bad ending days". I walked into one of my stores one day and observed an employee being handcuffed by police officers. The officers had been called after a customer observed the associate sitting on the parts drawers "huffing" canned air. I asked the officers if they had seen the store manager. They responded; "Yea, he's in the back seat". He had numerous retail theft warrants for his arrest.
LOL. Thanks for sharing the story.
I remember going into Radio shack when I was about 7 or 8 years old begging my dad to buy me a RC monster truck, and I remember just growing up always walking threw with my dad.
Hi Kyle,
Sure miss Radio Shack. There was at one time five stores within a ten minute drive. I was a regular at one of the stores and became friendly with Kat, with one of the salespersons. One time was needing some disc capacitors and when I walked in Kat immediately said "Hi Don how are you today?". We exchanged pleasantries while I walked to the back of the store. There were five other customers in the store and two were at the counter waiting to be checked out. Kat next said "Do you need any help finding anything?" to which I answered "Thanks, but I know where to look." Found the capacitors I needed and was on the way home in about ten minutes. 73 WJ3U
What a great story!
The RS catalog was my Christmas catalog as a kid. I did cut my teeth on the CoCo 2. Saved up my money for ages and bought it on sale in middle school. It, paired with Family Computing magazine, and I was all set! I did work, briefly, at a RadioShack in Athens, OH, while my wife was doing her MFA. It was there that I met Mike (K8RAT) and it kicked off my ham radio journey. Thanks for the video, Kyle!
Awesome. Thanks for sharing!
Almost every time I would go in our local RS when it was around back in the day, I always managed to confuse the person working when I was looking for a connector or something uncommon lol.
It's probably that southern drawl......LOL
That's awesome. I worked at a RS for a summer back in the day
There was a RS in my home town too but all the really really nerdy kids worked there. I wouldn't of had a chance to keep up with them.
Wow, a real Radio Shack! Wish there were one near me.
I know right?
I worked for Radio Shack for 10+ years. There's still a RS in my home town here. I go there every week. 73 KG4YVW
Wow. I'd probably go every week too!
back in the '90's ... that's where my HTX 202 and HTX212 came from... my first amateur equipment
Awesome!
Kyle! Crazy you found that dinosaur, lol. I went to one all the time in Yorkville, IL. just a couple years ago. It was part of an Ace Hardware; small but very comprehensive. It still had the big, gray, parts drawers with resistors, capacitors, and maker bits and pieces. I wish they'd come back, lol. Nice video! See you out there. 73 de Bill
awesome.
Countless rechargable batteries, FREE battery of the month club, shortwave radios (dx440, dx397, patrolman60), scanners, etc. I got my htx-202 at the Hampton store in 1993. I got my htx-404 at the Gravois Plaza store Gravois at Gustine in 1993. I bought (2) TV Antennas in 2009 near Walmart at I-255 & Telegraph Radio Shack. Picked up FRS radios & weather radios the Granite City & Farmington, MO Radio Shacks. This was back when FRS was new and only had 14 channels & CTCSS. No DCS.
73 from n0vkg.
Great story.
Loved Radio Shack! 🤝
Me too!
Omg! I loved RS! I really miss them....😢
Sames...
Man I miss the REAL RadioShack's not the early-mid 2000's stuff where all they knew was cell phones! Thanks for the flashbacks @Kyle - AA0Z!
I'm talking 1980 radio shack...every mall , every little shopping center had one.
@@2SD251Jim agreed! I remember those and miss those! The 2000’s ones STUNK!
Yep. Do you remember Babbages the software store? That was a go to store when I was a kid.
@@AA0ZThat must've been an East Coast thing and/or not in California. Our "game store" was always Blockbuster for videos and games!
I remember as a kid my dad bought me a trc432 base station. I used to love looking at all their cb's
Nice. I think my first scanner was from RS. I loved getting the newest version of Police Call.
Thanks for the video. There’s another Shack across the river in Cape Coral, too.
WOW!!! Regarding your request Kyle, I guess in Europe we are quite lucky! Our "RadioShack" is still working and prosper :) It is a German Store named "Conrad" and "Wimo" ofc. HOWEVER!!!!
Don't know if you believe me but in Bulgaria, we were aware for the legend called Radio Shack since 1995+ and we were always jealous that you had it!!! It is a shame it's out of business :(
Walk in electronic stores that sell components are very hard to come by. We had the last one close up shop in St. Louis a few years ago. If you need a single specific resistor or diode, you have to get it online. It's sad. I wish we had more choices!!!!
My best story was when all the Radio Shacks were going out of business, I ran around to all the local ones and bought up a BUNCH of their stuff on deep discount. I'm sure they still made money on me on a few items but I have 18 gallon totes full of components and parts and bits and bobs.
Every year at Hamvention, there is a vendor who has a ton of radio shack stuff in the flea market area.
I got a great pair of earbuds from one RS store for $3.00. They work great.
What the heck! what worm hole back in time did you fall through! I miss Radio Shacks of yore.
Yes I do to!
I worked seasonal during High School/ College for Radio Shack in the mid-90s. This was at the beginning of cell phone sales. I remember the Optimus Brand speakers were really good. Lots of very expensive cordless phones/ answering machine systems. Had some ham radio stuff (and I was licensed then) but not much of it sold. I still use my Micronta VHF/UHF SWR/Power meter I bought at RS. I remember traveling to the regional office for training and the guy running it loved to play music by 'The Cars' really loud on breaks to pump up the energy in the room.
Oh yeah - also bought Tech/General license manuals and code tapes from Gordon West at RS.
I got my tech book from RS too. I would stand in line like the Tue night at midnight record drop for the newest Police Call book. I also have that same SWR. We'd be obsessed with who could get the lowest SWR on their CW antenna.
1000 RLX 1992, Desk Mate: I loved it!
The former Eastfield Mall and Palmer store, both in Massachusetts. I enjoyed visiting both. I bought the 1000 RLX mentioned above.
1974, just got my driver's license. Went right to Radio Shack and bought an 8-Track player and wired it into our Ford Falcon station wagon.
Awesome! What was the first artist on 8 track you played?
@@AA0Z Aerosmith (I'm from MA). Get Your Wings was the album.
Many times i went into Radioshack and got lots of things. B4 the intenet existed i could get blue LEDS :).
Thanks for watching.
its been about 20 years since I've been in a radioshack as well.. I remember being 13-14 and going there with my mom and buying myself some speaker wire and speaker connector/terminals
It's been a min since I've been in one too.
They are on line and attempting a comeback in brick and mortar. Picked up my technician guide with Gordon. Also my first HT, built my first kit all with RS.
That's what the attendant told me. They actually might make a comeback.
Cool find! So is RadioShack a franchised brand? So the small number of stores are independently owned? I noticed that there's a lot of RadioShack branded stuff.
We had something similar with Dick Smith Electronics - although they were all one big nationally owned company.
It was a national brand but went bankrupt a while ago but they kept a very small amount of stores in the US. All the stores now are independently owned from what the guy working behind the counter said.
I don't have any RS stories but this did remind me that there is a RS about 25 miles away. Next time I am in that town I'll stop in to see what ham stuff they carry.
I just learned there is RS about an hour from my house. I had no idea.
I remember getting a free battery from Radio Shack when visiting with my dad..
Sadly I don't remember the free battery thing everybody keeps talking about.
I managed Radio Shack stores for 13 years. There are so many stories, not enough time.
Kyle - here's an interview opportunity! 🙂
Great idea Jody!!!
In the 80’s and 90’s if you were into anything electronic you were in RS. They usually had what you needed in stock, way before on line ordering was even thought of.
Miss them being everywhere 😢
Yep, me too. I would go to RS weekly.
The only suggestion I would have is to stock Arduino and single board computer related items, and some learn-to-solder type kits.
I liked the P-box kits in the 1970's. More recent history, I liked the Christmas toys.
when i was a teenager, i bought parts needed to build an alarm that sounded whenever the door to my bedroom was opened because my little sister kept going inside my bedroom when i wasn't in there. the alarm was meant to dissuade her grom going inside when i wasn't there. it worked! she stayed out of my room after i added the alarm.
LOL! That's great! I should of done that as a teenager!!!!
My dad was a cop and I wanted to be able to hear him while he was working. So when I was 11 he took me down to Radio Shack and I got my first scanner, still have it. In short order I started trying to listen to whatever I could and stumbled on 2m. Had my ticket within a year.
I had a handheld scanner and we would listen to the police to figure out if they were going to bust our pasture parties. LOL
There’s still one here in Somerset KY.
It’s been a while since I’ve been in a Radio Shack. Last one I went into I think I was looking for some clip-on ferrite chokes, so it was shortly after I got licensed in 2015. Could have been before for some reason too… It’s gone now. The section of the strip mall was demolished and rebuilt over
Malls are disappearing all over.
I miss checking out the compatible software!
I so need to go there. I've been racking up my Free Battery of the Month points for years now. They owe me like 400 nine volt non-alkaline batteries.
Those are only for vibrator batteries right?
geez@@AA0Z 😯
There is one in Rippon Wisconsin.
Never got too excited about Radio Shack. Fry’s and Tech America were better but sadly all gone now.
Have you been to a Micro Center?
I don't suppose you remembered to bring you Radio Shack Battery Card, did you???????
What was the battery card?
We have a radio shack in Whitney point New York
there are still a few around.
I use that stuff. My 18 yo computer works just fine. I built it after all and added required updates. But my Samsung monitor is stiil excellent and DVI or VGA. I use both.
VGA...LOL
Don’t go to the one in Ellsworth, Maine. It’s actually a local elections office. The lady inside said because of some weird local law, if they take down the Radio Shack sign, they can’t rent out the space when election season is over. My 30-minute conversation wasn’t as fun as yours.
Lol,good to know!
Did you get the zip cord you needed?
NOPE!!!!
Great video. It's pronounced solder not solder FYI
Your mom is a solder....
What happens to a company when it turns it's back on it's customer base?
Turns it's back?