I worked at Radio Shack right out of high school. We had a very friendly, laid back management and staff. Radio Shack provided access to computers, stereos, electronics, and accessories for people in small towns across America. I really miss those days.
At the Stamford, CT Radio Shack, when I was 17 in White Plains, NY High School, I was starting to develop my interest in radio, and there in 1961, with my Father we bought a Hallicrafters SX-110 receiver for about $170 then, which by the next year I had help to obtain my Amateur Radio license, which I still do today after over 62 years, being now 80 years of age. My wife has been one also for 20 years and now is 81 years of age, and we are active in our radio club.😅
I really miss those Radio Shack stores, and their printed catalogs too. I know some in the electronics community used to poke fun at RS calling it the Rat Shack, and the TRS-80 the "trash 80". But I used to love being able to get some part in a pinch. I used to have a couple within a short walk or drive.
I once designed a stereo amplifier for myself. A friend of mine picked the idea before I had built my amplifier. We collected a few commitments among further friends, purchased parts for a production of a dozen units. Based on the experience gained, my friend promised to design a commercial stereo receiver/amplifier for a tv-radio manufacturer. The design was great, although on the pricy side in practical production runs. He got the idea to reach the big (American) markets and started negotiations. What I heard, the American company had wanted 10 000 free samples to stuff the shelfs of their 5000 stores. What?!?! Of course it was Tandy Radio Shack. My friend’s employer did not have resources for 10 000 free samples, so no contract was possible. My friend kept for years one of the maybe 150 unit production run in his home. I, by the way, still have my very original self built stereo, with a somewhat later added FM receiver front. Sounds still as good as ever. Although my ears are not as good 😊
I miss the local Radio Shack. As a Ham Radio Operator I also miss the convenience of stopping in to grab some electronic componants for a project or a repair. At one time I strongly thought about applying for a dealership in my town and opening up a store. Six months later a gal I went to high school with and her husband did. Yep, I miss radio Shack. I still have several of there Ham Radios, Meters, and Test gear. N9XFX
It’s crazy how only 40 years ago, as kids we grew up learning how radios actually worked - we literally built our own radios by hand- I say that’s crazy because these Gen Z kids today… you think they know the first thing about how ANY of their technology works, let alone how to build it from scrap? Lol
Technology has changed now to the point that you really don't need to know how something works! And it's cheap enough that if it does break/wear out, it's replaceable. Most of the time it's really not worth fixing/updating. Yes, we come from a different world! But the sad part to me is that kids today don't even care how something works! There are a few here and there, but not many! Look at our engineering programs today, mostly foreigners! Where's the American kids? Nope, not interested. Too hard to study. Throw it away when I'm done with it. Why should I care how it works? VERY different mindset from us!
@@Robbie-sk6vcthere's still a need for techinicans I was a field tech with ATT a knowledge of basic electricity and use of test equipment is essential
Once the store was 70% cell phones, selling the same phones as the cell phone store in the next shop at the mall .. that was the end. They COULD have sold more maker kits or 3D printing but they did not.
That's partly true. They did lose their way. But technology has changed now such that, building/fixing stuff is not really practical for the home hobbyist! So they probably would have failed anyway!
Just like the video says," It used to be a gateway for endless possibilities" Good point, I remember coming up with something in my mind and building it with parts from radio shack, it was fun.
@@GabrielSBarbaraS as a techie growing up I used to love RS because it was the ONLY place except for one wholesale electronics warehouse in the city where you could get anything close to the exciting world of electronics in the 80s. But the day I walked into the store and they just had tables of cell phones set up in the middle of the sales floor, plus a guy hounding us like a vampire wanting to know if we needed a cell phone plan .. I just knew they were in trouble.
@@johnathanstevens8436 I understand they needed to switch to something else to remain profitable, but it was irritating as hell having them trying to push stuff on us that most people didn't go there for.
From 1980-2000 I was DJing in the private sector and Radio Shack played a large part of my life. It was my go-to place for adapters, cables and microphones. I was also the first night club DJ in the Tidewater Area (in Virginia) to incorporate a laptop into my setup. Life was great !
In the UK we had Tandy stores, again selling Realistic branded products. The Tandy stores were bought out by The Carphone Warehouse and closed down in 1999.
I friend of mine once owned a RadioShack store but he got tired of it for some reason and sold it but not to long after that it pretty much went out of business especially here in Oklahoma.🇺🇲📻🇺🇲
I worked for a Radio Shack regional repair center for nearly 20 years before being laid off with the rest of the shop. When I got out of the Navy in 1975, I wanted some CB gear including the radio, antenna, mast and a whole list of items. I presented the list to the store manager and he got everything on that list, as some are stocked in the back room. The Store managers were knowledgeable with their product line. When I worked for them in 1981, the same store managers would come into the shop, dropping off items for at least 18 years. Most of those managers were gone or have quit by the time we were laid off. Not mentioned was the acquisition of the Brown and White (Westinghouse) stores known as Video Concepts and McDuff stores found in the malls in the late 1980s. These were later morphed into the Incredible Universe mega-stores. This caused their stocks to split twice during the mid-1990s. It was downhill starting in 1999 when their acquisitions were being outpriced by the big box stores. Also the independent stores were called franchise stores found in small towns, often selling hardware as well from Ace and other vendors. Those franchise stores were treated batter than the company owned stores.
The decline began in the early '90s. With Charles Tandy out of the picture and new outsider CEO Roach at the helm the experienced and knowledgeable staff (the well paid ones) were pushed aside. By the late '90s, well before internet retail was a thing, the company's downward spiral was locked in. Well, it wasn't Real, but it was Realistic.
I started working at RadioShack when I was 15 and I worked there until it’s closer in 1990. I would go there after school every day that was my hangout my getaway because when I was 14, my mother was murdered and RadioShack was my getaway place where I could keep my mind off of things. It was such a great store. Lots of people hang out there made new friends. There’s nothing in comparison to it to it today now the store that I worked at and lived at has been torn down, which when I seen that made me very upset the ultimate destroyer of Radioshack Was them trying to devote everything to cell phones selling off all of their manufacturing as far as I’m concerned, John roach is to blame for RadioShack demise. I still have all of Rache catalogs even though now I can’t read them because I’ve gone blind. I still have several of their computers. I know it might sound weird, but Radioshack meant a lot to me.
Funny story... I was once shopping for a multi-meter at Radio Shack and the one I was interested was sold out except for the store model. I asked the clerk "Do you have the original box... I'd like to see if there are any specs on it". The clerk immediately replied "I can assure you the box is in clean condition sir!" 🤣
There is stop a store open in New Holland, PA. They sell electronics components and other kinds of things they sold in the 80s. I don't think they do anything with cellphones.
What killed them is they forgot about their customer base then when sales lagged they tried to change over to selling cell phones and service, hell you could get cell phones at convenience stores.
Not really. With the advancement of technology, they eventually got to the point where what they used to sell was no longer profitable. If they had only stuck to their original customer base, they would have gone out of business even sooner.
From my childhood I loved Radio Shack. In their heyday they were amazing. Two examples: A friend had dropped a boom box, cracking its cassette door and other unique pieces. The manager at my local Shack pulled its shop manual & helped me order all the needed parts. Last month I bought a 40 year old DX-200 shortwave radio from eBay, found its service manual at Boat Anchor Archives, and restored it to operation. Having had the same model in my younger days (see my avatar), the nostalgia is palpable. Sadly they’re gone. Where can we get a few components on short notice these days?
One of the things that hurt Radio Shack was it's insistence on making their PC's just different enough that you had to buy their boards if you wanted to upgrade your Tandy computer. I could mail order parts or drive to Atlanta, GA to buy cases and parts to build much better systems and still sell them cheaper than RS priced theirs. The other problem was a total lack of support after the sale. I purchased a Tandy 1500 HD laptop computer. Very expensive but I needed it for my small business. It failed early in the warranty period so they sent it for repair. When I got it back the keys on the keyboard would frequently enter random characters when pressed. After 2 more lengthy trips out for repair the problem still existed and by the time I got it back from the third repair attempt the warranty period had ended. The store manager told me that since the warranty period had expired while the computer was out for repair I needed to scrap it and purchase a new one. He refused to give any credit toward the purchase of a new one. That was the last time my shadow ever fell on a Radio Shack's doorway.
Their products stopped being edgy and hard to acquire things, and started being consumer pablum rubbish. Their hey day were their TRS-80 years & electronic educational kit years. I think as soon as they started selling RC trucks and cars, and cell phones, and pushing batteries, they spiraled down the toilet. Am I right, or am I wrong? When they went down the toilet, the only thing left of interest to me was the overpriced rare part in little baggies, and even then I felt uncomfortable like I was under security cameras, because by the rest of the store catered to the Idiocracy.
I remember Radio Shack had bulk discount pricing on components. The problem being they never seemed to have enough of any particular item to be able for one to take advantage of the discount unless you special ordered the item. Even then they often couldn't get enough components from the supplier to fulfill the discounted order.
I remember Radio Shack being an interesting place to look around, but their prices on most items could easily be beat by mail order companies. Being a brick and mortar store, selling the things they did was doomed to failure eventually.
I used to love Radio Shack, but over time it was clear they didn’t have a viable business plan to address the many challenges they faced. It was really sad to watch their DIY electronics sections continue to shrink to try to compete in the computer, phone/cell phone markets, and other more mainstream consumer gadgets. DIY books, kits, tools, tools and components, along with scanners, radios, etc. went by the waste-side.
IMHO, Radio Shack lost it when they abandoned the the electronic hobbyist market and became just another marketer of consumer goods... they gave up their unique moat just to compete with dozens of other retailers. Eddie Bauer did the same thing BTW..... gave up their unique niche just to become another marketer of generic retail clothing and home furnishings....
@@shawbros Mouser, Digikey, Adafruit Industries, Parallax, Nuts & Volts magazine, the Arduino, Raspbery Pi, etc... and literally dozens of electronics hobbist themed TH-cam channels demonstrate the fallacy of that. It may be more accurate to simply state that they decided that they could make more money doing something else... which proved foolish in the long run because they became just another competitor in a commodities type market.
We had Radio Shack in UK, But the Stores were called Tandy, the Goods they sold were badged Realistic, Memorex, Genexxa, But they had labels on the back with Radio Shack, i used to love going in my local store because the things they sold were different than the norm. i miss it.
From fancy telephones to alarm clocks to radios to calculators; I bought a lot of electronics from Radio Shack during the '70s and '80s at my local mall. Very sorry to see them go permanently. They seem to have made the same mistake that Border's made.
Radio Shack was my favorite store - starting in 1970. I saw the store as a “RADIO” store - nothing else. I think I owned every Radio Scanner they ever sold. I still have 5 of them, antennas and I still own the CB Radio I bought there. Bearcat & Realistic Radios..
Always loved Radio Shack back in then. Before our Radio Shack went out back in 2014. It had become more of a cellure place then the Radio Shack store. I finally stopped going there.
The one REALLY annoying thing about Radio Shack was every time you wanted to buy something there they wanted your name and address... I actually walked out a few times due to pushy clerks that wouldn't take no for an answer...
Radio Shack lost its way in the 90’s by putting all of its emphasis on computers to the expense of its audio department that first put the store on the map. It’s late arrival to the on line shopping arena did not help matters either.
Radio Shack got a lot of my money back in the early 80's. Mostly computer and stuff. I had the model 1 when it came out and it cost me $900. Later I got coco2 then coco3 plus a plotter, monitor , programs. My coco3 was only 16k memory but the salesman said that was more than I would ever need. lol, sure it is... I remember a tv running in the store as I tried out the coco3 . They were trying to fiqure out who shot J.R. 😁
We use to prefer radio shack or curcit city and avoided other big box retailers. I think another one of their down falls was they advertiesed to mostly the white upper middle class crowds thus heavily limiting their income potential growth. They also took for ever to get up to speed with current latest tech which I belive was another reason for thier down fall. While other stores were competing to offer better discounted deals they were known as the pricier option. By having a you're fired agressive approach to to upper managers we started supporting other alternaties after the company implemented that strategy.
I can tell you what happened to Radio Shack. Everybody and his brother sold telephones and computers. We did not need another telephone/computer store. It was hi-fi components and electronic parts that set them aside. When they stopped concentrating on that, their fate was sealed.
I loved Radio Shack, and still have a number of their products - several good stereo speakers and also a portable FM/short wave radio,which works great.
Everything was better in the 60's, 70's and 80's, and Radio Shack led the way as an icon of technological advancement. So sad to see them go...like Sears... Not all change is good.
Used to have knowledgeable sales people I saw one customer come on needed a wall adapter plug for his phone. Salesman tryed to sell him an AC adapter to replace a DC adapter. Years ago sales people were trained and had some basic knowledge.
Some employees were good, but I have wasted my time dealing with several others. It got to the point where as soon as I walked in, they immediately asked how they could help me, and I just as immediately declined their help.
I have to ask... who are the new sellers of electronic parts and kits and plans to teach children the concepts and wiring skills today? As a kid, I could ride my bike to the local Shack and poke around the chips... read the package and printed on it would be another parts list... buy that list for about 4 USD and on a Saturday morning have a flashing LED light system to mount onto my hobby rocket and launch at night! Can anyone out there point the right direction? Cheers!
The Scourge. We had one in our local mall (gone now). The morons they had working in there didn't know popcorn poppers from VHS rewinders. Maybe a year after it became The Scourge, I went looking for a patch cord. Nobody knew what I was talking about. So I went and searched through what little they had left on pegboards at the back. One of them came over to see, and when I couldn't find the cable I wanted, I showed him 2 other packages, with the end I wanted in this package, and the other end I wanted in the other package, and said imagine this with 6 feet of cable in the middle. He said they had some plastic bins in the back full of old product (New, old stock). Next thing I know, I'm in the back rummaging through plastic bins, eventually found one that would work for me. They didn't know what to charge me because the UPC was no longer on file. SO, from memory, I knew that they had used to be priced around $5.99, $6.99. I suggested that they do a miscellaneous sale at 6 bucks, plus tax. Nobody in the store knew how to do such a transaction, so out of frustration, I thanked them and hit the trail. Never wasted my time in there again. And yes, it's nothing but merch for Bell Mobility, Bell ExpressView, Bell this or Bell that. Phones, TV's, PVR's or whatever they call them. A few landline phones for the Lo-Tech hangers-on. And yeah, headphones, wireless so-called "speakers", and a few multi-voltage AC-DC adapters. All the good stuff is gone, you need to find it at the dollar store or on Amazonk now.
Yup, haven't even watched the video yet, but when they started pushing phone plans is when they started going down fast. I remember trying to buy a few resistors and capcitors and they would give me the sales pitch every time, and/or I'd have to wait in line forever while they try to fix whatever phone problem the guy in front of me had. The staff, who's old motto was "you've got questions, we've got answers", didn't even know what a capcitor WAS, nevermind "do you have any 4.7uF@25V caps in stock?".
They refused to embrace the reality of the internet and return to their roots in mail order (online ordering.) And then crawled into the coffin of being a cellphone shill -- where they had zero input, zero price control, and zero relevance. For decades now no one has wanted a radio (AM/FM/CW/etc.) - XM/Sirius perhaps. In the 80's and 90's their computers were interesting and somewhat competitive, but the desktop and laptop "PC" market was quickly saturated. To me, Radio Shack's best days were Christmas every year. They'd fill the tiny little stores with reasonably cheap toys and trinkets. I had many of their RC cars, and walkie-talkies over the years. I still have the battery powered pencil sharpener!
@@GuitarBillCurran A couple of times, I asked them where they stocked their telephone spade connectors, they apparently had no idea what I was talking about, and they went to the cell phone accessories wall to look for it.
Google maps shows a few still open in South Florida. Some of them are: 1 in Miami, 1 in Cape Coral, 1 in Coral Springs, 1 in Immokalee, 1 in Indiantown.
there were some other factors t hat hurt RS. Giving places like China (3rd world) rate shipping prices made it cheaper to buy overseas than local. (it cost 1.50 to ship a 100 pound toilet to US, but $30 to ship a 1 pound radio across the country). When society became 'throw away', it wasn't cost efficient to repair things - just throw the broken device away to a landfill and buy a new one cheaper. People didn't HAVE to know how things worked, just buy somethine new. Cell phones killed alot of individual item purchases as well. Built in digital camera, streaming audio & video, and other things could combine several products into ONE that you can carry with you, let alone a communication device that your didn't need a license to use such as CB Radios (at least initially) and go many miles further That's just SOME of the things off the top of my head.
I worked at Radio Shack right out of high school. We had a very friendly, laid back management and staff. Radio Shack provided access to computers, stereos, electronics, and accessories for people in small towns across America. I really miss those days.
At the Stamford, CT Radio Shack, when I was 17 in White Plains, NY High School, I was starting to develop my interest in radio, and there in 1961, with my Father we bought a Hallicrafters SX-110 receiver for about $170 then, which by the next year I had help to obtain my Amateur Radio license, which I still do today after over 62 years, being now 80 years of age. My wife has been one also for 20 years and now is 81 years of age, and we are active in our radio club.😅
I really miss those Radio Shack stores, and their printed catalogs too. I know some in the electronics community used to poke fun at RS calling it the Rat Shack, and the TRS-80 the "trash 80". But I used to love being able to get some part in a pinch. I used to have a couple within a short walk or drive.
I loved Radio Shack. I used to always browse in their stores. I bought many electronic items. I miss them.
I once designed a stereo amplifier for myself. A friend of mine picked the idea before I had built my amplifier. We collected a few commitments among further friends, purchased parts for a production of a dozen units. Based on the experience gained, my friend promised to design a commercial stereo receiver/amplifier for a tv-radio manufacturer. The design was great, although on the pricy side in practical production runs. He got the idea to reach the big (American) markets and started negotiations. What I heard, the American company had wanted 10 000 free samples to stuff the shelfs of their 5000 stores. What?!?! Of course it was Tandy Radio Shack. My friend’s employer did not have resources for 10 000 free samples, so no contract was possible. My friend kept for years one of the maybe 150 unit production run in his home. I, by the way, still have my very original self built stereo, with a somewhat later added FM receiver front. Sounds still as good as ever. Although my ears are not as good 😊
Even if he did have the resources to give them 10000 free samples, that still sounds like a stupid thing to agree to.
I miss the local Radio Shack. As a Ham Radio Operator I also miss the convenience of stopping in to grab some electronic componants for a project or a repair. At one time I strongly thought about applying for a dealership in my town and opening up a store. Six months later a gal I went to high school with and her husband did. Yep, I miss radio Shack. I still have several of there Ham Radios, Meters, and Test gear. N9XFX
It’s crazy how only 40 years ago, as kids we grew up learning how radios actually worked - we literally built our own radios by hand-
I say that’s crazy because these Gen Z kids today… you think they know the first thing about how ANY of their technology works, let alone how to build it from scrap? Lol
I built a crystal radio from a Radio Shack kit. I couldn't believe it needed no batteries!
Technology has changed now to the point that you really don't need to know how something works! And it's cheap enough that if it does break/wear out, it's replaceable. Most of the time it's really not worth fixing/updating.
Yes, we come from a different world! But the sad part to me is that kids today don't even care how something works! There are a few here and there, but not many!
Look at our engineering programs today, mostly foreigners! Where's the American kids? Nope, not interested. Too hard to study. Throw it away when I'm done with it. Why should I care how it works? VERY different mindset from us!
@@Robbie-sk6vc well said- certainly very well said.
@@Robbie-sk6vcthere's still a need for techinicans I was a field tech with ATT a knowledge of basic electricity and use of test equipment is essential
Once the store was 70% cell phones, selling the same phones as the cell phone store in the next shop at the mall .. that was the end. They COULD have sold more maker kits or 3D printing but they did not.
That's partly true. They did lose their way. But technology has changed now such that, building/fixing stuff is not really practical for the home hobbyist! So they probably would have failed anyway!
Just like the video says," It used to be a gateway for endless possibilities" Good point, I remember coming up with something in my mind and building it with parts from radio shack, it was fun.
@@GabrielSBarbaraS as a techie growing up I used to love RS because it was the ONLY place except for one wholesale electronics warehouse in the city where you could get anything close to the exciting world of electronics in the 80s. But the day I walked into the store and they just had tables of cell phones set up in the middle of the sales floor, plus a guy hounding us like a vampire wanting to know if we needed a cell phone plan .. I just knew they were in trouble.
@@johnathanstevens8436 Good point I remember that happening also .
@@johnathanstevens8436
I understand they needed to switch to something else to remain profitable, but it was irritating as hell having them trying to push stuff on us that most people didn't go there for.
From 1980-2000 I was DJing in the private sector and Radio Shack played a large part of my life. It was my go-to place for adapters, cables and microphones. I was also the first night club DJ in the Tidewater Area (in Virginia) to incorporate a laptop into my setup. Life was great !
In the UK we had Tandy stores, again selling Realistic branded products. The Tandy stores were bought out by The Carphone Warehouse and closed down in 1999.
I friend of mine once owned a RadioShack store but he got tired of it
for some reason and sold it but not to long after that it pretty much
went out of business especially here in Oklahoma.🇺🇲📻🇺🇲
He was apparently good at predicting the future of Radio Shack.
I worked for a Radio Shack regional repair center for nearly 20 years before being laid off with the rest of the shop. When I got out of the Navy in 1975, I wanted some CB gear including the radio, antenna, mast and a whole list of items. I presented the list to the store manager and he got everything on that list, as some are stocked in the back room. The Store managers were knowledgeable with their product line. When I worked for them in 1981, the same store managers would come into the shop, dropping off items for at least 18 years. Most of those managers were gone or have quit by the time we were laid off. Not mentioned was the acquisition of the Brown and White (Westinghouse) stores known as Video Concepts and McDuff stores found in the malls in the late 1980s. These were later morphed into the Incredible Universe mega-stores. This caused their stocks to split twice during the mid-1990s. It was downhill starting in 1999 when their acquisitions were being outpriced by the big box stores. Also the independent stores were called franchise stores found in small towns, often selling hardware as well from Ace and other vendors. Those franchise stores were treated batter than the company owned stores.
please revise and shorten your statement
The decline began in the early '90s. With Charles Tandy out of the picture and new outsider CEO Roach at the helm the experienced and knowledgeable staff (the well paid ones) were pushed aside. By the late '90s, well before internet retail was a thing, the company's downward spiral was locked in. Well, it wasn't Real, but it was Realistic.
I started working at RadioShack when I was 15 and I worked there until it’s closer in 1990. I would go there after school every day that was my hangout my getaway because when I was 14, my mother was murdered and RadioShack was my getaway place where I could keep my mind off of things. It was such a great store. Lots of people hang out there made new friends. There’s nothing in comparison to it to it today now the store that I worked at and lived at has been torn down, which when I seen that made me very upset the ultimate destroyer of Radioshack Was them trying to devote everything to cell phones selling off all of their manufacturing as far as I’m concerned, John roach is to blame for RadioShack demise. I still have all of Rache catalogs even though now I can’t read them because I’ve gone blind. I still have several of their computers. I know it might sound weird, but Radioshack meant a lot to me.
We had one up to about 5 years ago 😞.
I was at a mall in Miami a week ago that still has one.
Funny story... I was once shopping for a multi-meter at Radio Shack and the one I was interested was sold out except for the store model. I asked the clerk "Do you have the original box... I'd like to see if there are any specs on it". The clerk immediately replied "I can assure you the box is in clean condition sir!" 🤣
Did you educate him?
There is stop a store open in New Holland, PA. They sell electronics components and other kinds of things they sold in the 80s. I don't think they do anything with cellphones.
"Stop a store"?
What killed them is they forgot about their customer base then when sales lagged they tried to change over to selling cell phones and service, hell you could get cell phones at convenience stores.
Or across the hall at the provider's own store, or a kiosk in the middle of the hall. It was The Dumbest(tm) thing Tandy/Radio Shack ever did.
@@jfbeam I blame their top management, They needed Glass bellybuttons to see where they were going.
Not really.
With the advancement of technology, they eventually got to the point where what they used to sell was no longer profitable. If they had only stuck to their original customer base, they would have gone out of business even sooner.
From my childhood I loved Radio Shack. In their heyday they were amazing. Two examples: A friend had dropped a boom box, cracking its cassette door and other unique pieces. The manager at my local Shack pulled its shop manual & helped me order all the needed parts. Last month I bought a 40 year old DX-200 shortwave radio from eBay, found its service manual at Boat Anchor Archives, and restored it to operation. Having had the same model in my younger days (see my avatar), the nostalgia is palpable. Sadly they’re gone. Where can we get a few components on short notice these days?
One of the things that hurt Radio Shack was it's insistence on making their PC's just different enough that you had to buy their boards if you wanted to upgrade your Tandy computer. I could mail order parts or drive to Atlanta, GA to buy cases and parts to build much better systems and still sell them cheaper than RS priced theirs.
The other problem was a total lack of support after the sale. I purchased a Tandy 1500 HD laptop computer. Very expensive but I needed it for my small business. It failed early in the warranty period so they sent it for repair. When I got it back the keys on the keyboard would frequently enter random characters when pressed. After 2 more lengthy trips out for repair the problem still existed and by the time I got it back from the third repair attempt the warranty period had ended. The store manager told me that since the warranty period had expired while the computer was out for repair I needed to scrap it and purchase a new one. He refused to give any credit toward the purchase of a new one. That was the last time my shadow ever fell on a Radio Shack's doorway.
Good example of voting with your dollars.
If their service sucks, their customers will eventually buy elsewhere.
Their products stopped being edgy and hard to acquire things, and started being consumer pablum rubbish. Their hey day were their TRS-80 years & electronic educational kit years. I think as soon as they started selling RC trucks and cars, and cell phones, and pushing batteries, they spiraled down the toilet.
Am I right, or am I wrong? When they went down the toilet, the only thing left of interest to me was the overpriced rare part in little baggies, and even then I felt uncomfortable like I was under security cameras, because by the rest of the store catered to the Idiocracy.
That is correct.
Their original profitable niche gradually became obsolete, and they did not find a way to adapt to regain their prior profitability.
I remember Radio Shack had bulk discount pricing on components. The problem being they never seemed to have enough of any particular item to be able for one to take advantage of the discount unless you special ordered the item. Even then they often couldn't get enough components from the supplier to fulfill the discounted order.
I remember Radio Shack being an interesting place to look around, but their prices on most items could easily be beat by mail order companies. Being a brick and mortar store, selling the things they did was doomed to failure eventually.
I used to love Radio Shack, but over time it was clear they didn’t have a viable business plan to address the many challenges they faced. It was really sad to watch their DIY electronics sections continue to shrink to try to compete in the computer, phone/cell phone markets, and other more mainstream consumer gadgets. DIY books, kits, tools, tools and components, along with scanners, radios, etc. went by the waste-side.
IMHO, Radio Shack lost it when they abandoned the the electronic hobbyist market and became just another marketer of consumer goods... they gave up their unique moat just to compete with dozens of other retailers. Eddie Bauer did the same thing BTW..... gave up their unique niche just to become another marketer of generic retail clothing and home furnishings....
They abandoned the the electronic hobbyist market because that itself was a dying market.
@@shawbros Mouser, Digikey, Adafruit Industries, Parallax, Nuts & Volts magazine, the Arduino, Raspbery Pi, etc... and literally dozens of electronics hobbist themed TH-cam channels demonstrate the fallacy of that. It may be more accurate to simply state that they decided that they could make more money doing something else... which proved foolish in the long run because they became just another competitor in a commodities type market.
worked for RS from 1982-1999. I saw the decline coming when I the ham radio products slowly disappear.
We had Radio Shack in UK, But the Stores were called Tandy, the Goods they sold were badged Realistic, Memorex, Genexxa, But they had labels on the back with Radio Shack, i used to love going in my local store because the things they sold were different than the norm. i miss it.
From fancy telephones to alarm clocks to radios to calculators; I bought a lot of electronics from Radio Shack during the '70s and '80s at my local mall. Very sorry to see them go permanently. They seem to have made the same mistake that Border's made.
Radio Shack was my favorite store - starting in 1970. I saw the store as a “RADIO” store - nothing else. I think I owned every Radio Scanner they ever sold. I still have 5 of them, antennas and I still own the CB Radio I bought there. Bearcat & Realistic Radios..
I think one problem is it's name- "Radio Shack" sounds very antiquated in today's digital world where radios are a small part.
Always loved Radio Shack back in then. Before our Radio Shack went out back in 2014. It had become more of a cellure place then the Radio Shack store. I finally stopped going there.
I worked there. I knew it was failing when one day I looked around the store and realized that there wasnt a radio in the place
Loved hanging out there in college 😂
The video is full of misinformation and the products are not in chronological order . Other than that it's interesting
yeah your right, this guy sucks
THEY HAD A GREAT CATALOG, something is not right.
The one REALLY annoying thing about Radio Shack was every time you wanted to buy something there they wanted your name and address... I actually walked out a few times due to pushy clerks that wouldn't take no for an answer...
Radio Shack lost its way in the 90’s by putting all of its emphasis on computers to the expense of its audio department that first put the store on the map. It’s late arrival to the on line shopping arena did not help matters either.
Radio Shack got a lot of my money back in the early 80's. Mostly computer and stuff. I had the model 1 when it came out and it cost me $900. Later I got coco2 then coco3 plus a plotter, monitor , programs. My coco3 was only 16k memory but the salesman said that was more than I would ever need. lol, sure it is... I remember a tv running in the store as I tried out the coco3 . They were trying to fiqure out who shot J.R. 😁
Have fond memories of an outlet here in the UAE, sad to see it gone!
We use to prefer radio shack or curcit city and avoided other big box retailers. I think another one of their down falls was they advertiesed to mostly the white upper middle class crowds thus heavily limiting their income potential growth. They also took for ever to get up to speed with current latest tech which I belive was another reason for thier down fall. While other stores were competing to offer better discounted deals they were known as the pricier option. By having a you're fired agressive approach to to upper managers we started supporting other alternaties after the company implemented that strategy.
I can tell you what happened to Radio Shack. Everybody and his brother sold telephones and computers. We did not need another telephone/computer store. It was hi-fi components and electronic parts that set them aside. When they stopped concentrating on that, their fate was sealed.
I loved Radio Shack, and still have a number of their products - several good stereo speakers and also a portable FM/short wave radio,which works great.
One location I visited occasionally gave out a free battery with every purchase.
Everything was better in the 60's, 70's and 80's, and Radio Shack led the way as an icon of technological advancement. So sad to see them go...like Sears... Not all change is good.
Used to have knowledgeable sales people I saw one customer come on needed a wall adapter plug for his phone.
Salesman tryed to sell him an AC adapter to replace a DC adapter. Years ago sales people were trained and had some basic knowledge.
Some employees were good, but I have wasted my time dealing with several others.
It got to the point where as soon as I walked in, they immediately asked how they could help me, and I just as immediately declined their help.
I really miss Radio Shack😢
I have to ask...
who are the new sellers of electronic parts and kits and plans to teach children the concepts and wiring skills today?
As a kid, I could ride my bike to the local Shack and poke around the chips... read the package and printed on it would be another parts list... buy that list for about 4 USD and on a Saturday morning have a flashing LED light system to mount onto my hobby rocket and launch at night!
Can anyone out there point the right direction?
Cheers!
Parts? Digikey, Mouser, etc. Kits? I have no idea who's making anything like that these days.
That market has mostly died.
I miss buying the electronic components at the retail level. Everything is mail order now and causes delays.
Buying by mail order takes a lot longer, but it was a lot cheaper than Radio Shacks prices.
Since 2009 all Canadian Radio Shack stores are now operated by Bell Canada as the Source flogging cell phones. Headphones wireless speakers.
The Scourge. We had one in our local mall (gone now). The morons they had working in there didn't know popcorn poppers from VHS rewinders. Maybe a year after it became The Scourge, I went looking for a patch cord. Nobody knew what I was talking about. So I went and searched through what little they had left on pegboards at the back. One of them came over to see, and when I couldn't find the cable I wanted, I showed him 2 other packages, with the end I wanted in this package, and the other end I wanted in the other package, and said imagine this with 6 feet of cable in the middle. He said they had some plastic bins in the back full of old product (New, old stock). Next thing I know, I'm in the back rummaging through plastic bins, eventually found one that would work for me. They didn't know what to charge me because the UPC was no longer on file. SO, from memory, I knew that they had used to be priced around $5.99, $6.99. I suggested that they do a miscellaneous sale at 6 bucks, plus tax. Nobody in the store knew how to do such a transaction, so out of frustration, I thanked them and hit the trail. Never wasted my time in there again. And yes, it's nothing but merch for Bell Mobility, Bell ExpressView, Bell this or Bell that. Phones, TV's, PVR's or whatever they call them. A few landline phones for the Lo-Tech hangers-on. And yeah, headphones, wireless so-called "speakers", and a few multi-voltage AC-DC adapters. All the good stuff is gone, you need to find it at the dollar store or on Amazonk now.
Radioshack was very good stores radioshack destroyed itself by sharing the stores with mobile phone companies and fast serving stores.
But their original niche itself was dying. Just staying with that niche would have killed them even sooner.
I miss those walkie talkies
Man… talk about nostalgia!
Miss them?
Portable 2 way radios took their place, and start at pretty cheap prices.
I got my start building heath kits in the 70's.
what happened...they walked away from radio's the core draw.... and went forover priced computers and phones
Yup, haven't even watched the video yet, but when they started pushing phone plans is when they started going down fast. I remember trying to buy a few resistors and capcitors and they would give me the sales pitch every time, and/or I'd have to wait in line forever while they try to fix whatever phone problem the guy in front of me had. The staff, who's old motto was "you've got questions, we've got answers", didn't even know what a capcitor WAS, nevermind "do you have any 4.7uF@25V caps in stock?".
They refused to embrace the reality of the internet and return to their roots in mail order (online ordering.) And then crawled into the coffin of being a cellphone shill -- where they had zero input, zero price control, and zero relevance. For decades now no one has wanted a radio (AM/FM/CW/etc.) - XM/Sirius perhaps. In the 80's and 90's their computers were interesting and somewhat competitive, but the desktop and laptop "PC" market was quickly saturated.
To me, Radio Shack's best days were Christmas every year. They'd fill the tiny little stores with reasonably cheap toys and trinkets. I had many of their RC cars, and walkie-talkies over the years. I still have the battery powered pencil sharpener!
They walked away from radio's the core draw, because that market was dwindling.
@@GuitarBillCurran
A couple of times, I asked them where they stocked their telephone spade connectors, they apparently had no idea what I was talking about, and they went to the cell phone accessories wall to look for it.
I don't recall Radio Shack being much into Amateur (Ham) Radio, even if they did sell components like capacitors & resistors
I recall seeing some Ham radio stuff there in the 70's and 80's. I wasn't into that though.
Their electronics parts, ie chips and the gumdrop parts, were floor sweepings, and were mostly worthless.
We saw a Radio Shack still open in
Ohio in town called Carrollton, Ohio
Google maps shows a few still open in South Florida.
Some of them are: 1 in Miami, 1 in Cape Coral, 1 in Coral Springs, 1 in Immokalee, 1 in Indiantown.
Life time on the tubes was fantastic
12:22 nice toup!!!
toupee
If you are a hobbyist go to China for your diodes.
Owosso Mi radio shack still open
What really happened is they went bankrupt. Change your clickbait title. 🤦♂️
There were _many_ missteps that led them to bankruptcy. While it might've always end up there, they did everything to cut their own throat.
there were some other factors t hat hurt RS. Giving places like China (3rd world) rate shipping prices made it cheaper to buy overseas than local. (it cost 1.50 to ship a 100 pound toilet to US, but $30 to ship a 1 pound radio across the country). When society became 'throw away', it wasn't cost efficient to repair things - just throw the broken device away to a landfill and buy a new one cheaper. People didn't HAVE to know how things worked, just buy somethine new. Cell phones killed alot of individual item purchases as well. Built in digital camera, streaming audio & video, and other things could combine several products into ONE that you can carry with you, let alone a communication device that your didn't need a license to use such as CB Radios (at least initially) and go many miles further That's just SOME of the things off the top of my head.