Loved that place for 150-1 kits, solar cells, strobe lights on and on and on.
We had a TRS-80 Model III. It was sort of a POS for a Z80 computer, but it worked. I coded the quadratic equation on it many times, including the check for sqrt(-1)!
I bought my brother floor standing Realistic speakers in high school. They were great. He had them until he was like 30!. The Realistic Mach One speakers remain desirable. Parts Express still sells replacement drivers.
Recently, I grabbed a power MOSFET from there to replace the fried one my car's variable speed fan drive. ~$2.29 vs ~$400 for the OEM part!
So sorry they lost their way. Seems to me they couldn't bridge the gap from component-oriented electronics 70's to the present modular Ardiuno, Rapsberry PI robotics, etc. Their sales force will have a real problem with that transition now. They should not get into a fight with consumer electronics retailers. This is saturated. They should drop one level lower to the educational and DIY crowd and stay there. Perhaps those DIY guys with initiative just buy stuff online.
"Perhaps those DIY guys with initiative just buy stuff online. " - Probably good insight here. The Shack should have aggressively moved into the online space for education and components a long time ago.
Probably hard for their business model - since it would compete with all their independent storeowners.
So it goes the way of other firms that could not manage the inevitable transitions in business (especially the technology space).
Over time, all companies must reinvent themselves or die.
Sears and JC Penny are trying now. Do you recall that Sears once sold houses?
GE is another interesting one, from power and lighting, to steam then gas turbines, to a bank (under that idiot Welch), and recently buying ConverTeam to get back into electric machines and power converters, which were a core GE technology, that became technically weak and expensive over time.
Hit the nail on the head. When they started into the mobile phone business I just shook my head and said to myself "That's the last gasp."
They're not the only brick-and-mortar store to be going under because they couldn't adjust to the online marketplace, just one of the more popular ones.
Lots of casualties in the retail clothing, books, hardware arena. 3d printing should bring new life to some local businesses. Might even create a new awareness of the advantage to repairing products instead of throwing them away.
I'd love to get back to the era when American companies actually built quality products they would stand behind. Now it seems like they are all engineered to fail the day after the warranty expires.
I had all the same RadioShack toys that you had. I agree wholeheartedly that they lost their way and missed the whole Arduino / Raspberry pi / maker / DIY movement that they could have been a champion of.
"Raspberry Pi 2 is now on sale for $35 (the same price as the existing Model B+), featuring:
A 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU (~6x performance) 1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM (2x memory) Complete compatibility with Raspberry Pi 1
Because it has an ARMv7 processor, it can run the full range of ARM GNU/Linux distributions, including Snappy Ubuntu Core, as well as Microsoft Windows 10."
My eventual objective is some modest DSP functionality and D-Class amplifier control. I build speakers, and I want to develop integrated active filters & amplifiers. I bought an inexpensive Freescale development system which is for automotive (e.g. the brain in your car). It has huge I/O (DOI, PWM, A/D, D/A, etc), an embedded PowerPC, and FPGA functionality. Once worked out, you basically need a single $20 chip in production.
Unfortunately the learning curve on the IDE is high, and it does not hand hold at all, being for professional developers. So I was looking for something to accomplish my goals in a more user friendly platform. Don't think Ardiuno has the processing power. Raspberry PI doesn't have the I/O, unless there is a daughter card I haven't found.
I've played with both a little. Pi was neat in that I could install the OS and immediately have it talking to the screen, keyboard, and thumb drive. Arduino is neat b/c it's very easy to get lights blinking in pretty patterns and read I/O.
Radio Shack is/was a term used by "Ham" radio operators. The Shack was where they assembled their electronic equipment and used their skills to talk around the world. Cell phones and other means of communication put the amateur radio operator out of business and they no longer needed to buy parts and I believe this help further the impending death of Radio Shack, Inc.. So 88's, from; dit da da, da dit dit dit, dit dit dit da da, da dit da, dit, dit dit da dit. 73's. CQ.
Please accept this 'Post Card' as confirmation that your signal has reached 41.1469N 73.3990W on Sat Jan 07, 2015 14:54 EDT :^)
Hardware: HP xw8600 Xeon 3.33Ghz, 8Gb RAM, 5.2TB RAID, 50Mbps down x 15 up.
Best!
I wish I could reply with my amateur call sign, but I don't remember it, and I think my commercial 1st class has long expired. I was never able to copy code at more than 5 wpm -- I could translate, but I simply couldn't *hear* the difference in the tones; still can't, but this was a lot easier because I could read it!
From Wikipedia: "The company was started as 'Radio Shack' in 1921 by two brothers, Theodore and Milton Deutschmann, who wanted to provide equipment for the then-nascent field of amateur, or ham radio. The brothers opened a one-store retail and mail-order operation in the heart of downtown Boston at 46 Brattle Street, near the site of the Boston Massacre. They chose the name 'Radio Shack', which was the term for a small, wooden structure that housed a ship's radio equipment. The Deutschmanns thought the name was appropriate for a store that would supply the needs of radio officers aboard ships, as well as 'ham' radio operators. The term was already in use — and is to this day — by 'hams' when referring to the location of their stations."
Thanks for the history lesson. I always thought Radio Shack came out of the old Allied Radio company. Seems that Tandy purchase both companies and eventually ended up with the lone Radio Shack name. I still remember the stores of the 70's where the staff could actually answer most of your electronics queries. Now days, they can maybe figure out what battery you need for your cellphone. I'll have to see what effect the corporate bankruptcy is going to do to our local franchise outlet (like most of them are, out here).
From what I've read about it they closing half the stores and Sprint is taking over the rest. That makes it seem like whatever is left will only be cell phones (with or without knowing what battery you need).
QSL DE ex-K1LWT. I also could not copy the code faster than 5. Result of having learned it (in spite of warnings not to) visually at about age 8. Everything into my ears had to be transferred into pictures of the dots and dashes in my feeble brain. Now there's no code requirement, maybe I'll get in again. Or maybe not.
Used to use the RS story at 167 Washington Street in Boston as my parts bin. They had knowledgeable staff AND a tube tester better than the crummy one at the local drugstore.
I knew the end was near for RS when I saw their attempted re-branding to "The Shack." The boat is sinking. Quick! Let's hoist up a new flag!
Code is fun for some. It actually gets instilled in ones brain and becomes second nature. Just think CQ.. Anyone who has any code understands it right away. Same with SOS. dit dit dit, da da da, dit dit dit.. The beeps become words and one does not even think individual dots (beeps) and dashes (longer beeps). Ergo the word "The" and the beeps it represents become the same. It is sort of like typing-those who can type fast don't even think about the letters-their fingers and brain take over and put it in writing.
Well enough of my boring talk. Tnx for your attention.
Now with the ability to have computer-generated code faster than even the best fist can send, some hams have developed the ability to copy over 75 wpm. It becomes another form of speech for them. I'm not too bad at furrin languages, so maybe I'll try tuning my ears to CW again. Or maybe not. Just imagine taking all of Atlas Shrugged, scanning it into ASCII, and then pushing it out in 75 WPM CW for leisurely "reading".
I remember Radio Shack for its Science Fair department, where you could build simple breadboarded circuits and learn how circuits worked. You could even buy their 100-in-1 project set, with instructions on 100 different products with permanentlyl mounted components. The only other company offering comparable products was the Heath Company (Heathkit).
Does no one build their own circuits anymore? Is that the problem--no more use for analog circuits?
This goes against independence of spirit. And it bespeaks a woeful failure in American education. Where are the students who used to flock to Radio Shack to buy the kits to build those projects I mentioned? Nowadays, no one even takes an interest in it.
John Galt wouldn't let Radio Shack die. By his inspiration, the next generation of achievers would also flock to it to buy the latest components. Why, they probably would derive from his lecture series on theoretical physics. I could see him producing a line of parts for anything from transister radios to his trademark electrostatic motor.
A part of life in the Gulch we didn't think about, and now are about to lose.
The students who used to flock to Radio Shack to buy those kits now use Arduinos to make 3D printers and use National Instruments hardware and LabView software to do the task much more easily.
Galt would have let Radio Shack die, because it hasn't been what we think of as Radio Shack in a very long time. It had been hollowed out by the second-raters.
As I pointed out further down in the thread, contact me if you need anything in old electronics or computers. There is a Gulcher and former business partner of mine who bought out a used electronics/computers store from another friend of mine. A golf hole sponsor sized sign has Who Is John Galt in the familiar script proudly outside the entrance. Also next to the entrance is a sign saying WARNING - 20000 Ohms with a WIJG Post-It-Note taped next to it. His shop will be among the first when Atlantis debuts.
I might have said: Galt might not have let Radio Shack get to this pass. In the society he created, it wouldn't have gotten there. He'd probably have been running it as a sideline with parts he derived from his ceaseless experiments.
Don't remember that one, but I had a P I L E of stuff from Radio Shack as a kid in the 70s. I just loved that place. Even recently I could find parts there. I think I found a power MOSFET I needed there like 2 yrs ago.
Ten or so years ago I thought to do some of Christmas shopping at the local Radio Shack that I would shop at for my own sake from time to time. When I arrived, all I saw was an empty building with the Radio Shack sign removed. Another business has moved in since. I know where another Radio Shack is but at an inconvenient location in my west of Birmingham satellite cities area. Not local at all, providing it is still there. Oh, it's also in a neighborhood where you should pack a pistol.
Here in Europe there is a movement against Modern football. Soccer to other folks. Anyway, seems that big business is forcing the fans to conform to the new family footballers. The movement is sort of like leaving the new clubs and going on their won. Sounds like AS?
Tandy is the parent company, and they had 3 divisions, RS was one, Tandy Leather was another and I forget what the third was. I worked for RS and they had a change in their beliefs at the end of the 80's. They did not want to sell items like CB's, ham radios, scanners, geek stuff, they wanted to sell more TV's and cell phones. They hated us techs and wanted salesmen who could sell but knew nothing of how anything worked. Makes me happy to see them go down the drain. been a long time coming.
Yes. I miss the "real" Radio Shack, but it vanished about 25 years ago. The glorified cell-phone store that is today's Radio Shack is nothing but a zombie awaiting a stake through its heart.
At least in California we still have Fry's, for now.
Another sad loss. Growing up I thought Radio Shack was cool with all the electronic gadgets. True it was a place where nerds would hang out. My first purchase was a set of realistic walkie talkies. I hate to see companies like this die. It reminds me that I am getting older.
The likely reason DIY electronics are fading like this is because electronics manufacturers (not to mention automakers) want to limit the ability to make and fix their products to overpaid, expensive professionals, to protect their trade secrets. It's likely that at least some repairmen, at least those not working for chain establishments, are worth the money, most charge more than they're worth, in the name of "quality." Real quality means doing the job with as little expense as possible, and keeping your products completely user-serviceable.
I am in the tiny crowd who still have been buying things from RS every month or so. . I need a part for an experiment and sometimes they have it -- or something close enough. . so I will resort to online searches. . bye-bye, RS;;; I will miss you. -- j
Over the years I have used Radio Shack often however brick and mortar businesses are facing huge challenges in rent utilities insurance and payroll. The internet is probably the biggest factor. I am old enough to recall Lafeyett electronics as well. I will surely miss them when they are gone.
my first stereo amp was a Lafayette -- had a phaser switch on it which reversed the phase of one channel. changed the bass response in my little room which I called an apartment while in college. -- j
If anyone wants anything that Radio Shack sold other than cell phones, contact me. I will put you in touch of the former majority owner of the waste-to-energy, fuel, and chemicals company that we used to have together. He has shrugged and is now the owner of a used electronics and computers store. Moreover, he has a WIJG sign outside his store. When Atlantis is built, he will be among its first residents, and will just move his store there. It is Sanford & Son for used electronics and computers.
My son started working at Radio Shack when he was in Jr. High. The computers came out and fascinated him. He learned how to program the tapes and was able to sell them to people that couldn't understand it. He was making enough money that he decided to join a small computer repair/program company in Dallas. Now he's a top drawer programmer with YaHoo in San Jose although he says that he's a developer. I have no idea what the difference is. I'll call him a radio if it makes him happy. He has still been buying from Radio Shack. I'm sure he'll attend the funeral.
I worked for The Shack for over five years back in the 80s. Retail tech support and teaching at computer stores in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. I still own working examples of most of their computer system lines. Left the firm when everything went IBM PC compatible and I didn't want to lower my standards.
Some of you good friends may like www.hamradio.com/ if I have this link wrong just do a search of ham radio. Who knows we may be able to replicate Galt's "Force Field"!
"it's likely that my local Radio Shack will become a Sprint store sometime soon. " They became a cellphone store over ten years ago.
I worked there in college, and they were already getting away from carrying parts in favor of carrying consumer electronics that they put one of their name brands on and sold for high prices. A few years ago they began carrying Arduino, but they caught on to that trend too late.
I went there a year or two ago to see if i could get a small decoupling capacitor, a part that's typically 40 thousandths of an inch long. All they had were huge ceramics the size of a quarter, which were already old school when I first started playing with electronics at age 10.
It's not that I'm mad at them, but I cannot understand these decisions. Who uses huge ceramic throughmount caps from the 70s? Why not sell existing brands that people recognize instead of developing your own brand and damaging it by putting on various products? Their internal training and their ads for the public betray a contempt for their customer. They had running jokes about why anyone would buy their stuff.
Because sometimes all I need are wire nuts and wire in a location that isn't 2 gallons of gas away ;^) That's not enough to stay in business, I realize..
My point was that the management seemed to have contempt for the customer. The ones I met didn't see themselves as helping someone save two gallons. They saw their customers as idiots.
This is based on my limited sample of meeting a few managers at the store, district, and regional levels.
I do understand, CG. I have no expectation of intelligence in retail sales of technical products. When I do experience it I am delighted.The salespeople sometimes know enough to "serve" the average customer in buying an end-user electronic device. I do most of my buying online because that's where I find the information for decision making (and competitively priced products.) If its something that I know I will need help with after the sale, then I will find a local expert and buy from them. Usually I become the local expert.
There always was the dichotomy of someone skilled enough to adequately assist you who was making a retail wage. High schoolers are part time. I either found over priced items or under skilled clerks. It was frustrating. Frankly it 's the same problem best buy has...
They hire retired or otherwise ex contractors for some positions on the floor. If you can sort through the rest to find one of them they can be quite helpful, at least if you happen to be asking about something they have experience with.
We had a TRS-80 Model III. It was sort of a POS for a Z80 computer, but it worked. I coded the quadratic equation on it many times, including the check for sqrt(-1)!
I bought my brother floor standing Realistic speakers in high school. They were great. He had them until he was like 30!. The Realistic Mach One speakers remain desirable. Parts Express still sells replacement drivers.
Recently, I grabbed a power MOSFET from there to replace the fried one my car's variable speed fan drive. ~$2.29 vs ~$400 for the OEM part!
So sorry they lost their way. Seems to me they couldn't bridge the gap from component-oriented electronics 70's to the present modular Ardiuno, Rapsberry PI robotics, etc. Their sales force will have a real problem with that transition now. They should not get into a fight with consumer electronics retailers. This is saturated. They should drop one level lower to the educational and DIY crowd and stay there. Perhaps those DIY guys with initiative just buy stuff online.
- Probably good insight here. The Shack should have aggressively moved into the online space for education and components a long time ago.
Probably hard for their business model - since it would compete with all their independent storeowners.
So it goes the way of other firms that could not manage the inevitable transitions in business (especially the technology space).
Sears and JC Penny are trying now. Do you recall that Sears once sold houses?
GE is another interesting one, from power and lighting, to steam then gas turbines, to a bank (under that idiot Welch), and recently buying ConverTeam to get back into electric machines and power converters, which were a core GE technology, that became technically weak and expensive over time.
They're not the only brick-and-mortar store to be going under because they couldn't adjust to the online marketplace, just one of the more popular ones.
"Raspberry Pi 2 is now on sale for $35 (the same price as the existing Model B+), featuring:
A 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU (~6x performance)
1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM (2x memory)
Complete compatibility with Raspberry Pi 1
Because it has an ARMv7 processor, it can run the full range of ARM GNU/Linux distributions, including Snappy Ubuntu Core, as well as Microsoft Windows 10."
http://www.geek.com/chips/the-raspberry-...
Unfortunately the learning curve on the IDE is high, and it does not hand hold at all, being for professional developers. So I was looking for something to accomplish my goals in a more user friendly platform. Don't think Ardiuno has the processing power. Raspberry PI doesn't have the I/O, unless there is a daughter card I haven't found.
Cell phones and other means of communication put the amateur radio operator out of business and they no longer needed to buy parts and I believe this help further the impending death of Radio Shack, Inc.. So 88's, from; dit da da, da dit dit dit, dit dit dit da da, da dit da, dit, dit dit da dit. 73's. CQ.
Please accept this 'Post Card' as confirmation that your signal has reached 41.1469N 73.3990W on Sat Jan 07, 2015 14:54 EDT :^)
Hardware: HP xw8600 Xeon 3.33Ghz, 8Gb RAM, 5.2TB RAID, 50Mbps down x 15 up.
Best!
I wish I could reply with my amateur call sign, but I don't remember it, and I think my commercial 1st class has long expired. I was never able to copy code at more than 5 wpm -- I could translate, but I simply couldn't *hear* the difference in the tones; still can't, but this was a lot easier because I could read it!
Tnx Lee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RadioShack...
Seems that Tandy purchase both companies and eventually ended up with the lone Radio Shack name.
I still remember the stores of the 70's where the staff could actually answer most of your electronics queries. Now days, they can maybe figure out what battery you need for your cellphone.
I'll have to see what effect the corporate bankruptcy is going to do to our local franchise outlet (like most of them are, out here).
Used to use the RS story at 167 Washington Street in Boston as my parts bin. They had knowledgeable staff AND a tube tester better than the crummy one at the local drugstore.
I knew the end was near for RS when I saw their attempted re-branding to "The Shack." The boat is sinking. Quick! Let's hoist up a new flag!
Well enough of my boring talk. Tnx for your attention.
I remember Radio Shack for its Science Fair department, where you could build simple breadboarded circuits and learn how circuits worked. You could even buy their 100-in-1 project set, with instructions on 100 different products with permanentlyl mounted components. The only other company offering comparable products was the Heath Company (Heathkit).
Does no one build their own circuits anymore? Is that the problem--no more use for analog circuits?
This goes against independence of spirit. And it bespeaks a woeful failure in American education. Where are the students who used to flock to Radio Shack to buy the kits to build those projects I mentioned? Nowadays, no one even takes an interest in it.
John Galt wouldn't let Radio Shack die. By his inspiration, the next generation of achievers would also flock to it to buy the latest components. Why, they probably would derive from his lecture series on theoretical physics. I could see him producing a line of parts for anything from transister radios to his trademark electrostatic motor.
A part of life in the Gulch we didn't think about, and now are about to lose.
Galt would have let Radio Shack die, because it hasn't been what we think of as Radio Shack in a very long time. It had been hollowed out by the second-raters.
As I pointed out further down in the thread, contact me if you need anything in old electronics or computers. There is a Gulcher and former business partner of mine who bought out a used electronics/computers store from another friend of mine. A golf hole sponsor sized sign has Who Is John Galt in the familiar script proudly outside the entrance. Also next to the entrance is a sign saying WARNING - 20000 Ohms with a WIJG Post-It-Note taped next to it. His shop will be among the first when Atlantis debuts.
The brand was TANDY, and they had lots of DIY kits.
I guess that this generation doesn't build things...just consumes things. We are a disposable age, and old farts like me are next!
Sorry to see another landmark brand go.
We can laugh, however, it's too close to reality for the laugh to be too hearty.
When I arrived, all I saw was an empty building with the Radio Shack sign removed. Another business has moved in since.
I know where another Radio Shack is but at an inconvenient location in my west of Birmingham satellite cities area.
Not local at all, providing it is still there.
Oh, it's also in a neighborhood where you should pack a pistol.
At least in California we still have Fry's, for now.
things from RS every month or so. . I need a part
for an experiment and sometimes they have it -- or
something close enough. . so I will resort to online
searches. . bye-bye, RS;;; I will miss you. -- j
switch on it which reversed the phase of one channel.
changed the bass response in my little room which
I called an apartment while in college. -- j
They became a cellphone store over ten years ago.
I worked there in college, and they were already getting away from carrying parts in favor of carrying consumer electronics that they put one of their name brands on and sold for high prices. A few years ago they began carrying Arduino, but they caught on to that trend too late.
I went there a year or two ago to see if i could get a small decoupling capacitor, a part that's typically 40 thousandths of an inch long. All they had were huge ceramics the size of a quarter, which were already old school when I first started playing with electronics at age 10.
It's not that I'm mad at them, but I cannot understand these decisions. Who uses huge ceramic throughmount caps from the 70s? Why not sell existing brands that people recognize instead of developing your own brand and damaging it by putting on various products? Their internal training and their ads for the public betray a contempt for their customer. They had running jokes about why anyone would buy their stuff.
That's not enough to stay in business, I realize..
My point was that the management seemed to have contempt for the customer. The ones I met didn't see themselves as helping someone save two gallons. They saw their customers as idiots.
This is based on my limited sample of meeting a few managers at the store, district, and regional levels.