End Of An Era...

middle.road

Granite Stoopid...
H-M Supporter Gold Member
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Apr 28, 2014
Messages
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Impulse buy at a Radio Shack that was closing up.
Figured to get a couple of items that had their name on 'em.
Even at 60% off they were not a bargain. The calipers were $15, Nippers were $4.
I remember my first trip to a Radio Shack with my Dad in ~1970 in Denver...

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I've been getting electronic odds and ends at RS for a long time also. Gonna miss them!!
 
I also bought a lot of parts at Radio Shack over the years. The local store became more of a cell phone store and I stopped shopping there because they usually didn't have what I needed or didn't know what I was talking about. I miss the old store but I won't miss the store they've become.
 
My Dad's youngest brother built many Heath kits back in the 60s and this made me get into electronics as well. I was basically living at the local Shack in the 70s and early 80s. Sad to see them go. Here in Canada, Radio Shack had changed hands 3 times and the last owner, Bell Canada, could not care less about project builders and repair parts. Now a days, it is mail order or a 30 mile hike to a well stock store, that I try to support as much as possible.
Pierre
 
I remember the pre-Tandy days when it was Allied-Radio Shack. I bought my first electronic kit from them; a Knight Kit Star Roamer 2 tube regenerative multi-band radio. When Tandy acquired them, I thought at the time they were going to Hades in a handbasket. Fortunately James Electronics, now Jameco, and Digi-key came on the scene to satisfy my need to build things electronic.
 
The Radio Shack in my area is not one of the stores slated for closure, so we will see what happens.
As they have been catering less and less to the DIY's I have been purchasing a lot from Jameco and Digi-key.
 
I've seen RS in a long decline lasting since the early 1980's. When I was a in my teens playing with electronics the RS stores had loads of components, books and knowledgeable staff. By the early 80's packaging got flashier, prices went up and quality went way down. I NOT so fondly remember buying bonding posts with solder terminals but the plastic was a soft waxy plastic that could not handle any heat at all so they were useless. Chips I purchased in that era like 7400 series TTL and OP amps had about 1 in 3 chance of actually working. The last time I went to RS I needed some 22 gauge stranded hookup wire. The "knowledgeable staff" consisted of a pimple faced kid who when I asked for 22 gauge stranded wire asked me "how many watts yah pushin?", I guess he was trying to impress me by knowing an electrical term.
 
When I was in high school, they sold items for the electronics hobbiest, cb/ham radio and stereos. It was a pleasure to go in there since I tinkered with electronics then. I went into one a couple of years ago and it had nothing but cell phones (which don't interest me). I asked where I could find a dpdt 220v/10a toggle switch and it was like I was speaking a foreign language to the clerk. He pointed to a tiny shelf that had a handful of supplies. They had none. I miss the old days.

At least we have a local electronics supply house and Digikey.
 
I see that I am not alone, as I too remember the days when RS stores had tons of components and the store staff were usually well versed in electronics tinkering. Sad to see those days no longer exist, my last few visits to RS have been exercises in frustration due to lack of components.

I'll have to sent a vase of flowers to their corporate office, along with a card saying 'My condolences'.
 
And then the help. Went there for a simple diode, seems to be a teenage girl that dont
know a diode from a light bulb.!!
 
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