Did I miss it? I didn‘t see any components.

 

The Tandy Leather Company has quite a history...

 

There were some bread boarding supplies. Not sure what else.

 

I have a box of RS components in my cellar that has to be 30+ years old.

 

Back in the day we still had a local distributor supplying the Radio and TV repair shops. They kept a lot of stock or could get it in a day or two plus had books of datasheets and Sam's Photofacts. So, RS was my second choice. That or mail order.

 

When I lived in Boston (80s) I frequently shopped at the original Radio Shack location on Brattle Street.

The Radio Shack of my youth was not the wasteland it became later on when consumer appliances became the focus and the electronic hobbyist—the originator audience—was slowly, then rapidly, forgotten as the main target for sales and service.

I feel the biggest disservice RS did was to cause the mom and pop stores to close, then stop competing with them when it was too late. we lost a lot of great local stores that supported communities of enthusiasts because of it.

 

For those not aware, Radio Shack started in the 20’s selling ham gear like many others that appeared in early magazines. In the 30’s they started publishing a catalogue. It was quite something with all the best brands of the day. Interestingly, many of the component manufacturers were from the NYC area including Brooklyn and Long Island.

Radio Shack didn‘t adapt well to the shifts in technology and so in 1962 the nearly bankrupt Radio Shack was acquired by the Tandy Leather Corporation. They wanted to make Radio Shack back into a chain smaller specialty stores with a staff that knew electronics, focusing on hobbyists, and they succeeded all during my youth anyway.

The cycle repeated and this time there was no rescuer. I think it could have been different but…

 

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/

 

The radio shacks that are coming back are back in name only, just as you can buy Kodak products when Kodak died a looong time ago. Any company can license the name Radio Shack, and I will bet that it will be nothing but Cell Phones, Sony Tvs, Sanyo home phones, and Duracell Batteries...basically everything Amazon sells, but at 2x the price.

 

Did I miss it? I didn‘t see any components.

I watched this thing at 5x speed, so I wouldnt waste any more of my precious time on this earth. He quotes the Radio Shack online catalogue, which is still online, altho very few of the items sold online are actually Radio Shacks, and the online store, while a lot is listed, very little is actually in stock. He kinda gives himself away as a "Aw Shucks" kinda person, when he breathlessly states that Radio Shack online has 1 analogue radio "You just dont see them anymore". I guess he doesnt get down to WalMart, or Target, or whatever store that is around you, that I would pretty much bet has them coming outta their pores, or Amazon that has complete sections of them. He finishes up the video saying that pretty much anyone with a brick and mortar store can pay to use the Radio Shack name and logo. Im not certain , but I think thats called "franchising". No kits, no books, just the same crap that absolutely everybody else sells, except horrendously overpriced, because they have to pay huge monthly Franchising fees from whoever still owns that name. A whole new generation gets to clutch at their pearls while another version of Radio Shack sinks into the sunset, while that same new generation cant make anything that doesnt involve a Micro Controller.

 

I have a box of RS components in my cellar that has to be 30+ years old.

RS Components isn‘t Radio Shack.

But will you be able to buy five resistors on a piece of card for £1?

 

Radio Shack has been run by morons since, I think, the beginning. They don't understand the electronics market. They pay their store employees on commision, which attracts the wrong people to work there. They could have capitalized on the Arduino and maker scenes, but didn't. Continuing to have hopes for Radio Shack is like having overly nostalgic thoughts of your first oscilloscope, multimeter, etc. from 50 years ago. It most likely was mediocre at best, but you had nothing else to compare it to so you think it was great. Radio Shack just won't learn how electronics has changed and what to do about it. There were no cheap alternative sources of components in the 1970's. Today there are. Goodbye Radio Shack.

 

Radio Shack has been run by morons since, I think, the beginning. They don't understand the electronics market. They pay their store employees on commision, which attracts the wrong people to work there. They could have capitalized on the Arduino and maker scenes, but didn't. Continuing to have hopes for Radio Shack is like having overly nostalgic thoughts of your first oscilloscope, multimeter, etc. from 50 years ago. It most likely was mediocre at best, but you had nothing else to compare it to so you think it was great. Radio Shack just won't learn how electronics has changed and what to do about it. There were no cheap alternative sources of components in the 1970's. Today there are. Goodbye Radio Shack.

Maybe what you say is true that. I worked at a Radio Shack in the early 70's while in school as a tech fixing gear at at few stores in Dallas, Texas (Yes, RS employees could order repair parts for the electronics that were sold in those days.). Yes, the day has passed for Radio Shack but at least one generation of engineers was better because Radio Shack existed IMO.

 

but at least one generation of engineers was better because Radio Shack existed IMO.

Agreed. But that isn't and won't be true today. Their time has gone. And this thread is about them coming back.

 

They could have capitalized on the Arduino and maker scenes, but didn't.

That might have been a local phenomenon. As late as 2017, a store in Quincy MA (the city immediately south of Boston) had a selection of Arduinos, Basic Stamp and Propeller MCUs, plus a limited selection of Arduino shields (sound, servo, motor and LCD controllers). It just closed 2-3 years ago.

 

Agreed. But that isn't and won't be true today. Their time has gone. And this thread is about them coming back.

I don't think it was always run by morons was my main point. Today, IMO it's run by “Cash-Grab” "degens".

 

When I lived in Boston (80s) I frequently shopped at the original Radio Shack location on Brattle Street.

The Radio Shack of my youth was not the wasteland it became later on when consumer appliances became the focus and the electronic hobbyist—the originator audience—was slowly, then rapidly, forgotten as the main target for sales and service.

I feel the biggest disservice RS did was to cause the mom and pop stores to close, then stop competing with them when it was too late. we lost a lot of great local stores that supported communities of enthusiasts because of it.

I don't know about their history vis a vis mom and pop stores, so can't comment on that.

The RS of my youth (basically 1970s and 1980s) in this area (Colorado) definitely focused on the electronic hobbyist and ham radio market. I bought quite a number of things there, mostly under the Realistic name, and was very satisfied with the quality of them. At that time, their store-brand alkaline batteries (Enercell) were the best rated, even over the likes of Energizer and Duracell. I don't know how long that lasted as they shifted sources on a routine basis. At times their batteries were made by Eveready and at other times they were just re-branded Energizers.

Their equipment was probably higher priced than I could have gotten comparable stuff elsewhere, but at that time and at my age, I wasn't aware of the alternatives. By the time I was in the latter college years (late '80s, early 90's) I had discovered the handful of surplus stores in the Denver metro area and so had a much greater awareness of how much cheap I could get many things than what RS had -- but RS was within walking distance and if I needed a component, there was a good chance they had it on the shelf. But this was also about the time that they were starting their shift to consumer electronics with a broader appeal. I don't know that they realistically had a choice, but it was sad to watch it happen.

The one thing that I really missed was the knowledge of the sales people. When I first started going to Radio Shack, their folks were quite knowledgeable not only about the products they sold, but how it was used and what it was used for. That went downhill with astonishing speed. The last time I was in a Radio Shack I was curious what kind of selection of basic components they stocked. At the time, I was looking for some germanium diodes and so I asked the store manager if they had any. She thought I was talking about some model of cell phone because she asked if that was Android. I remarked that it was a shame that a store named "Radio Shack" no long had anything that you would expect to find in a radio shack -- which she refuted based on the handful of clock radios they had along the back wall.

Somewhere in the 2000 time frame, they opened a store in the Denver area (can't think of the name) that tried to get some of the quality and expertise back into it. A big part of their trade was selling computer components, but they also had quite a bit for the electronics enthusiast. What really impressed me was how truly knowledgeable their people were. They also had an outstanding technical books section. I was living about 70 miles away and I went up about every other weekend, mostly to peruse their books (and I bought a bunch of them). They last perhaps a year, give or take, and when they went downhill it happened quickly. Every time I went up there, their books section, which had started out comprising about three complete aisles, was markedly less. At the end, it was down to a half-height bookcase on the endcap of an aisle. The quality of the people working there saw a similar rapid decline.

 

They don't understand the electronics market. They pay their store employees on commision, which attracts the wrong people to work there.

I worked at RS in the 80s. My first week, the manager complained that I was spending too much time helping customers solve small problems... mainly "what cable do I need for my VCR?" or "do you have this fuse?"

Around the third week, these same customers started coming in for big-ticket items, asking specifically for me by name.

I was the best-selling employee that first month and each month until I quit a year later.

 

I worked at RS in the 80s. My first week, the manager complained that I was spending too much time helping customers solve small problems... mainly "what cable do I need for my VCR?" or "do you have this fuse?"

Around the third week, these same customers started coming in for big-ticket items, asking specifically for me by name.

I was the best-selling employee that first month and each month until I quit a year later.

That was my experience too but somehow the manager would always help the pretty single women. Maybe he earned a commission there too?

These guys took the old Radio Shack.