I REALLY miss Radio Shack!

[jcamero]

Yes, I can order what I need online, then wait a week or so, and hope the order is correct, and it's what I need, but I really miss the convenience of a 5min. drive to pick up the odds and ends to finish a project.

 

[kaplang]

I use to have a RS in walking distance. The store closed 2 years ago. Even with it's limited electronic components at the end I still miss it.

 

[arts]

I remember as a kid staring at the wall of parts and dreaming about all of the things I could build.And then snagging my free battery

 

[century tek]

^^ Yeah, and I also liked those all in one electronic kits.

 

[gadget73]

I'm missing it right now. I just used the last of my heat sink paste. Would be awful convenient to just drive 10 minutes to get some more.

 

[Lavane]

I built one of the multi meter kits around '79 I think. I used it into the 90's before it got lost in a move. I was just missing them today while I was looking for an extra set of RCA cables.

 

[avionic]

I don't. Parts were overpriced. Generic rebranded ECG/NTE at best.

 

[Route 66]

I miss it and I especially miss getting their latest catalog in the mail and spending the day thumbing through it.

 

[slow_jazz]

I miss it.

 

[dbxdx5]

I'm lucky to have two mom and pop electronics parts stores within a 20 minute drive. I still order from Mouser when I'm, say, planning a recap. But ifor those "oh, crap" moments when I need one thing, it's great to have the brick-and-mortar options.

 

[arts]

I don't. Parts were overpriced. Generic rebranded ECG/NTE at best.

In later years they got pretty bad,but when I was a kid just getting started they were about the only game in town in these parts.

In the pre-internet days,the ''bigs'',ie Digikey,Electrosonic etc wouldn't have anything to do with the small guys,they sold to ''accounts'' only.No company,no sellie!

Around here,that left Decarie Radio,Electronic Wholesalers and Payette Radio.These folks sold primarily to the service industry and radio/TV shops,so when they sold to the public,it was usually at full retail as they wanted to protect the working guys (their bread and butter!) from moonlighters.All were rather pricy!
A really good source was Hooker Electronics,as they did a lot of commercial/industrial,but seemed to have a weakness for the amateur radio types,so tubes of all types were plentiful.

Unfortunately,they're all gone now

 

[savatage1973]

I do and I don't--everything was overpriced, but at least you could get connectors and fuses there, but in later years they just turned into cell-phone and battery kiosks.

 

[winters860]

Here's a thought:

I feel like you can buy online, shell out for expedited shipping, and STILL come in competitive in most cases with that Rat Shack used to ask.

 

[thumper69]

I remember as a kid staring at the wall of parts and dreaming about all of the things I could build.And then snagging my free battery

I always got a 9 volt for my transistor radio. Lasted for 2 whole baseball games.

 

[thumper69]

^^ Yeah, and I also liked those all in one electronic kits.

I love the build your own kits in a bag from the early 80s. Ahhh....memories.

 

[infullview]

Never thought I would ever hear someone say this out loud, but I guess it's true. It was the one place you could go for project components on a pegboard. I built so much stuff using those little plastic boxes with the aluminum cover! Headphone amps, signal generators, speaker switch box, etc..

 

[kaplang]

Looks like the general consensus is RS was good to have around. I have a Frys electronics close by that I sometimes go too for build and repair components when I don’t want to wait for shipping from Mouser. I hope it never goes away but it probably will eventually.

 

[sfox52]

If you have a Hobby Town store nearby, you may be in luck. The one near me is carrying lots of RS stuff.

 

[eizner23]

They had good hookup wire, breadboards, decent solder wick which I miss being able to pick up on a whim. I was introduced to prototyping microcontrollers because they stocked them before becoming popular.

I don't miss the employees that didnt know a resistor from a diode while jumping on you when walking thru the door.

 

[FB night]

My town Radio Shack had very basic parts near the end of their business, but I still would occasionally go there to search for resistors, lamps, switches, and other small parts. I thought they would be around for a while, after they went cell phone nuts. It was a constant thing to see old folks especially, who were possibly electronically challenged, try to understand how to purchase plans and use their cell phones. The employees seemed to know about cell phones, but not so much about anything else they had in stock, or their catalog. Now the nearest electronics store is 50 miles away, where an old grumpy fart comes to the counter and reluctantly will listen to what I am searching for. Everything I need these days is mail ordered, but I have so many projects going at once that waiting for the parts to arrive is not a problem.