I REALLY miss Radio Shack!

[Lavane]

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.

I am an hour away from a Fry's store. Its huge. They moved some years back to a larger store. It has always been a busy store. Many school districts IT departments depend on them for pretty much everything. My son is always buying monitors, mother boards, etc from Fry's for the school district he works for.

 

[s-petersen]

The last times I went there, before it was closing, I only found what I needed about 1/2 of the time, because of limited selection , voltage, wattage value..., so I only browsed while my wife was food shopping...

 

[Binkman]

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

got my sta-2300 in a 86' and the owner and I were really good friends.. not because of the sale but he threw in a lot extras. He had a good assortment of parts and systems and was an engineer type. Even carried mica insulators.
even kits boards and antenna's. Got my channel master from him.

Couple years ago? Realistic shot themselves in the foot with w/ cell phones and garbage.

 

[RxDx]

Couple years ago? Realistic shot themselves in the foot with w/ cell phones and garbage.

I'm not sure about that. Towards the end, they did make a push to better serve
the DIY crowd, to no avail, apparently. That population has/had been shrinking
since the 1950s, so I don't think they had much of a choice. If the old formula
had continued working, they wouldn't have had to change their inventory mix.

 

[Binkman]

In NC rat shack shot themselves in the foot. Even the sales staff was rude and didn't know crap about electronics. Other stores looked at you like you had a snake on your head if you had a question.

 

[century tek]

If the turntable is making a comeback................

 

[nickdinatale]

As someone who never got to experience RadioShack as anything other than a place that sold batteries and cell phones, I only know of it being a real electronics store from what my dad has told me and from old catalogs that I occasionally come across. I do know that I’m very grateful for the small electronics store that still exists nearby.

 

[z-adamson]

I miss some of the supplies (solder, wick, desolder pump etc) and I miss some of the gear (speakers, receivers) but thats it.

But components (caps etc.)......nope.

 

[merlynski]

Anything I ever bought from Rat Shack more complex than a basic diode was junk, usually DOA by the time I got home. I did buy things like wire and connectors, that they had no hand in making, that were ok.

 

[z-adamson]

Anything I ever bought from Rat Shack more complex than a basic diode was junk, usually DOA by the time I got home. I did buy things like wire and connectors, that they had no hand in making, that were ok.

You must have never had a receiver or speaker from rat shack. Some of that stuff actually performs quite well.

 

[merlynski]

You must have never had a receiver or speaker from rat shack. Some of that stuff actually performs quite well.

Never had a receiver from them. I do see people here on AK that liked their Realistic stuff. The most 'sophisticated' item I bought from RS was an analog VOM, didn't last a year. I did know how to use one before that purchase, it was not my first meter. That was before digital meters were common, I learned on analog Simpsons.

 

[EngineerNate]

I didn't realize anything with the word realistic on it could be anything other than trash until I found this site, because in the 90s growing up it was trash. The worst BPC you can imagine. I think that more than anything is what did RadioShack in. What did they do better than anyone else by the end? Their house brand stuff was as bad as you'd get from Walmart and the cell phones were marked up over buying them directly from the carrier. I doubt their satellite TV deals etc were any better. They weren't serving any niche that wasn't better served by other stores. The only people I knew growing up who actually bought electronics there were very old and just went there because it's where they'd always gone.

I miss radio shack when I have an "oh shit" moment when doing a rebuild and need something simple that the hardware store doesn't have-as an example, I had to wait a week to power up an amp I bought recently because NO ONE local had a 10A MDA slow blow fuse. In that moment I really wished for a radio shack.

Being the "oops" solution for the 15 electronics hobbyists in any given area isn't much of a business model.

 

[Wildcat]

If you were a fan of Radio Shack, this will bring back a lot of memories. I had a collection of their catalogs for several years but (like many other things) lost them in one of my moves.

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/

We had an RS within two miles of the house--it was within bike riding distance. Had another that was 3½ miles away. It was great for picking up parts for projects I worked on, and I didn't have to bother anyone for a ride. A few of the larger purchases I made were all from their "Where Is, As Is" clearance sales. Can't say the audio components were ever that good (it didn't take me long to upgrade those to something better), but on my middle school/high school budget, they made music and at the time, that was good enough.

I am lucky now in that I live literally within walking distance of Abel Electronics (locals probably remember them under their original name of Bell Electronics in the 70s and 80s). I find they are a little pricey but, when in a pinch, I can grab something quickly. Their stock is not very deep, but they have enough to have gotten me out of a jam a few times. The only other store in our metro area is in Westland (Electronics Connection), and they have a lot more in the way of "bits and pieces" many of us are after.

I remember there were at least one or two other electronics stores on the east side back in the 70s and 80s. One of them in East Detroit (on 10 Mile Rd.) used to sell those OnTV kits in brown paper bags, like an "under the counter" purchase. (You had to know enough to ask for them. ) They ran about $50, including circuit board and case.

 

[illinoisteve]

I've shopped at a lot of Radio Shack stores over the years, but when they were new in the Chicago area, where I lived at the time in my middle kid years, they were a big step down from the big Allied and Olson Electronics stores my dad made multiple pilgrimages to each year.

 

[jdsalinger]

High prices and rude, apathetic employees in the two stores near me in WI. They were clueless about pretty much any of their products, especially discrete components.
No skin off my back that they are gone. I had a BAD taste in my mouth every time I visited a RS and I always vowed I will never go back.

Now, flash back to the early-mid 80's small town RS...different story.

 

[ghazzer]

Hmmm.​

I'm wondering how many of you have (or wish you had) a set of Minimus 7s?

​

Or other Radio Shack speakers.

 

[jdsalinger]

My Fathers early 80’s stereo system was ALL Realistic. Very warm, bassy & good sq.
Nova speakers, not minimus though.

I didn’t have anything to compare to, but it sounded great to me & probably what made me into a music & gear lover (although I didn’t get into gear until my 30’s.)

 

[Binkman]

well if lucky to find a product amp etc.. many still can be serviced. worthless bottom lines but many models had good amps and tuners.

 

[noopara]

My experiences with RadioShack goes back to around 1958 when I got the electronics bug and started to build all the Heathkit kits, became a ham radio operator and went on to get a BSEE and an MBA. I had a 35 year career in electronics engineering management. Before RS came to town I was a regular at Olson Electronics, Allied Electronics and Henry Radio. Olson and Allied were across the street from each other in Inglewood. Every once in awhile I come across a part in one of my bins that has an Olson's price tag on it. I retired in 2001 and for fun I started working at RS part time. It was a lot of fun. We moved a few years later from California to Washington State and I received a letter from RS corporate that said "Take this letter to any RS owned store and you will be hired". Wow...really. Well, I did and they did. I started working part time in Washington a few months later. It was still fun so I stayed on for about 6 years. On the side, I built a business from customers that came into the store that needed help. So, I got to see RS from the inside out during this time from 2001 to 2007. The business was in a downward spiral for many years because of many factors. Probably the main reason for it was poor vision on the part of corporate management. It will probably become another case study in marketing text books just like the railroad industry's decline. My garage is lined with RS slot wall and signs from the local store where I worked. It was a sad day when it closed. Now it's a Sherwin-Williams Paint Store.

 

[Me Tarzan]

Burn in hell Radio Shack! I mean it was cool when I was a kid, but wife worked at headquarters until the demise, I mean re-structuring. GM constantly pumping up employees in weekly meetings about a turnaround in the company (and in the stock!). So we bought low, then it turned to ZERO... We lose it all, okay cool, we knew it was a risk, but RS is still around. Bugs the hell out of me that the investors get stuck with losses, RS files bankruptcy, free from most of the debt and still chugging along under the RS name. Die already.