Radio Shack

[|iR|Focalor]

Apparently Radio Shack is going to be changing it's name. This kind of depresses me a little. There are no more age old brand names that you can really count on NOT to change anymore. I'm assuming Radio Shack isn't doing too well anymore either. I really hope this company can survive. For audio nuts like myself, Radio Shack is a very useful place. If I ever have some crazy-weird audio routing I'm wishing to accomplish with any audio equipment around the house, Radio Shack will always have the different adapters and cords I may need to get it done. If anything craps out, I can usually find the component I need to replace in one of the bins in the back. As far as I know, there are NO OTHER retail franchises that offer these parts. I'm sure you could find some mom & pop specialty store that would have these items, but it probably won't be a short drive away like a Radio Shack would be. Larger electronics stores don't carry these things. If they go out of business, I'll be forced to order the shit online from now on. I HATE that! I don't want to see some vague description and shitty picture of it, then wait a day or two days or a week for it to get here only to find out it's the wrong size or something. I'd much rather be able to hold it in my HAND and SEE it and KNOW that I'm getting what I need, and also know that if it doesn't work, I can take it back that same day and try something else.

Anyway, that's my rant on the subject. Here's the article that I saw on this:
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20090803/tc_pcworld/namechangewontsaveradioshack_1

[[BTF]Jehar]

Yeah... my dad used to run one back before I was in school... it's where I first encountered all sorts of fun sound equipment and pc games. Good memories, and it always seems that the guy running the place is odd and quirky and knows exactly what you need. It can be a bit pricier than other places, but I always appreciated the "we'll have it and know about it" attitude.

[[BTF]Sigma]

Wow... up here it's just a bunch of guys trying to turn shit into solid gold (Matt Good ref.)

Seriously.

They try to cell you a sell phone before they'll help you find a component.

[QwazyWabbit]

It used to be Tandy Leather. I remember buying lanyard material there for a Boy Scout project. My first computer was a (Tandy Radio Shack) TRS-80 Model I computer with 4k bytes of RAM, monochrome monitor and a cassette recorder for loading programs. I actually took out a loan from Household Finance to pay for it, my first use of credit. I can remember sitting there describing the uses for the computer to the loan officer who didn't know what a microcomputer was. I used the HFC loan as a credit reference to get a JC Penny card. I used both of them to get a Visa card. I think they both had a $300 limit at the time.

I wrote my first assembly language program on that computer with a cassette based assembler from a new company called Microsoft. I wrote my first foreground-background realtime system on it and debugged it with an oscilloscope and voltmeter on a hand-wired Z80 microprocessor board I built from scratch. I can remember numerous trips to the Radio Shack store for parts and tools. I still have that computer somewhere in the garage attic.

Radio Shack was the best neighborhood electronics store you could find with good general all-around parts for the hobbyist besides the usual junk-pile electronics surplus stores. Those places were great fun too, with $5.00 surplus Navy radar transmitters and that musty smell of aged bakelite and capacitor wax. I was always a little disappointed when R-S went "retail" with their inventory. When I go to the neighborhood R-S it's always to find a cable or connector or a component I need on short notice and I go straight to the back of the store past all the phones and televisions. The kids working there always seemed to know where the stuff was too.

When things aren't going well for you, change your name. It's the 21st century thing to do. Corporate makeovers. Now you can drive your GMC to The Shack to get your free battery and watch SyFy on their flat screens.

[peewee_RotA]

All of the Radio Shacks in my area are rip offs. I don't know about looking for sound equipment, but when it comes to cell phones, cellphone batteries, cd players, cd changers, tuners, TVs, toys, phones, or computer parts they never have what you want in stock and what they do have in stock is overpriced up the wazoo.

I had a conversation with a Radio shack once that was for a $20 cell phone battery. On the website it was $20, not on sale, not website offer only. The price for the battery was $20. I asked radio shack if they had it in stock and they said yes, but it's $50. I explained that it is $20 on the website and that it's not a sale. He said "well you can order it off the website if you want, but at this radio shack it's $50."

I don't think I ever bought anything from a radio shack in my entire life, despite quite a few efforts to try. Maybe it's just my area but at least 3 of the stores up here are the same story over and over. A total waste of retail space.

[jägermonsta]

Ahh Radio Shack, classic. We use to buy the $2k+ Tandy's from them back in the day.

What's with all these companies changing their name? Seems to be a trend... what do they get out of it?

[QwazyWabbit]

Bonuses.

[[BTF] Reflex]

Those blue bins in the back are unique.

Went there for something, and a friend with me was like "WTF is all this shit"

Should change their name to "Radidio Shaq" 

[ToxicMonkey^MZC]

My first ever look at a computer was in my local Tandy shop.  They had two TRS-80 Model I's and a Model III (built in greenscreen monitor!)
Was hooked from that day forward

[reaper]

but I always appreciated the "we'll have it and know about it" attitude.

oh you mean like compusa, how they know the printer cable across the street is 15 dollars, they paid 2 and are gonna charge you 45?

[|iR|Focalor]

Yeah, they are cutting their own throats with the prices of things they retail, but there isn't much of a choice. They don't sell as much as they used to, especially since local markets have been saturated with warehouse style electronics chains like Best Buy, Circuit City, and more recently with stores like HHGregg and even BrandSmart which sells everything under the sun.

I remember always getting a kickass radio controlled silver Ferrari Testarosa car every single Xmas from my grandfather. He'd throw a couple of packs of batteries in with it too. Inevitably I'd run out all the batteries within a month and then start pushing the car around on the driveway successfully stripping the motors out beyond repair.

And like Jehar mentioned, a lot of the time the guys working there are egghead electronics hobbyists themselves and love nothing more than to play with all the stuff they have when no customers are there, so they know right where everything is and can usually give you sound advice on any application of it.

I guess it's inevitable that Radio Shack would eventually vanish. The market has managed to stack the deck against the smaller outlet retailers these days. Walmart has spread their territory out even into the most rural of places, stealing all the customers that used to shop at the locally owned and family operated stores. The people who had traditional American dreams of opening their own stores in a nice quiet town and living satisfying and successful lives as local mom & pop retailers are forced out of business and now have to apply for work at the Walmart that butted it's way into town behind it's impenetrable wall of lawyers. Suppliers, vendors, and wholesalers would much rather sign big dollar contracts with big name franchises that will guarantee to purchase much larger quantities than worry about the tedious work of dealing with issues concerning several smaller individual retailers. Seems to me that these large corporations have figured out how to use the clever costume of capitalism and the free market as a means to bring about a socialist environment in the economy that quickly stomps out any glimmer of competition.

[Barton]

RadioShack usually doesn't have the shit that I need. One time I needed something like a RCA cable to male stereo jack. I needed the sound to play through a set of speakers, cuz I was using a computer monitor to play on my PS3. Of course I couldn't find that part at RS. I ended up finding the part in some random audio store in a Chinese mall.

[m0n0LiTh0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ03vomoAx0



 
                          or   



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9_MYlH2pY0&feature=related

[peewee_RotA]

The people who had traditional American dreams of opening their own stores in a nice quiet town and living satisfying and successful lives as local mom & pop retailers are forced out of business and now have to apply for work at the Walmart that butted it's way into town behind it's impenetrable wall of lawyers. Suppliers, vendors, and wholesalers would much rather sign big dollar contracts with big name franchises that will guarantee to purchase much larger quantities than worry about the tedious work of dealing with issues concerning several smaller individual retailers. Seems to me that these large corporations have figured out how to use the clever costume of capitalism and the free market as a means to bring about a socialist environment in the economy that quickly stomps out any glimmer of competition.

There's a quote from Billy Madison that may apply here. 

[|iR|Focalor]

The people who had traditional American dreams of opening their own stores in a nice quiet town and living satisfying and successful lives as local mom & pop retailers are forced out of business and now have to apply for work at the Walmart that butted it's way into town behind it's impenetrable wall of lawyers. Suppliers, vendors, and wholesalers would much rather sign big dollar contracts with big name franchises that will guarantee to purchase much larger quantities than worry about the tedious work of dealing with issues concerning several smaller individual retailers. Seems to me that these large corporations have figured out how to use the clever costume of capitalism and the free market as a means to bring about a socialist environment in the economy that quickly stomps out any glimmer of competition.

There's a quote from Billy Madison that may apply here. 

There is? Wow. Glad you didn't fucking share it.