So that radio has a dual purpose? Very clever. 
30 years ago, RS was a respectable store. Now it's full of absolute junk. I go there to buy electronic parts sometimes, and they always try to sell me a cellphone or some other garbage. And there is never anyone there that has the slightest clue about the parts. It's such a lowbrow store.
30 years ago, RS was a respectable store. Now it's full of absolute junk. I go there to buy electronic parts sometimes, and they always try to sell me a cellphone or some other garbage. And there is never anyone there that has the slightest clue about the parts. It's such a lowbrow store.
It's actually difficult to even buy anything there. The employees are too busy explaining the latest mobile phone plan to glassy-eyed customers to bother to ring up your purchase.. I think RS has tried, in recent years, to keep a decent stock of parts. At one point it looked like they would drop them altogether in favor of phones, computers and toys.
I was told by one of the local RS store managers that RS has made a commitment to catering to hobbiests again. That's how the store started in the first place. In the 50s and early-mid 60s, there were a lot of ametuer electronics hobbiests.
He said that some stores hardly sell any, but that they fly off the shelves in his store. To his credit, he keeps the parts bins well stocked.
But no store I have been to have any employees with a clue about the parts. They sure know their cellphones, though.
At one time, RS only hired college grads as sales personnel. I find it ironic that you need a college education to sell cellphones and dual purpose radios.
Some of the parts are pretty good, although they are kind of expensive. It's the instant gratification that keeps me going back.
I guess we are all to old to "Get" the commercial and we are not the intended demographic. Apparently the commercial is a mockery of a video by the son of Alan Thicke. If we were young and relevant it would surely make us want to head to RadioShack. I agree that the demise of Radio Shack has been hard to watch. It is especially true for me because my wife works at RadioShack headquarters in Ft. Worth. We recently upgraded our phones and decided to do so at the Shack. It turned out to be a 3 hour ordeal reminiscent of buying a car. As bewildered as I am that RadioShack's doors are still open, the inside word seems more promising than previous attempts at restructuring. I have a hunch that the Shack is slowly integrating Apple products so that in the future every Shack location will be an Apple Store. AppleShack if you will. That's my take and I am sticking to it. I have to though. I am a shareholder.
Down Under Upside....
In Aus we have historically had 'Radio shack', 'Dick Smith Electronics', 'Jaycar' and 'Altronics' stores to cater to the electronics enthusiast.
RS and DSE are nowadays just 'box' resellers and the counter hands are typically young noddys with zero technical knowledge.
Thankfully the other two, although stocking all manner of 'box' and 'gadget' products continue to cater for the 'hobbyist', especially Altronics who do a lot of OEM manufacturer supply.
So things are not so bad here, pretty good, actually.
Dan.
Altronics - Your One Stop Audio Visual & Electronics Supplier
PS - I like the RS commercial, but I would still never buy anything Dr Dre...hyped junk in my experience. Logitech gets my approval every time.
In Aus we have historically had 'Radio shack', 'Dick Smith Electronics', 'Jaycar' and 'Altronics' stores to cater to the electronics enthusiast.
RS and DSE are nowadays just 'box' resellers and the counter hands are typically young noddys with zero technical knowledge.
Thankfully the other two, although stocking all manner of 'box' and 'gadget' products continue to cater for the 'hobbyist', especially Altronics who do a lot of OEM manufacturer supply.
So things are not so bad here, pretty good, actually.
Dan.
Altronics - Your One Stop Audio Visual & Electronics Supplier
PS - I like the RS commercial
, but I would still never buy anything Dr Dre...hyped junk in my experience. Logitech gets my approval every time.
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I do nerdy electronic stuff for a couple of local DJs. They both sung the praises of Dr. Dre headphones (although neither one uses them for their gigs). So I auditioned them. They are absolutely the worst headphones possible. They sound like those rolling ghetto boomboxes with the trunk lid rattling off the hinges. Boomy bass, garbled mids, ridiculously overboosted and raspy highs! And $300 to boot. Now I know why they don't use them for their gigs; you can't hear anything through them.
Yes, I knew I was getting old when I found myself on the other end of the generation gap. Everything is geared toward these youngsters. They actually have more disposable income than we do, because we have to pay bills and stuff. In my neighborhood, they drive Mercedes and BMWs whild I drive a 12 year old Subaru. I do have some expensive big boy toys but right now I can't even afford to play with them.
Consider yourself lucky. Even though I live in the greater Chicago area, the only OTC place for electronic components is Rat Shack. I rely on Mouser. When I was a kid, electronics was a very popular hobby and there was no less than 3 real honest to God electronics stores within a 5 mile radius of my house (not including Rat Shack which had 2 stores within a mile radius); and I grew up in a working class neighborhood. I was also taught by an old ham radio guy about electronics in general and electronics safety in particular.
Kids aren't even interested in this stuff any more.
it's sad what happened to radio shack, it used to be fun store to go to...not anymore
it's fun though to browse through old rs catalogs...you can see how one era was replaced by another and another and another...
Radio Shack Catalogs
it's fun though to browse through old rs catalogs...you can see how one era was replaced by another and another and another...
Radio Shack Catalogs
My problem is that I am old. A friend went to the shack last week to get some solderwick. The kid at the counter didn't know what he wanted and neither did anyone else that was working there.
I think that the technology has outpaced the hobby market to a point. When I was growing up everything was point to point wiring or through hole parts on a PCB. We used to build some pretty cool amps by combining parts from two or three dead tube tv's and a trip to the shack or lafayette for the rest of the parts. It is a lot harder and much more expensive to breadboard a 256 pin ball grid array chip today.
I think that the technology has outpaced the hobby market to a point. When I was growing up everything was point to point wiring or through hole parts on a PCB. We used to build some pretty cool amps by combining parts from two or three dead tube tv's and a trip to the shack or lafayette for the rest of the parts. It is a lot harder and much more expensive to breadboard a 256 pin ball grid array chip today.
Yes, if you don't know what you want or where it is, you're SOL.
And by the way Rat Shack does sell solder wick. They sell a lot of handy electronic stuff, but it's up to you to find it.
We come from almost the same era. But I like the modern technology. I admit it's nowhere near as DIY friendly.
Lafayette- I forgot all about them.
I work in a Motorola plant that used to employ about 1000 engineers. There is a Radio Shack store a short walk away. Until about 5 years ago they stocked all sorts of parts and stuff you needed to make things. Why? Because you have a huge user base that looks for that stuff daily. Anytime I went there there were other Motorolans there.
About 5 years ago they got rid of most of it and started pushing cellphones and laptops. Yeah, this is giong to work right across the street from a plant that MADE cellphones. The RS is still open. I dont go there and neither does anyone else I know. If you see anyone in the store, they are from the nearby retirement community. The sales people don't know an Ohm from a Giggawatt.
If you need a part from RS, look it up online first. Check the store stock, and have the RS stock number when you go to the store. I have the best luck at the outlet mall store, but that is still about 50/50 after the computer said it was in stock. Try to get Ferric Chloride. Many stores do stock it, but have no clue what or where it is. Look up, at the dusty stuff on the top of the shelves. Thats where they put it 5 years ago. It doesn't go bad.
The local Lafayette Radio Electronics store was one of my hangouts when I was in middle and high school. The manager would let us play the guitars and talk on the CB radio. About 1980 I got my ham radio license. Through random luck my call letters were KB4LRE (Lafayette Radio Electronics). Even though I have upgraded my license several times, I kept the old call letters.
After high school I ran the service department of the local Olson Electronics store. We had a better parts selection than LRE or RS, probably because we were right next to the University of Miami, who had a engineering program, and a music school. We stocked every Switchcraft jack, cable, and switch that could be remotely wired to a guitar or synthesizer. Olson died when Teledyne bought them. I found my way to the Motorola plant 40 years ago....I still work there.
About 5 years ago they got rid of most of it and started pushing cellphones and laptops. Yeah, this is giong to work right across the street from a plant that MADE cellphones. The RS is still open. I dont go there and neither does anyone else I know. If you see anyone in the store, they are from the nearby retirement community. The sales people don't know an Ohm from a Giggawatt.
If you need a part from RS, look it up online first. Check the store stock, and have the RS stock number when you go to the store. I have the best luck at the outlet mall store, but that is still about 50/50 after the computer said it was in stock. Try to get Ferric Chloride. Many stores do stock it, but have no clue what or where it is. Look up, at the dusty stuff on the top of the shelves. Thats where they put it 5 years ago. It doesn't go bad.
The local Lafayette Radio Electronics store was one of my hangouts when I was in middle and high school. The manager would let us play the guitars and talk on the CB radio. About 1980 I got my ham radio license. Through random luck my call letters were KB4LRE (Lafayette Radio Electronics). Even though I have upgraded my license several times, I kept the old call letters.
After high school I ran the service department of the local Olson Electronics store. We had a better parts selection than LRE or RS, probably because we were right next to the University of Miami, who had a engineering program, and a music school. We stocked every Switchcraft jack, cable, and switch that could be remotely wired to a guitar or synthesizer. Olson died when Teledyne bought them. I found my way to the Motorola plant 40 years ago....I still work there.
+1 on the old RS catalog site adason...
But the current iteration of RS isn't what what it used to be, that's for sure.
Up here north of the 48th...they are now called "The Source,"...of nothing useful IMO.
So that radio has a dual purpose? Very clever.
30 years ago, RS was a respectable store. Now it's full of absolute junk. I go there to buy electronic parts sometimes, and they always try to sell me a cellphone or some other garbage. And there is never anyone there that has the slightest clue about the parts. It's such a lowbrow store.
I agreee... I will ad to that about 30 years ago in my town (pop about 20k) there were three hi end stereo shops and two hi end electronic parts stores in addition to the local RS' that had their own high end stereo room .
In addition, all the shops also offered repair service for stereo equipment , etc.. This was in the mid to late '70s which was a sort of a golden age of home audio, IMO.
Then came DISCO and many in the general public just wanted heavy disco bass/drums and started to care less about quality, flat response audio . It has been down hill ever since for the general pubic who now listen to distorted highly compressed audio over a 1 inch speakers and thinks it sounds great.
Obviously, shops, like RS are now just catering to the masses as that is where the money now is. . Now, the goal is how small you can make the junk.
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Dead thread,
Dead company .. . ...
-----------------------------------
Or not
Adafruit interviews Tai Lopez, new owner of RadioShack! @tailopez @radioshack << Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers!
------------------------------------------------
Going well in Central and South America.
1681
Dead company .. . ...
-----------------------------------
Or not
Adafruit interviews Tai Lopez, new owner of RadioShack! @tailopez @radioshack << Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers!
------------------------------------------------
Going well in Central and South America.
1681
I would be curious to know what's in the Radio Shack stores now. I was musing just last night that I would like to get into a Wayback Machine and pick up a few things from them.
There's a store a ways from me. Getting there would entail fighting a whole lot of traffic. No way I would go unless I knew it was worth my while. If they had some of the same electronic stuff then it might be worth a visit. I doubt the proprietor knows what the stuff is, so a call would probably be a waste of time. It's like the auto salvage yard when you call to see if they have a visor for your car and they say "just come on in and look for it yourself and we're still going to charge you $75" lazy bastards.
I'm lucky to live by a big Microcenter computer store. They have a huge DIY room there and they sell a lot of stuff that's similar to what Radio Shack had, like capacitor and resistor assortments. I bought a large assortment of "Hi-Q" ceramic disc capacitors from them a few years ago that turned out to be really handy. And I also found out that there's still a lot of electronic tinkerers in my area, and not just computer geeks.
There's a store a ways from me. Getting there would entail fighting a whole lot of traffic. No way I would go unless I knew it was worth my while. If they had some of the same electronic stuff then it might be worth a visit. I doubt the proprietor knows what the stuff is, so a call would probably be a waste of time. It's like the auto salvage yard when you call to see if they have a visor for your car and they say "just come on in and look for it yourself and we're still going to charge you $75" lazy bastards.
I'm lucky to live by a big Microcenter computer store. They have a huge DIY room there and they sell a lot of stuff that's similar to what Radio Shack had, like capacitor and resistor assortments. I bought a large assortment of "Hi-Q" ceramic disc capacitors from them a few years ago that turned out to be really handy. And I also found out that there's still a lot of electronic tinkerers in my area, and not just computer geeks.