Was a bit confused by this posting. The original Radio Shack (Tandy Corp subsidiary) failed a couple of years ago, so this is the successor corporation. Sadly I am not too surprised. Really just a name over the door, the soul departed long ago..
I worked for Radio Shack part time/full time for a number of years back in the early 1980s. It was a fun time, but even then it was not a great place to work and the products were pretty blah compared to major competing brands like Sony, Pioneer, Technics, and Marantz. The computers for a time were OK, even then you weren't quite sure what you were getting when you bought an electronic component from them, as often as not ICs whether analog or digital were defective. Lots of returns and replacements which I never questioned since I encountered the same issues with parts purchased there. (Caps, resistors, garden variety transistors, and transformers were generally OK) I still have some of the ArcherKit 5V supplies and after 30years they still work. One has yet to be recapped...
I worked for Radio Shack part time/full time for a number of years back in the early 1980s. It was a fun time, but even then it was not a great place to work and the products were pretty blah compared to major competing brands like Sony, Pioneer, Technics, and Marantz. The computers for a time were OK, even then you weren't quite sure what you were getting when you bought an electronic component from them, as often as not ICs whether analog or digital were defective. Lots of returns and replacements which I never questioned since I encountered the same issues with parts purchased there. (Caps, resistors, garden variety transistors, and transformers were generally OK) I still have some of the ArcherKit 5V supplies and after 30years they still work. One has yet to be recapped...
There was that whole awkward time when they kept going "call us The Shack" like some poor unloved trying to come up with its own nickname.
It is an odd thing to buy a brand that had been struggling with its identity for years and hope to make something out of it. It probably would have been easier to start from scratch.
Remember that super bowl commercial they did where it was "the 80's called and they want their store back" When they showed all the 80's icons hauling out the old Radio Shack stuff I thought to myself 'man, that was when Radio Shack was great'. I don't think that was what they were going for with the ad.
It is an odd thing to buy a brand that had been struggling with its identity for years and hope to make something out of it. It probably would have been easier to start from scratch.
Remember that super bowl commercial they did where it was "the 80's called and they want their store back" When they showed all the 80's icons hauling out the old Radio Shack stuff I thought to myself 'man, that was when Radio Shack was great'. I don't think that was what they were going for with the ad.
In addition to working for them in the 1980s I moonlighted at one of the stores in Brussels in the early 1970s. I think the 70s were probably the best days for the brand with the 1980s particularly early on also being OK.
I was always amazed at the mark up on electronic components and light bulbs. There was a bulb that cost the store 19 cents and the retail price was $3.79 - this was the most extreme markup I remember. As components got more expensive the markups went down, but 5x - 6x was the norm.
I bought a cordless phone as an employee that retailed for $279 on sale with employee discount for about $99, that phone performed very well and other than needing a new set of batteries every 5 years or so lasted over 25yrs! When it finally died I was torn as to whether I should bother to fix it, I didn't - a decision I have sometimes regretted due to the rubbish now available.. lol
The pay was terrible, and because you were an "employee on commission" you got paid less than half the minimum wage for the time if for some reason you had a bad sales day or two and were disqualified from any commission for that week's sales. (IIRC about $2.10/hr off commission!) I had Sundays which invariably resulted in my loosing the commissions I might have otherwise been paid. I was able to get the store closed on Sundays and earned commissions sporadically after that. Even working full time unless you were the manager it was not a living wage even in the 1980s in most stores. I finally decided to quit working there even part time. They in many cases had a cadre of loyal part time geeks working in the stores, I will say the employee discounts were good, and the one a year employee appreciation sale was stellar, and they allowed you to combine that with any other discounts you could find. (You got the additional discount even on sale items)
I haven't shopped in one in years, I need a wide range of high quality passives and semiconductors not to mention tubes and transistors for my projects, and even when they listed a catalog item that would fit the purpose most often it was not stocked by the particular store. (More than once I called ahead and they said yes they had the part when in fact they didn't.)
I'm surprised they hung on as long as they did. Lafayette was a better shop in it's heyday than RS after the acquisition by Tandy in the 1960s.
My very first experience with Radio Shack was the Kenmore Sq store in Boston in 1961 when it was just a 3 store local chain prior to acquisition by Allied and finally Tandy. I was about 4 at the time. Still remember it.. LOL
I was always amazed at the mark up on electronic components and light bulbs. There was a bulb that cost the store 19 cents and the retail price was $3.79 - this was the most extreme markup I remember. As components got more expensive the markups went down, but 5x - 6x was the norm.
I bought a cordless phone as an employee that retailed for $279 on sale with employee discount for about $99, that phone performed very well and other than needing a new set of batteries every 5 years or so lasted over 25yrs! When it finally died I was torn as to whether I should bother to fix it, I didn't - a decision I have sometimes regretted due to the rubbish now available.. lol
The pay was terrible, and because you were an "employee on commission" you got paid less than half the minimum wage for the time if for some reason you had a bad sales day or two and were disqualified from any commission for that week's sales. (IIRC about $2.10/hr off commission!) I had Sundays which invariably resulted in my loosing the commissions I might have otherwise been paid. I was able to get the store closed on Sundays and earned commissions sporadically after that. Even working full time unless you were the manager it was not a living wage even in the 1980s in most stores. I finally decided to quit working there even part time. They in many cases had a cadre of loyal part time geeks working in the stores, I will say the employee discounts were good, and the one a year employee appreciation sale was stellar, and they allowed you to combine that with any other discounts you could find. (You got the additional discount even on sale items)
I haven't shopped in one in years, I need a wide range of high quality passives and semiconductors not to mention tubes and transistors for my projects, and even when they listed a catalog item that would fit the purpose most often it was not stocked by the particular store. (More than once I called ahead and they said yes they had the part when in fact they didn't.)
I'm surprised they hung on as long as they did. Lafayette was a better shop in it's heyday than RS after the acquisition by Tandy in the 1960s.
My very first experience with Radio Shack was the Kenmore Sq store in Boston in 1961 when it was just a 3 store local chain prior to acquisition by Allied and finally Tandy. I was about 4 at the time. Still remember it.. LOL
I went to work for Radio Shack in 1975, when I was 16. I made $1.90 / hour plus commission, which I always made. It was the first job I had that did not involve extreme amounts of dirt, grime, cold and heat, and the possibility of electrocution or mechanical injury.
I really liked it. We got Sundays off, because my state had blue laws which required non essential business to close on Sundays. There was a work bench in the back - I fixed easy stuff, there was a real serviceman down the street that did the hard repair and warranty work with a couple of days turn around, depending on parts availability.
We had a lady customer who owned every Tom Jones eight track made. She would play them until they were too tight to play. My boss would charge her $0.50 for me to take the tape to the back and rewind it. We had many people who would come in once a month for the free carbon zinc battery. When I started, we were the only store for about sixty miles in every direction. Most Saturdays, there would be a line at the door waiting for us to open. Most of these people were there for the universal power plug to fit the stereo they stole the night before. Later in the day, I would walk down the street to get the boss a goose liver sandwich at a popular sandwich joint. I memorized hundreds, if not thousands, of names and addresses so I didn't have to tick people off asking for it.
Radio Shack was a thriving, finely tuned machine, when it had it's own factories and it's own custom items. Management was always jerks. We had one HQ guy we named Rick the ( rhymes with Rick, but starts with a "p"). I worked one summer after I left for higher education, but by the second summer they had started this policy of polygraphing employees and applicants. I found other work that summer.
Later when I had just started practicing, this case came down:
Tandy Corp. v. Bone :: 1984 :: Arkansas Supreme Court Decisions :: Arkansas Case Law :: Arkansas Law :: U.S. Law :: Justia
And I thought, " I know that jerk !" (well, not that polite).
Sad to see them go, but the end game started about 1978, imho.
Win W5JAG
I really liked it. We got Sundays off, because my state had blue laws which required non essential business to close on Sundays. There was a work bench in the back - I fixed easy stuff, there was a real serviceman down the street that did the hard repair and warranty work with a couple of days turn around, depending on parts availability.
We had a lady customer who owned every Tom Jones eight track made. She would play them until they were too tight to play. My boss would charge her $0.50 for me to take the tape to the back and rewind it. We had many people who would come in once a month for the free carbon zinc battery. When I started, we were the only store for about sixty miles in every direction. Most Saturdays, there would be a line at the door waiting for us to open. Most of these people were there for the universal power plug to fit the stereo they stole the night before. Later in the day, I would walk down the street to get the boss a goose liver sandwich at a popular sandwich joint. I memorized hundreds, if not thousands, of names and addresses so I didn't have to tick people off asking for it.
Radio Shack was a thriving, finely tuned machine, when it had it's own factories and it's own custom items. Management was always jerks. We had one HQ guy we named Rick the ( rhymes with Rick, but starts with a "p"). I worked one summer after I left for higher education, but by the second summer they had started this policy of polygraphing employees and applicants. I found other work that summer.
Later when I had just started practicing, this case came down:
Tandy Corp. v. Bone :: 1984 :: Arkansas Supreme Court Decisions :: Arkansas Case Law :: Arkansas Law :: U.S. Law :: Justia
And I thought, " I know that jerk !" (well, not that polite).
Sad to see them go, but the end game started about 1978, imho.
Win W5JAG
Wow, so the two packages of ferrites that I purchased a month or two ago wasn't enough to float the payroll for the chain then?
No one else is ever in the store when I go in to the one by my house, every 6 months or so.
No one else is ever in the store when I go in to the one by my house, every 6 months or so.
Ironically the one in my town was actually starting to carry a reasonable assortment of at least the more common parts. Not the whole wall of glittery stuff like they had when I was a kid, but useful if you needed a couple of resistors or some alligator clip leads. You can thank the popularity of robotics competitions among the high schools around here for this recent (and I guess sadly ended) development.
I bought a SW Regen radio kit from them when I was a kid, and actually managed to pick up the funeral of Chairman Mao on it from China. Of course that event was probably being broadcast at a wattage that made the antennas throw blue sparks ;-)
I think my mom threw it away sometime after I graduated from college, wish I still had it.
In Australia, we had Tandy, which was, I believe, Radio Shack. It disappeared decades ago; so long ago I've even forgotten what it was like.
You can always reminisce...
Radio Shack Catalogs - General Catalogs
I remember so many of these from the 70s. My buddy's dad ran the one in the small town I grew up in (Gander, NF).
Radio Shack Catalogs - General Catalogs
I remember so many of these from the 70s. My buddy's dad ran the one in the small town I grew up in (Gander, NF).
The Chapter 11 filing happened today.
Update:
> March 9, 2017
General Wireless Operations Inc., which set out to revive RadioShack..., ...filed for Chapter 11 protection Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy court in Delaware. It listed assets and liabilities of $100 million to $500 million each.
I worked in the Eastern warehouse for a summer. Huge.
> In Australia, we had Tandy
Charles Tandy grew a leather shop into a chain, then in 1963 bought an ailing 40 year old 9-store chain called Radio Shack. His name was on a lot of RS's stuff. CB radio and car-sound were cash cows. I gather Tandy was the trade name in places where "shack" did not sound spiffy enough. Tandy passed away 1978. The US deregulation of telephones spurred a 1980s boom. But basically later managers were clueless; it just took this long to spend-down all that CB money.
Update:
> March 9, 2017
General Wireless Operations Inc., which set out to revive RadioShack..., ...filed for Chapter 11 protection Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy court in Delaware. It listed assets and liabilities of $100 million to $500 million each.
I worked in the Eastern warehouse for a summer. Huge.
> In Australia, we had Tandy
Charles Tandy grew a leather shop into a chain, then in 1963 bought an ailing 40 year old 9-store chain called Radio Shack. His name was on a lot of RS's stuff. CB radio and car-sound were cash cows. I gather Tandy was the trade name in places where "shack" did not sound spiffy enough. Tandy passed away 1978. The US deregulation of telephones spurred a 1980s boom. But basically later managers were clueless; it just took this long to spend-down all that CB money.
Jeez, I forgot I still had this thing until I read this thread.
This was my first electronics project, and one of my first attempts at soldering. (I've improved since then, I promise!) It was a christmas present when I was 15, so 1972 (thanks again to soundchaser001 for the catalog links). Purchased at Radio Shack, of course. It was a simple binary counter that counted up when you waved your hand in front of the photocell. The photocell is missing because I used it to make a lap counter for my slot cars. 🙂
OK so now that I've dug this thing out of the junk box in the closet, I guess I should restore it to working condition.
This was my first electronics project, and one of my first attempts at soldering. (I've improved since then, I promise!) It was a christmas present when I was 15, so 1972 (thanks again to soundchaser001 for the catalog links). Purchased at Radio Shack, of course. It was a simple binary counter that counted up when you waved your hand in front of the photocell. The photocell is missing because I used it to make a lap counter for my slot cars. 🙂
OK so now that I've dug this thing out of the junk box in the closet, I guess I should restore it to working condition.
That's neat Jim. Looks to be twice as good as binary. 🙂
Those catalogues? I had to stop going to that site years ago as I wasted just as much time as when they were new. While the other boys were looking at their older brother's Playboy, I was happy as a clam with my Rad-shack cat. It was so Realistic
Those catalogues? I had to stop going to that site years ago as I wasted just as much time as when they were new. While the other boys were looking at their older brother's Playboy, I was happy as a clam with my Rad-shack cat. It was so Realistic
You're welcome Jim;
I had several perf box kits (the visible light transmitter for voice was my first) plus the spring clip 100 in 1 project kits with all of the parts spread out in a wooden frame and some kind of organ with spring clips as well.
All great stuff. Up here in Canada they've been gone for 7-8 years. Now they're owned by Bell Mobility (I think) and they're called The Source although they are a shadow of their former self.
I had several perf box kits (the visible light transmitter for voice was my first) plus the spring clip 100 in 1 project kits with all of the parts spread out in a wooden frame and some kind of organ with spring clips as well.
All great stuff. Up here in Canada they've been gone for 7-8 years. Now they're owned by Bell Mobility (I think) and they're called The Source although they are a shadow of their former self.
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