Incredible Universe sold quite a few of their failed stores to Fry's Electronics. Finally, Texans could buy triple-X DVDs in a well lit megastore rather than a seedy smoke shop. Then Fry's started to fail too.
I vaguely remember Cotubex, bought parts there from time to time. They were very business like, but treated me pretty well. (They weren't any nicer to the techs that came in to buy parts..) I bought a bunch of push button switches that you could assemble and interlock pretty much anyway you wanted and I remember the counterman taking quite a bit of time to explain all of the options, how to configure the switches, and showed me on a sample. I was probably 18 or so at the time. I bought a bunch of switches and very discretely I slipped him a couple of hundred francs as a pourboire. He grinned and said thank you. (in english)
My Model IV used two single sided 170K ( I, think ) 5.25 inch floppies, and a 5 meg Winchester type hard drive that was partitioned into five ( 5 ) one megabyte logical partitions. The TRS 80 ran TRS DOS, written by Microsoft, and the hard drive booted up on LDOS, the maker of which escapes me.
The hard drive cost, like, $1300 back in '83, or more than one tenth of what my brand new Turbo T Bird cost me. The Model IV cost about the same. Thank goodness for depreciation.
Still have the IV and the hard drive in my warehouse of junk, along with an Osborne, but my Atari 400 got booted in the last break in.
I had a Model 12, that harnessed the multitasking power of the 80286 ( IIRC ) and ran Xenix, but it was destroyed in a tornado. A really bad one.
Win W5JAG
> Incredible Universe sold quite a few of their failed stores to Fry's Electronics.
Yep. If the few R.S.'s left in this area go, Fry's will be the only thing left..........
Yep. If the few R.S.'s left in this area go, Fry's will be the only thing left..........
Catalogs would show up in cases, in a small box truck. edit: Yours truly got to unload the truck.
It was a big deal. People would line up to get one, not unlike the twits that line up at the apple stores and best buy, nowadays.
By mid year, we would be out of them. I don't think we ever got replacement stock - what we got initially, was all we got that year.
I liked the mystery junk boxes that were sold once a year when they were clearing out the warehouses - I always bought two or three and am still using stuff from them.
I think most of the parts were factory seconds, surplus, or overruns. Not necessarily a bad thing. I'm still using MC1350's I bought from them decades ago. If you see a Realistic tube box marked 6V6GTA, take a look inside - might be a 5992 hiding in there ....
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edit: when I worked for them, I think they were about as finely tuned a business machine as one could ever be. Two things led to their demise: 1) The death of Mr. Tandy. 2) The insane desire to open up multiple stores and carve up a mostly static, possibly declining, customer base among more and more stores. The "cell phone" shack idea was stupid on methamphetamine, but a store every ten feet was stupid gas on crazy fire. imho, of course.
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Ha, you're bringing back memories.
When I was around 16, I started to buy some expensive op amps. I used to go to Kelsea Electronics in Chicago and order them. The dude was grumpy and grumbled that it was a waste of an expensive component. He was surprised and nice about it when I showed him I actually built working circuits with them.
Next thing you know, I was off to college and Kelsea Electronics went out of business in the 1980s I believe.
I had forgotten about the catalogs running out. Funny!
Just got back from a Shack run. Of the 4 stores still open in my area, 2 are closing. The closest one is 2 days past its close date, still trying to clear out. 70% off everything. Bought cute headphones for my wife, good deal.
Drove another 5 miles south to a store that had small parts. $20, no returns. What?
Store clerk said a guy had come in yesterday and bought $600 worth of small parts - "In case you close for good, this time." I refrained from mentioning Digikey or Mouser. 😉
Just got back from a Shack run. Of the 4 stores still open in my area, 2 are closing. The closest one is 2 days past its close date, still trying to clear out. 70% off everything. Bought cute headphones for my wife, good deal.
Drove another 5 miles south to a store that had small parts. $20, no returns. What?
Store clerk said a guy had come in yesterday and bought $600 worth of small parts - "In case you close for good, this time." I refrained from mentioning Digikey or Mouser. 😉
Well I did my duty yesterday, I was driving along and saw a RS with the guys taking down everything and I pulled in and bought their last 4 gold plated RCA to BNC adaptors because I actually discovered that I left mine attached to some cables at work when I retired. RS RIP
Who a gold plated one would appeal to is a mystery that will go down with the ship.
Who a gold plated one would appeal to is a mystery that will go down with the ship.
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Hey thanks for the reminder. There's one RS left in our area; guess I should go over there and see what's what.
I did this during the last round of closings here a couple of years ago; went to a store I'd shopped at since I was a kid. It was already pretty picked over, but I bought a soldering iron to throw in the truck as a backup. Said to the kid at the register, "I bought my very first soldering iron at this store, over 40 years ago." He was pointedly nonplussed. Kids these days, they got no conversational rhythm. Then again, he might've been distracted, wondering where he was gonna find another job... 🙁
I did this during the last round of closings here a couple of years ago; went to a store I'd shopped at since I was a kid. It was already pretty picked over, but I bought a soldering iron to throw in the truck as a backup. Said to the kid at the register, "I bought my very first soldering iron at this store, over 40 years ago." He was pointedly nonplussed. Kids these days, they got no conversational rhythm. Then again, he might've been distracted, wondering where he was gonna find another job... 🙁
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L. Kornfeld was the marketing guy at Radio Shack. He wrote a book about it called "To catch a mouse make a noise like a cheese." He also did the flyer side chats.
At that time two items they believed were important to their success was only selling house brands so they wouldn't be competing with the Walmarts and others and where other electronics stores at that time averaged a million dollars a year in sales Radio Shack's did only $300,000. So it was the small stuff at high margins that made the stores profitable.
They used Tandy in Europe not just because of the Radio Spares conflict but due to laws limiting sign sizes, they could use much bigger letters!
After he and Tandy left the scene the new management tried to get sales up by selling name brand products. Margins dropped and they also cut back on the small parts stuff to save floor space!
Wall Street loved the idea. But selling 10 packages of resistors made them as much profit as a Walkman. Also higher total sales would not only raise some taxes but also could increase rent!
Now the viability of selling parts when gear is often no longer repairable and having entered the age where techies do software instead of hardware would have doomed either business model.
Their modern replacement is of course the game stores. They are basically getting the current version of Radio Shack customers.
I see Mouser as more of their replacement rather than Digikey as they carry more of the imported shiny stuff. Don't forget Radio Shack had a hand in doing in Poly-Paks whose products they once sold. And that loss really did help Digikey.
We could also talk about the now almost extinct record stores.
But being the lazy bstrd I yam Amazon now gets a lot of my business for not just very small market items but stuff I am just to lazy to make trip for and don't need immediately.
At that time two items they believed were important to their success was only selling house brands so they wouldn't be competing with the Walmarts and others and where other electronics stores at that time averaged a million dollars a year in sales Radio Shack's did only $300,000. So it was the small stuff at high margins that made the stores profitable.
They used Tandy in Europe not just because of the Radio Spares conflict but due to laws limiting sign sizes, they could use much bigger letters!
After he and Tandy left the scene the new management tried to get sales up by selling name brand products. Margins dropped and they also cut back on the small parts stuff to save floor space!
Wall Street loved the idea. But selling 10 packages of resistors made them as much profit as a Walkman. Also higher total sales would not only raise some taxes but also could increase rent!
Now the viability of selling parts when gear is often no longer repairable and having entered the age where techies do software instead of hardware would have doomed either business model.
Their modern replacement is of course the game stores. They are basically getting the current version of Radio Shack customers.
I see Mouser as more of their replacement rather than Digikey as they carry more of the imported shiny stuff. Don't forget Radio Shack had a hand in doing in Poly-Paks whose products they once sold. And that loss really did help Digikey.
We could also talk about the now almost extinct record stores.
But being the lazy bstrd I yam Amazon now gets a lot of my business for not just very small market items but stuff I am just to lazy to make trip for and don't need immediately.
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😉
Lowe's?
Ace?
😉
There's a store right next to a pizza store I like. RS never has customers, by that i mean there are always more employees than customers and never 2 customers at a time. The happiest the employees look is when the manager brings back pizza for lunch.
The 2 or 3 times I bought something there, they always asked for my name, address, phone stuff like that; it really upset me.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Legrand-Plastic-RCA-to-F-Type-Wall-Keystone-Inserts/50110876
Ace F Type Adapter Gold Card - OHM Devices - Ace Hardware
just built a twin T last week with Mallory polystyrene caps bought from Poly-Paks while I was in college
I was self learning semiconductors as a kid in the 60's. Poly Paks "no time to test 'em" parts were cheap, and the result was often the same. I "tested" them, and after I did, they were dead!
We didn't have a Radio Shack, but we had a Lafayette Radio Electronics store. It was next door to the slot car track. I spent countless hours at both places. Lafayette had guitars and amps and let people play them. My parents finally bought me my first guitar there when I was about 10.
I blew up plenty of Lafayette transistors too.....not to mention a few of their "1 watt transistorized audio amplifier boards. "Hey, if its a little bit loud with 6 batteries (9 volts), how loud will it go with more"......you know where that ended up. "Now that it's dead I'm going to put some of those big Poly Paks transistors in, maybe it will go louder."
Despite spending much of my early youth at LRE, I got a job in the new Olson's Electronics store next to the University of Miami when I turned 18.
When I got my Ham license in the early 80's the random call sign I was assigned was KB4LRE. Coincidence? Despite upgrading that "novice" license all the way to "extra" I kept the old call sign.
We didn't have a Radio Shack, but we had a Lafayette Radio Electronics store. It was next door to the slot car track. I spent countless hours at both places. Lafayette had guitars and amps and let people play them. My parents finally bought me my first guitar there when I was about 10.
I blew up plenty of Lafayette transistors too.....not to mention a few of their "1 watt transistorized audio amplifier boards. "Hey, if its a little bit loud with 6 batteries (9 volts), how loud will it go with more"......you know where that ended up. "Now that it's dead I'm going to put some of those big Poly Paks transistors in, maybe it will go louder."
Despite spending much of my early youth at LRE, I got a job in the new Olson's Electronics store next to the University of Miami when I turned 18.
When I got my Ham license in the early 80's the random call sign I was assigned was KB4LRE. Coincidence? Despite upgrading that "novice" license all the way to "extra" I kept the old call sign.
I missed the course and had my intro in the SS Physics lab run by, in my fair opinion, a Jesuit whack-a-doodle, and a great and brilliant guy. We had some tremendously good times and I got to build a 12AX7 PLL for measuring electron spin.
No RS nearby, but abundance of TV and Radio repair shops in the Bronx. If you needed HV stuff there was Barry's Electronics on Broadway which meant a trip to Chinatown and a great, great Italian meal on Mulberry St.
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had B&F catalog but was beyond my travel radius
didn't have a car in Cambridge for years, only went to Poly Paks a few times by commuter rail
Eli Heffron and Sons was my mainstay
home was a Kansas City suburb, there I drove all over, a Lafayette, Burstein-Applebee
also went to a few Gov surplus sales - had punch card decks held at the gate getting in to the auction at the Bendix plant
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Name dropping? Hah!
When I was in CA in '73 I used to raid the Heathkit store in LA on Figuera St IIRC, also picked up loads of books at Opamp Technical Books at N Sycamore.
Top that! 😛
Jan
When I was in CA in '73 I used to raid the Heathkit store in LA on Figuera St IIRC, also picked up loads of books at Opamp Technical Books at N Sycamore.
Top that! 😛
Jan
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We routinely did more than $4K / Saturday in 1975 dollars, and easily did more than $300K / year at our store. It was the only one for sixty miles in any direction. LRE did open a local store at that time, but they did not cut into our business.
At that time Wal Mart was very small potatotes, barely more than a local discount chain trying to put TG&Y and Otasco and other locals out of business. Mr. Tandy probably could have bought and sold them and never know he bought anything. Mr. Walton was still flying his Ercoupe around to visit stores.
I recall our mark up as being about 100%, however, they only time I saw stuff like that was when I was doing inventory, and marking quantities on an inventory sheet. My job was to count, not anyalyze.
I also got to paint the outside of the store once. And, with the help of Rick the ( rhymes with Rick ) who came down from the mountain of district HQ, pretty much remodeled the entire store on one Thursday evening after the store closed. And on Thursday, we stayed open late - 8:00 PM.
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