RIP Radio Shack

It'll be strange without a Radio Shack around.

The trash 80.....my middle school had a room full of them, more like 15, one for every two students. I remember learning a few things on them in 7th grade, somewhere around 1983.

I still have a plethora of gadgets from RS:

A pair of super tweeters for the stereo.
A pair of cast alum mag shielded mini bookshelf speakers, 23 yrs old & still sound awesome & my rear channel in the living room.
A 200 watt LED power meter.
A micro amp, powers my light show made out of old traffic light lenses, built the control box & circuit board in high school shop class.
My first & only soldering iron.
Digital voltmeter.
400 channel programmable scanner.
Handheld CB radio.
Ancient X, K & Ka band radar detector that is the size of a cassette tape case.

I'm sure there is more.

Somewhere around here we still have hubby's 1960's vintage reverb. Haven't had that installed in a car in ages.

They disappeared up here a few years ago. Or the name did. The Radio Shack stores rebranded as Source, and basically didn't change much inside, still carrying about the same stuff. I think Circuit City was/is behind that. I wonder if the RS shakeup down there will affect Source up here somehow?

They are overpriced and barely even stock the most basic electrical components. They refused to change their business model and stubborn companies go out of business.

I will not miss them.

Legitimate question:

Without radio shack, where will we be able to buy capacitors, diodes, resistors, and full wave bridge rectifiers except for online? I'm a dual sporter, and convert dirt bikes to street legal occasionally. If the bike doesn't have a battery, I need to convert AC from the stator to 'dirty' DC via full wave bridge rectifier to power horns and LED tail lights. Often times I don't know what size I need, so I buy multiple sizes and test them, then return the ones I don't need going by whatever works best.

Now what?

j7art2 said:

Legitimate question:

Without radio shack, where will we be able to buy capacitors, diodes, resistors, and full wave bridge rectifiers except for online? I'm a dual sporter, and convert dirt bikes to street legal occasionally. If the bike doesn't have a battery, I need to convert AC from the stator to 'dirty' DC via full wave bridge rectifier to power horns and LED tail lights. Often times I don't know what size I need, so I buy multiple sizes and test them, then return the ones I don't need going by whatever works best.

Now what?

Click to expand...

I think you also stated why this happened.

Online buying.

Likely what you'll be left with.

Gotta love this whole "lets buy a $0.36 part and pay $4 shipping for it!"

At around the age of 11 my dad bought me my first computer, after I begged my mom (who wouldn't budge) - a $5 TRS-80 CoCo 1 at a flea market. Eventually ran into a guy in RadioShack who mentored me in the ways of the CPU, the POKE 65497, etc. and later I had a coco2, floppy drive, eventually coco3 and a game or 2 ... then later a couple of Model 1's. I owe everything to those little computers for kickstarting what would become a very profitable career in computers and IT.

These days I find a boyhood-like enjoyment playing with small microcontrollers - started with Arduino and have gone to the TI MSP430 and their ARM offerings in recent years. It brings me back to the fun days of 16K RAM.

My dad took me to my first visit to a neighborhood Radio Shack. He went to "check" the tubes for the big B&W TV in the living room (the only TV in the house), while I wandered down the aisles seeing kits and parts and endless possibilities.

Last few times I needed something "Radio Shacky" I went there and couldn't find what I was looking for in stock . . . I don't recall exactly what it was . . . but it was not something totally bizarre or unusual . . .

I can remember when RS had one of the first LCD calculators. It was amazing! And only $90!! Such a deal! And they had those big 18" woofers that I bought for my amplifier stacks. I don't think mom thought much of them but they looked loud not even on!

j7art2 said:

Legitimate question:

Without radio shack, where will we be able to buy capacitors, diodes, resistors, and full wave bridge rectifiers except for online? I'm a dual sporter, and convert dirt bikes to street legal occasionally. If the bike doesn't have a battery, I need to convert AC from the stator to 'dirty' DC via full wave bridge rectifier to power horns and LED tail lights. Often times I don't know what size I need, so I buy multiple sizes and test them, then return the ones I don't need going by whatever works best.

Now what?

Click to expand...

Might have to use a battery eliminator. Been available for many years in the aftermarket.

Yep, will not be missing too much, since they didn't stock much anymore. Tried to buy a multi-meter, was not happy about needing to buy 2 different models to get the two different modes I needed.
Happily found a "new in the box" massive unit in mint shape at a yard sale for 3 bucks. Keep it in the box still and that inside another plastic box.

j7art2 said:

Gotta love this whole "lets buy a $0.36 part and pay $4 shipping for it!"

Click to expand...

Yeah the standard seems to be a $0.01 price, plus $4.99 to ship. But amazingly, my son has bought a few electronic things off Amazon for $1-2 that ship for free... from China!

I have a radio shack "time cube". It is dedicated radio to pick up the NBS time signals. It used to be a very important item for sports car rallying.

In later years, the quality of their electronic components really went down. They were good in pinch but they generally were pretty poor quality.

I do remember the free battery card. You got a free battery once a month when you visited the store.

j7art2 said:

Legitimate question:

Without radio shack, where will we be able to buy capacitors, diodes, resistors, and full wave bridge rectifiers except for online? I'm a dual sporter, and convert dirt bikes to street legal occasionally. If the bike doesn't have a battery, I need to convert AC from the stator to 'dirty' DC via full wave bridge rectifier to power horns and LED tail lights. Often times I don't know what size I need, so I buy multiple sizes and test them, then return the ones I don't need going by whatever works best.

Now what?

Click to expand...

MCM electronics, online

Many fond memories of childhood electronics tinkering. Played with a friend's TRS80 when I was in middle school, complete with cassette tape memory.

RS has been a long slow slide, haven't been able to find half of what I needed in there in years. Apparently selling cell phones was keeping them afloat after 2000, and with the margins on phones dropping to zero, that game is over.

woodgeek said:

Many fond memories of childhood electronics tinkering. Played with a friend's TRS80 when I was in middle school, complete with cassette tape memory.

RS has been a long slow slide, haven't been able to find half of what I needed in there in years. Apparently selling cell phones was keeping them afloat after 2000, and with the margins on phones dropping to zero, that game is over.

Click to expand...

I guess no matter how you look at it, it was just a matter of time after printed circuits.

I still remember buying a thousand dollar computer system there in the early oughts though. Why didn't they stay in the computer business, even if it was just retailing?

We used to call them Radio Scrap in jest.

The nostalgia is there...for sure. But they only have 1 cab of components...50% of it is switches I can buy at Home Depot or Lowes!

http://www.digikey.com/ Has 1000000x more than any RS ever had and its not a greasy teenager who knows nothing of electronics on the other end of the phone.