Radio Shack's last gasp (UPDATE Chap 11 filed)

I am with you.  I checked tubes there and purchased many components over the years.  We still have a store in the Mall in Butler, Pennsylvania, so we will see what comes of it.  Of course as the demand for individual components went down, it made sense they would go into the lines of products they sell now.  Too bad, but another sign of changing times and technology.  I wish all their employees the best as this moves forward.  Thank you for making us aware of this!!

cbo,

    To bad, another once very good business has faded away slowly, do to poor management and poorer business practices.  They have slowly closed most of the stores in our area.  I will miss being able to immediately pick up stuff for my layout

when I need it, still need to get over and pick up another power supply for my TIU,

before they shut down the store in Penn Hills totally.

PCRR/Dave

In my opinion Radio Shack missed the cell phone revolution, too little too late. And Sears and Wards missed the electronic catalog revolution. And Service Merchandise was too early.

Use to depend on RS.  Then it became a place you couldn't find a lot.  Checked the price of a roll of wire last week to do more layout wiring.  Lowe's had it a lot cheaper.  Sad. 

Dave,

It's really a shame. These practices started around the first time they were bought out way back in the late 1950's. Back in the late 50's early 60's I stocked up on the Heath Kit "Electronic Project" hobby kits. These were among the first things discontinued. Since then the stores seemed to be on a down hill slide. Good-bye RS you will be missed dearly.

In addition to myriad of things they should have done differently, a name change would have been in order.  'Shack' just doesn't denote 'quality item' to most people:

- The Diamond Shack?

- The Lexus Shack?

- The Yacht Shack?

- Brooks Brother's Shack?

- The Westin Shack?

Note that restaurants are different - often times, the nastier the name, the better the food

In all seriousness, the useful items became relegated to smaller and smaller areas of the store, replaced by cheap RC toys and other 2nd tier products like TV's and stereos.  When was the last time anyone bought something other than components at 'The Shack'?

Oh wow! Radio Shack? I better get over there and buy up any 14 volt bulbs they have left and anything else I may need for my trains. Like maybe another can of electrical contact/TV tuner cleaner.

Pretty soon you won't be able to buy anything unless you order it online!

Bought all the parts for a momentum throttle back in 1978 for my HO layout. Still works too!!! When I went last NOV they had little of what I needed and I had driven 1.5 hour to get there. Online only now.

Doubt many teens could build anything any ways........only die hard techies today.

Pappy,

   No doubt about it back when we were kids RS had a good business, you are absolutely correct, when it sold out way back, major management changes were made and it was never the really good company it had the reputation of being.  I can remember them having a great inventory and serious people to help their clients,

some how that all got away from them under their newer management and the store started on a big down hill slide.

PCRR/Dave

I never did understand how Radio Shack stayed in business. There are at least five stores within fifteen minutes of my home, including the two nearby malls.
I do feel sorry for the folks who will loose their jobs. Still, Radio Shack was the last place I would go for anything other than an occasional semiconductor. While I don't think it was always true, the quality of their other parts seemed poor. I think I made my last order from Digikey. I have also used Mouser, and Antique Electric Supply.

I never really bought anything besides small stuff there (switches, fuses, soldering iron, etc.). I did look into a scanner there for when I go out photographing trains. The store had it for $30 more than the online site, but when I showed them this, they gave it to me for the online price.

I will miss them.

In the early 70's I spent a lot of my meager cashflow for parts at the Radio Shack in a tiny town in the mountains. It's long gone.

After retiring from the Air Force I briefly took a job at Radio Shack, got a position as Assistant Manager for a store. Found it was a commission job and paid very poorly. And I was one of 2 full time employees, the rest were part time, how were they supposed to make a decent living?

I was shocked at the mentality they used for sales, perhaps it was just my manger but no matter what question he was asked, the product could always do the job.

I would read the data, look into the capacity of the item and say no half the time.

His sales were great, his returns were also the highest in the region.

Nothing I sold ever got returned.

It's funny but when I interviewed for my current position, One of the interviewers was the Engineering Manager here and he knew me from my help at Radio Shack. He bought parts there often. I got the job because he knew I understood electronics.

Stumper, the name stems from HAM Radio. Everyone had a shack for the Big HAM transmitter back in the day. It was a natural connection while they were a parts house. Not so much since they went to commercial retail.

And Yes, the product lines there are not top shelf but the prices are top shelf.

I buy nothing but components there, Now I need to go get the last of the Toggle switches for my Layout before they are gone.

Slowly and surely the Radio Shack's in our area have closed. The one in our mall closed this past month. We have one left in a metro area of 330,000 people. They just couldn't keep up with other places. I went to the one closing in the mall to buy some additional wiring for my layout, and at 50% off they were STILL higher than Lowes or Home Depot. 

Their prices as of lately have been totally out of hand. I was out of MTH rechargeable batteries and checked at RS. 25.00!! for a 9v rechargeable! No wonder.

I would always go there for stuff I couldn't find anywhere else.  They were good for oddball stuff.  Another one I miss until this day was Olson's Electronics (used to be in Cleveland).  they had great catalogs and lots of sales.  And, to my recollection, the store I would go to was right next to a Radio Shack.  I could spend and afternoon browsing through small electronics.  Radio Shack will be missed.  Sure it's not what it used to be by a long shot, but it's just another thing gone bye-bye and will become just a memory for many of us.

Bob S.

Pappy,with all due respect, Radio Shack's kits were Knight Kits.

Brad

Bob,

i remember Olson's too.  There was one on McKnight Road.  I bought an analog VOM, and a can of contact cleaner there 40 years ago when I traveled from Home in Valencia to Penn Tech in Pittsburgh for electronics.  I still have both, and they both still worked last time I checked.  I don't know if contact cleaner can lose its effectiveness, but it worked about a year ago on a radio volume control.

I will miss Radio Shack. It looks grim-- I expect Chapter 11 filing within a week. I knew something was wrong when their online presence on Ebay started nosediving-- no parts available in the Ebay store- just lots of cell phones.

We used to have Olsen's out here in California. My father was an electrical engineer and hobbyist so we were in there all the time. Back when Radio Shack was an electronics store we used to go there a lot. Radio Shack's demise began when they decided to shift focus to consumer electronics -- an extremely competitive world. You have to sell a lot of cell phones to make that office lease and payroll.

Brad, 

I stand corrected, if I'm wrong. I think you need to check your sources. Out West Radio Shack DID sell Heath Kit. My workbench still has many working projects. 

And don't forget the TRS-80.  One of the first mass produced personal computers.

I remember Olson's in California too.  Besides the electronic parts, they also had recording booths and machines to record your LPs over to 4 track or 8 track tape.

In the Baltimore area there's Baynesville Electronics, real throwback to the days of DYI electronics. I've bought many of a part from them over the years and they have for real electronics geeks manning the store.

Jerry

I remember RS evolving from LAFAYETTE in the early/mid '70s. It was always a great place for me to pickup the most obscure, hard to get, generic, and inexpensive

items that would work with all brands of electronics. Too bad.  

quote:

I remember RS evolving from LAFAYETTE in the early/mid '70s.

They were two different companies, whose history overlapped. I purchased all sorts of stuff from Lafayette. I have a couple of old Lafayette catalogs, I like to browse through them from time to time.

Wow, Lafayette!  Forgot all about them. Bought one of my first "real" stereo systems from them. One of the early outfits that featured a cassette player.

 Radio Shack was delisted from the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) last week,their market capitalization (share price times number of shares) fell below $50,000,000, the required minimum.

  The company has just not been able to develop a successful strategy to keep going.

  I too enjoyed the Heathkits when I was in my teens, many moons ago.

Douglas

Tiss sad but I think they self destruct. They moved away from their core business of selling needed parts and tried to become a phone shop. That is not what they were.

I agree it's sad RS is closing. Stopped by a big mall last week saw the store closing sale. The manager said all their mall stores were closing, but the free standing (=cheaper rent) stores were staying in open.

I suspect that since vendors are no longer sending them merchandise, they are filling their open stores from their closed ones.

A big suggestion. - Radio Shack has many of their instruction manuals and service manuals online on their website. If you have a Radio Shack product, it's probably wise to download the manuals within the next few days.

Lad

Its funny the shopping center in town for years and years had the radio shack had Radio Shack, Blockbuster Video and Franks Nursery all in a row. I want to say they we're neighbors for 20 years, but now all 3 of those chains are dead or dying. Just no room in a changing world.

I bought a lot of electronics and soldering tools from RS.  I could always count on RS having what I needed especially when I needed only one item.  The item may have been more expensive than on online but then I could get it now instead of having to wait for the mail.  

I better get to our local store and pick up a few items before it closes.

This is a sad day.   Joe

I still have a stereo component system, the last thing I bought from Lafayette in 1975. Thing still kicks out some serious, clean, amps (has the lighted VU meters).  In Monroeville PA we were lucky to have Radio Shack, Lafayette, and Heath Kit all at the same time (nerd heaven!).  What names came before the rename to Radio Shack?  Was it Tandy's?  Remember the free battery card, once a month a free battery of your choosing. Radio Shack was the last to hang in there, sad.

Rich     

I was in my local RS just recently.  They hardly had any wire at all.  The electronics drawers were also empty.  I was able to find much more online in their ebay store.  Ultimately most of what I needed came from Allelectronics and Digi-Key.

Sad to see them go.

The "core business" alone would not keep the lights on.  Volume is not there.

% profit wise, it's the ruler of the store, though.

When I worked there part time (just over 20 years ago in college), there was pressure for the sales of lower margin items with bigger tickets.  And the cell phones too, because the key there was the contracts rather than the phone price (once the original "new tech" high prices of cell phones were gone).

I was lucky that my boss was really cool with me and respected my knowledge and how it helped his store when customers came in with problems.  As a result, he didn't get on my case too hard for not being good at convincing people they needed cell phones they didn't know they wanted.

Might have to see what's left in the parts dept and maybe pick up one last handheld scanner before it's over.

-Dave

I learned a lot from the 150 in one 1 about electronics and circuits.

My all time favorite  model train books was Easy Electronics Projects for Toy Trains by David Greenwald. It's dated now but I had a lot of fun learning about the circuits. And every plan had parts all listed by Radio Shack number. I still have a lot of the extra Radio Shack parts laying around.

Very sad events.  Still a major source of components for control panels.  What they lacked in price competiveness, they more than made up for in being close and handy for small electronic needs.  Having to order online sucks when you need it now and RS is 5 minutes away.

Art 

I had those catalogs too, when I was a kid. Ordered a stereo from one of them, can't remember what all else I got, the stereo is the only thing that sticks out in memory. It was a pretty nice one as I recall, probably wouldn't think so today? Wish I would have kept a catalog as well, it would be fun to look at again. They had some really interesting stuff in those catalogs.

I still frequent Radio Shack's for a thing or two every now and then. Got some stuff there last week. I will miss that, if they all go away become just another phone store with no interesting electronic parts. Phones don't do much for me, I still have a flip phone and seldom use it. 

I just called the Radio Shack that I deal with. They are NOT closing that store.

LEESBURG-MARKET ST

510G E MARKET ST LEESBURG, VA 20176 703-777-3622

Uhh. Shake Shack had it's IPO last week and they seem to be doing quite well. People think of them as high quality enough to pay thier prices and stand in thier breadlines.

Actually, Radio Shack undercut Lafayette's prices to the point of driving them out of business. Once that happened RS's prices took a pretty hefty jump.

I pretty much gave up on RS a while back, and have been using Digi-Key and Mouser for some time now.

I guess the folks publishing various RR "Project" books that list Radio Shack parts and parts numbers will have to do some revisions to identify new parts sources.