For RadioShack, the end is near

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/12/for-radioshack ^ | 12SEP2014 | Justin Moyer

[Jack Hydrazine]

Gentlemen and gentlewomen of a certain age harbor fond memories of trips to RadioShack. In days of yore, ham radios and homemade guitar amplifiers would emerge from the mysterious jumble of wires and audio components hawked by this unpretentious electronic retailer.

Whatever one’s view of this American institution with about 27,000 employees, it is near death. On Thursday, RadioShack warned that it may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

[familyop]

Digi-Key sells just about every kind of electronic part that anyone would need.

[imardmd1]

It's a change in society. In this affluence all classes just buy cell-phones, TVs, Nintendos. When it is passe or lacks the features of the newest version, they are just discarded. You and I are not going to "fix" a broken smartphone or GPS. RS can no longer sewll replacement parts or components for a LCD TV, or VOIP phone.

What you buy at RS is batteries, headphones, bluetooth headsets. Even stand-alone computers no longer interest the young ones. Young folks mostly no longer know how (or even want) to use a soldering iron, a hammer, a volt-ohm-meter, a logic probe. For what? Just the thrill of creating a little circuit that makes a bulb light up, a bell "ding," or a spaker warble. Not much fun whenyou can play a tricky game on your iTablet.

Nope. zzzthat day is over, and selling cellphones against Verizon and T-mobile is a loser. RS prices for most stuff is just too high compared toeBay or Amazon.

Saw this coming long ago, when the creative urge was snuffed out, and no one bougt cassette players, VCRs, or portable telephones any more.

Us old people are just antiques, no longer on board with the latest generation of electronic toys -- When Radio Shack fades, so do we. BTW, what is a radio?

[William Tell]

RhoTheta said: "Pretty much what Heathkit used to market,..."

I have fond memories of constructing about a half dozen Heathkits in 1969. I still have them and did some restoration work on them two years ago. I'm looking forward to using them to restore several antique radios I recently purchased.

I was saddened years ago when the Heathkit store in my home town closed. I had planned on constructing one of their more elaborate oscilloscopes but never got the chance.

[TChad]

The Model 100 was amazing. Long battery life, light weight, a decent keyboard, built in modem, and it was cheap. Yes, Bill Gates wrote the built-in BASIC, which was the first BASIC I learned.

[Nowhere Man]

What you buy at RS is batteries, headphones, bluetooth headsets. Even stand-alone computers no longer interest the young ones. Young folks mostly no longer know how (or even want) to use a soldering iron, a hammer, a volt-ohm-meter, a logic probe. For what? Just the thrill of creating a little circuit that makes a bulb light up, a bell "ding," or a spaker warble. Not much fun whenyou can play a tricky game on your iTablet.

Yeah, the big part is where you built it yourself. Something you made where you put in the time, effort and parts into something you made and it works. Shame it isn't as popular as it was. BTW, we graduate too many lawyers, MBA's and womyn's studies grads and not enough engineers. We will be "pwned" (owned) be countries like India, where their idea of electricity is a bare 75 watt bulb hanging from a ceiling and a transistor radio, but they graduate more engineers than we do.

[imardmd1]

They used to say, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Now, nobody wants to invent.

[skinkinthegrass]

I got my Grudig SW radio from them (still workin' :) 📻

[Norm Lenhart]

Recently needed some basic electronic components. Simple stuff that used to be there at RS in abundance.

Gone.

[Nowhere Man]

Which Grundig? I have the G6 Aviator, Buzz Aldrin edition. Nice little radio. You can tell it is a bit used, my mother used to pirate it from me up until she passed away last year.

[hoosierham]

Radio Shack couldn’t afford to stock parts for the two of us in the county that might build something.

The build it yourself article long ago disappeared from the electronics magazines and then most of them are gone too. Look at car mags.

Between cheaper to buy than make imported gadgets and government regulations do-it-yourselfism is a rare idea in America.

[Political Junkie Too]

At least I still have Edmund’s Scientific for my “gee whiz!”/ amateur mad scientist urges. :-)

I was recently into building stuff from the Ramsey Electronics catalog, but I put it aside for now.

-PJ

[Political Junkie Too]

I bought several scanners from Radio Shack. GRE made the scanners in China for Radio Shack, but the Chinese government condemned their factory to take the land last year, and put GRE out of business. I heard that Whistler bought the intellectual property rights, and may start building them again.

-PJ

[mountainbunny]

One of them went even went into victim mode and started in that *I* would make him look bad to his manager if I didn’t give him the info he demanded for the mailing list. Yeah, it was my fault that the idiot was an arrogant a-hole. Yeah, that attempt at shaming me was going to make me give him any info.

Oh my goodness! YES!

No, I don't need batteries.

No, you can't have my address.

No you don't need my email address, either.

No, the credit card company doesn't "require" it.

No, no, no! Ugh.

Good riddance.

[boop]

Hmm...I was just in a RS this week, because I needed an optical cable for my TV's soundbar.

Even Best Buy didn't carry it.

It was a nice store, I was in and out in 5 minutes.

Great staff, too.

It still occurred to me that I hadn't been in a RS for at LEAST 25 years.

Last time was when I was in college, building a crude EKG monitor.

They had everything I needed back then. Not so today.

[cva66snipe]

I used to go there a lot as a kid to pick up transistor radio kits to build. Many years later I went there to buy my scanners and a working mans Multi-Meter that I could actually see the needle and chart while using it. I like lots of insulation on my test leads LOL. No complaints about the products I purchased as such. Really circuit boards and chips hurt them. HAM Operators began going to mail order specialty companies like Grove. I still have my trust Pro-2045 desktop police scanner. The hand held scanners though were weak in the antenna jack to board area.

Something else to factor in as well. RS was in about every mall in the nation. Look at how many malls have also closed.

My last few trips to RS was for motion sensors for outside security which they wanted $80 and and didn't operate within the specified distance listed. So I took it back. Harbor Freight wanted $15 and the enclosure looked much more weather resistant. Decent alarm for the price. I got a lot further range with Harbor Freights sensors. I also went looking for a Direct TV inline amp and that too was overpriced.

I doubt one in 500 RS clerks can cite the resistor value coding :>}

[TChad]

Something you made where you put in the time, effort and parts into something you made and it works.

I built a Heathkit color television with my father when I was a kid. I learned how to solder, and how to recognize a bunch of electronics components, how to (begin to) read my father's schematics, and a lot more.

We turned it on, made a few adjustments, and the thing worked beautifully.

It kept working for many years.

[cva66snipe]

All my discount cards for stores have bogus names. I give bogus names to any store wanting my name and address. Gomez Munster 1313 Mockingbird Heights is among my most used names. Elmer Fudd works also. Phone numbers? I used to give a number that called straight into a 1000HZ test tone. The only stores that get my name and phone number are ones actually making a delivery to my home.

[Secret Agent Man]

nope.

they absolutely suck now. can’t get any parts i need, they just push phones and toys and crap’gadgets. the only store left nr me is run by two young black girls who blare hip-hop loud ll over the store.

deserves chapter 11.

[Secret Agent Man]

ebay. american science surplus.

[expat1000]

Yeah, in the old days it was sweet. Not like my first computer, a "luggable" Osborne!

But I was referring to those first ones Jobs and the rest of them built in their garages.