Posted on 02/02/2015 5:14:28 PM PST by Red in Blue PA
I’d echo a lot of the comments. Annoying to always be asked for my phone number. Clerks don’t know squat about anything in the store, but especially any of the electronics. Poor stocking policies.
I was in there last week for a PC board and ended up buying an etching kit (my first attempt at a home etched board). Clerks didn’t have a clue if I had everything I need (I did). They didn’t even know what it was I was buying.
They also have short hours (open late, close early) in my neighborhood. I tend to shop early in the morning if I’m buying ahead of time, and generally need something later than 6pm if I’m working on something and need something now.
I was, however, pleasantly surprised to find they were carrying Arduinos and some pretty neat accessories. I’ve been wanting to get into those and it’d be nice to have a nearby source (assuming they actually stay open). But I’ll do all my research beforehand since I’d get a better answer asking the wall than asking one of their store clerks about them.
Good, they can go to hell.
Every time that I bought something from them they demanded my address and phone number...even a $2.00 purchase. Left a REALLY BAD taste in my mouth. I also wasn’t too hot on the prying eyes of their salesmen. I can go to Fry’s (and Amazon) and look at the same stuff and be left alone.
It’s their business and if they want to make people like me HATE THEM, they are perfectly welcome to do just that...and needless to say, I don’t have to shop there.
You can check out the whole well told story HERE.
Thats not a wife... that’s their moms!
They built their business on men who would build things. Hobbyists, tradesmen, engineers. Those men are all gone now.
Amazon and Internet pretty much killed them.
You dinosaur... :)
“It was once the go-to store for electronic parts and such.”
Bought my first Heathkit radio, and my first computer (Tandy Model III) at Radio Shack.
Now, they don’t even carry that kind of stuff.
They could have made a go selling Amateur Radio gear, and highest-end computers, but they tried to become “Spencer’s Gifts” instead.
no camera stores either. used to go to the leather craft store on 11th or 12th street in philly a long time ago as well. by habit went rs for every electronic thing i needed. antennas resistors capacitors and other stuff. i just don’t buy them any more. last time i was there i was looking for replacement earphone type buds as i don’t like the buds. i’m going to ask congress to enact the disappearing craft store law next week/s
I will be sad to see RS go. There is one two miles from house and the closet BB is ten miles north or ten miles south. Fryes is 20 miles away I am in an electronics desert.
True RS does not have everything, but in emergencies one can usually a phone charger, a splitter, various kinds of components. Probably not any better than Walmart, 15 miles away, but smaller, quieter, easier to get to the parts without kids howling.
Amazon is great if one has a day or two, but with RS one could basically pull off the highway in any small town and grab something.
Allied Electronics is still in business, but with different owners, and still based in Fort Worth. In the mid to late eighties, they were just about 4 blocks from my work and they had a walk up counter. Now they’re off east Loop 820 near the Trinity River.
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Ditto!
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Of all the neat stuff I’ve bought in my lifetime, I can’t remember anything that was more exciting than a TRS-80 Computer I bought when they first came on the scene. The idea of having your own real computer at home was mindboggling.
A terrible company policy, that changed me from a frequent customer to a permanent ex-customer.
How could a company devoted to personal electronics fail to thrive in an era in which the market for personal electronics went through the roof?
I wonder if the lessons of Radio Shack are taught in business schools: "How Not to Run a Business 101."
Performed a totally unrequested “stress test” on my hard disk for no reason, lost all my photos, no apology, spun various dubious stories about where my computer was that whole time —took MONTHS for them to even tell me about it, despite repeated calls and email.
WORST COMPUTER EXPERIENCE IN MY WHOLE LIFE.
Terrible, terrible company.
I cannot say enough bad things about Worst Buy.
And can I get your zip code?
I have always given a false phone number,or zip,when asked.
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How does this relate to Radio Shack?
I loved Radio Shack in the ‘60s and ‘70s. By the ‘80s, the unique product line had already begun to fade and their annoying marketing data interrogatory at every purchase had become policy. I’ll miss what they once were, but the current company has long been a hollow shell.
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