Replies

Never saw the appeal of Radio Shack. I always thought it was an awful store. Aisles of useless junk, staffed by teenagers who don't have a clue about anything electronic. Everything about it screams CHEAP. I always regarded Radio Shack as a mallstore. You know, there are always certain stores you only see at shopping malls. Orange Julius, Waldenbooks, The Gap, Brookstones and Radio Shack. Stores so godawful that they could never stand on their own. The only way they could survive is to be in malls where they have somewhat of a captive audience.

But Radio Shack always went one step beyond awfulness. Last time I was in there was about 10 years ago when I had to buy a phone cord or something like that. For like a $4 cash sale, it took me about five minutes to complete the purchase because the kid at the counter had to write the entire sale out on an order pad, listing item number, price, and all kinds of other irrelevant information. To top it all off, he insisted on putting my name, address and phone number on the form. Finally I just gave him a bunch of bogus information just so I could get the damn phone cord and get the hell out of there.

To top it all off, he insisted on putting my name, address and phone number on the form

It started out as a pretty good deal when they only asked for name and address. Quite a while back Radio Shack used to mail out their annual store catalog which was full of goodies even down to tubes and phono needles etc. It saved you a trip to the store to see if they even carried an item. They also mailed out seasonal smaller catalogs. Now they use it mainly for tracking purchases. It's been a long time since I've gotten even a flyer of substance from them though.

Times have changed though. We were at the mall the other day and JC Penny's was selling their store catalog for $5 I think. Heck Sears and Roebuck used to mail them out free and would give them away.

Radio Shack was a different store when I was cutting electronic teeth back in the mid to late 70s. They were more of a parts source then, and the folks behind the counter usually knew the difference between a resistor and a capacitor.

The moderate sized town where I grew up was home to three decent parts sources - Lafayette Electronics, Radio Shack, and a hometown place called Port Electronics. Rat Shack is still there (though maybe not for long), but the other two are dead and buried.

I've been fortunate to live where there are still some decent "old school" sources for parts. During my Central Florida days I almost had a designated parking space at Skycraft Parts and Surplus. In Denver, it's Fistell's and Gateway. The best part of visiting all of those places is that on any given trip it's never certain what weird and wonderful things will be waiting there to be discovered.