I bought a null-modem converter from them last year. Thats all.
They probably should have become a hobby store covering planes, trains and automobiles. A good store to buy hobby train supplies would be neat.
Used to love playing around with their circuit boards, electronic components and IC’s - built my own descrambler for the old sunken sync TV systems - worked great on the oscilloscope, could never get it to actually descramble a TV picture though - about the only reason I ever go near them any more is to find some obscure battery like the one for the remote control car key.......
Well, it’s not a surprise. In fact, it is slightly surprising they have lasted as long as they have. Still, it’s sort of a wistful moment. I love all those neat little gizmos and gadgets they sold. I was never skilled enough to build my own ham radio, but I do remember those fun little electronics learning kits and all the (then) hi-tech computer stuff.
At least I still have Edmund’s Scientific for my “gee whiz!”/ amateur mad scientist urges. :-)
When I started to get back into electronics, after many years, I decided I needed a decent temp-controlled soldering station. Now all the guys in the robotics club I’d joined said RS was junk, but I had fond memories, so I bought their top-of-the-line iron.
And it was junk.
Now nobody expects their $15 irons to be anything but crudely servicable, but when you’re paying 10 times that, you expct more. With this, I go nothing of the sort.
I wrote a letter to their management, pointing out that a revolution in electronics hobbying was going on, and they were missing it, because of crap like this. I never got a reply.
(And I bought a Weller, for less including shipping, online, and it has served me well.)
Chapter 11 isn’t death. If the company were purchased by a PE firm like Bain (who turned Staples into what it is) it could be great. But it needs a completely new management team because the clowns running the show don’t have a clue.
I worked at Radio Shack in grad school. My First Class Radiotelephone license and Extra Class Ham license drew a regular repeat customer base of over 400 customers. The resources were in stock. The stock in the store is no longer suitable for my customer base. Mouser, DigiKey, Sparkfun, Adafruit and others cater to that group. The online suppliers rival the old Allied Radio catalog that rested on my desk starting in the late 60’s.
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?
Recently needed some basic electronic components. Simple stuff that used to be there at RS in abundance.
Gone.
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 :>}
The last time I was in a Radio Shack, looking for a guitar cable, the manager strongly suggested I go instead to a Guitar Center a few miles away for much less expensive options. I had already decided I was leaving empty-handed, so I took his advice.
I stopped going to the local Radio Shack because the staff was a bunch of young arrogant people who didn’t know anything about dealing with customers who weren’t young and arrogant.
All the “yuts” in Ferguson, Missouri are deeply saddened as they will not have any locations at which they can steal electronics. Can’t steal from the internet. :(
The fact they ask for an address/zip code each time you might spend money in their store was a really big turn off for me. So if I denied giving him that information, would they still have accepted my money? Tandy Corp is fallen off it’s pedestal. Years ago Zales and Levines, and Radio Shack were filled with customers. Could 60+ years have made that difference? As the path taken by 7-11 (7 days a week we open up at seven; and seven days a week we’re there till 11), they fade away and cease to exist.
I miss the Radio Shack of the budding inventor and scientifically curious.
Some idiot suit tried to make them mini me best buy.
Jeff Bezos killed Radio Shack. It’s just the way it is...get innovative or die.
And some of the first computers too.