RadioShack Gone bust?

RadioShack Files for Bankruptcy Protection - Bloomberg Business

Long time coming I think. RadioShack (or Tandy as it was branded here) pulled out of the UK a long time ago.

Shame to see it go.

Yeah RadioShack left Canada like a decade ago. From what I've read, their working conditions deteriorated pretty badly, so as much as it sucks for the DIY community, I can't say I'm sorry to see a bad business go.

I think most DIY people just order bulk components off the internet now anyways. Far cheaper, and you can find anything. Probably a contributing factor to RadioShack's demise.

Honestly, I think if global shipping becomes cheaper, more reliable, and faster (all possibilities) then eventually we may find a lot of physical stores either going out of business or moving to online only.

I personally don't even bother making the trip to futureshop or bestbuy anymore because I can just go on NewEgg, have tons more selection, get exact specs, detailed reviews, and have it express shipped to me for the same cost as getting it in store.

They were removed from the NYSE recently. They've pretty much become nothing but a gadget and cell phone store.

They were a garbage store for the last decade and I'm glad to see them go. In my mind, it's punishment for neglecting their roots and trying to instead become a "cheap gadget" retailer. Want to pay $50 for a pair of crapy headphones that sell for $3 on ebay? Go to radio shack. Want to buy a resistor? They've got two sitting in a package collecting dust at the back of the store. Hope you're looking for 10 ohm or 50k ohm. Oh and by the way, that will be $7.99. Thanks.

rhd said:

They were a garbage store for the last decade and I'm glad to see them go. In my mind, it's punishment for neglecting their roots and trying to instead become a "cheap gadget" retailer. Want to pay $50 for a pair of crapy headphones that sell for $3 on ebay? Go to radio shack. Want to buy a resistor? They've got two sitting in a package collecting dust at the back of the store. Hope you're looking for 10 ohm or 50k ohm. Oh and by the way, that will be $7.99. Thanks.

Click to expand...

LOL! That sounds like a personal experience, R. Any back story to it?

We've never had Radioshack in Croatia but I've heard of it. Plastic packaging and all for one $5 555 timer?

Meanwhile on eBay, you can almost buy components by weight instead of count.

Don't hold back will you rhd :crackup:

In the UK they catered for a niche market, until the internet came along, and their business model was no longer viable.

But even before the net they were a "last resort" kinda place, due to their prices.

That being said, I did buy my first ever solid state laser pointer from them back in '92 , £35.

I hate to sound mean but I'm also not to torn up about this. I went to radio shack last night to buy 4 banana plugs to make a lead for my LPM and they wanted 8 dollars for 2 pairs of very crappy plugs. I said no thank you and as we left the store muttered to my mate I bet this company goes under within a year. Didn't realise it was actually happening. RadioShack is a hot mess if a company. When I was a kid I remember ailes filled with electronics components and cool rc cars. Now they are nothing more than a rip off that sells phones. They only carried 2 different gauges of wire!
Adios RS.

Aw I'm Sad to see it go I like buying some components PCB boards, switches, plugs, connectors, small rolls of solder, diodes for dummy loads, other odds and ends because I can go to the store and pick it right up. I don't have to wait 4+ days for it to arrive in the mail.
I admit they don't have a great selection of components but I have a hard time navigating sites like Newark, digi-key, onlinecomponents.com etc. plus, there is often shipping involved. I goofed when I ordered 50 10 Mohm resistors. Later I found out they sourced the part from the uk and shipping was $30. No where did It say that until after I purchased with my card, it just said shipping would be adjusted by weight and charged me a flat rate fee.
Never again.
I know it takes practice using these sites. It's just a learning curve. Sometimes I like to physically see my item before I buy it too.
Just my thoughts.

I have found what I needed there in a pinch and was willing at times to pay the price to have it now rather than ordering 10 of them for the same cost and waiting a week to get it. There must be 10 of them within 30 minutes of me. Doubt they will ALL go away around here.
Will say that I've picked up quite a lot of stereo adapters at clearance prices cheaper than I've found anywhere. Just had to be at the right place at the right time.

^^

Sad to see it go also. But in fairness it was just a shell of it's earlier self. I spent many an hour searching through the racks looking for that transistor I needed. Go to the internet? What's that? It wasn't even invented when I was starting out in electronics. Think 1970's. What were your choices to buy 1 resistor or 1 transistor? Where would you go? Who sold to the hobbyist? No one, that's who. You had to buy from an industrial supplier and usually in bulk. Hey kid, you want 1000 resistors of that size?

But there was Radio Shack ........... and ........... Lafayette Radio Electronics. Now there's a name I'll bet no one born after 1960 knows. LRE became Federated Electronics and eventually faded from sight. But Radio Shack rose up and survived. The hobbyist was saved. Radio Shack was originally Allied Radio Shack. A merger of Allied Electronics and Radio Shack, eventually the Allied was dropped from the name.

It's not really the internet though that put Radio Shack down, it's the changing of the market place. Ok, you're a tinkerer. You tinker on lasers. Do you repair your own radio? TV? I guessing not. And neither do your neighbors. If your TV dies, you just go buy another. It's cheaper the replace than repair. No one thinks of having it repaired. Marketplace changed and Radio Shack couldn't keep up with it. I'll bet many have never even seen a hard copy catalog that RS used to print. I still have one. It's right next to the LRE catalog. (BestBuy is next on the death watch)

I'm betting this place would appreciate a store like the old HeathKit Co. They sold electronic items in kit form. You actually built it, resistor by resistor. I built TV's, signal generators, oscilloscopes, etc. Many are still running today. Heath had built in test circuits to aid in identifying problems and you knew how to replace that bad part, because you built it in the first place. However the items weren't cheap and the cheap overseas labor started to signal the arrival of cheap, throwaway electronics. HeathKit was toast.

So RIP Radio Shack, LRE, Heath et al.

It is sad to see this and to see what they
have become. My first computer was a
Tandy. I bought my first subwoofers there,
first amplifier, first soldering iron,
solder, transistors, capacitors, all that
stuff. Now there will be thousands of
unemployed electronics salesmen hitting the
job market.

I think you're right.

Almost no one fixes stuff anymore, its an essentially throw-away society now a days.

I used to like browsing there though back in the day. You could "wishbook engineer" projects based upon the available parts for example.

Your car had an AM radio, but, there were FM stations popping up...install an FM converter, and you were able to listen to FM while driving.

Want some resistors to amp up the power on something...and a soldering kit, some boards, etc...right there on the shelves.


As time went on though, the demand waned for this type of stuff. The clerks went from people that might have built a kit at least, to those who had to open a catalog to see if an AAA battery was larger or smaller than a AA battery.

The stuff on the shelves went from parts you might install on a practical device, to those you might use for a HS science project, to those that were of perhaps "Party Favor" quality.

The one's around here at least, become progressively dirtier and dingier, with mold growing on the water damaged ceiling tiles and a pervasive smell of decay and neglect.

One by one they died of neglect. They were all in a financial death spiral, and, customers could sense it, the way a "cancer dog" can tell the patient doesn't have much time.

With the net a click away, even the cancer dogs walked out, it was all over.

Luckily there is an "electronics" store near me that sells quite a few components. Nothing like mouser but a lot better than RS. They also do so repairs which might explain why it has survived since it is a local one store only type place. I've been able to find a lot of stuff there. If I couldn't find it there, I ordered it online.

One of the websites I read about the recent RS news said ~50% of the stores will close and the rest will become Sprint stores.

The problem is stores like this can never compete with the price of ordering stuff off the internet. I went into a local store near me a few months ago to buy a B22 to E27 converter, made almost entirely out of plastic, no less and they wanted £8.99 for it. For those of you who use monopoly money that's around $15. That's outrageous! I could buy 10 online for that.

I also never knew the Tandy brand was related to RadioShack. I remember it from the Duke Nukem 3D setup screen (and many other DOS games) where you could specify Tandy Sound Source as your sound card.

NO This is the only electronics store around. The 3x the price of what it should cost looks like it cost them.

I did however buy stuff there

To be fair, most products aren't repairable anymore. Open up a TV now, all you have is an un-servicable LCD panel, and a motherboard with a bunch of tiny ICs. Not much you can repair.