I noticed the local RS store closing at the end of the month. 50-60% off. Picked up a new soldering iron for $5. Not much left but lots of Anduira (?) Project kits. Rolls of wire too. And batteries.
Yea, I need to swing by my local ones and see whats going on there. Their Arduino stuff was always way overpriced, but maybe they’re having a fire sale now… Cheap wire is always good, too.
“The Source” formerly “Radio Shack” sure has changed its product line, gone is the assortment of electronics parts which was always a saviour in a pinch — normally on the weekend when the wholesale retail places were/are closed.
And there went my source for project boards. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-frown.gif)As is quite common today, Google came to the rescue; I found a Canadian supplier of those very same boards down to the product number. Ordered enough to last — usual application: base for the ZIMO MX82V turnout decoder in single or dual config.
Radio shack used to be a cool store but now it is all about cell phones. The local one to me used to have an aisle of electronic bits now it is a kiosk. I went in there the other day hoping to buy a pigtail connector for a micro mini toggle switch. I wasn’t looking forward to soldering those tiny connectors. The woman and the guy there, both kids, had no idea what I was looking for.
RS only seem to employ kids around here that have no idea about anything beyond their cell phones and ringing up the register.
Radio Shack has always been notorious for paying employees the lowest salaries in the known universe, and that extends to managers and district managers. The employees used to be guys who were knowledgeable about electronics and components, but that ended in the 70s when the company could no longer “discriminate” against people for not having that knowledge. We have lost our minds when we make it illegal to ask for qualifications while hiring! Have Mercy!!!
Sorry to see it go, but like what has been said, they tried to be something other than parts, and the loyal customers like us that always went for parts found on-line sources.
Talked to my Radio Shack store owner saturday, He said he has no plans on closing, and speculated that a certain company was exploring the idea of purchasing Radio Shack…
Time will tell…
I remember going there with my dad and a bag full of tubes to use their tube checker. It felt high-tech back then.
Steve
I got into the local one I used to go to. Used to take Dad to buy his “minutes” for his cell phone. Now I am stuck with his old phone and $90 worth of useless minutes until they expire. A week later they were gone, then I noticed the one in my town is dark. My best bargain was rechargeable 9 volt batteries, and a Leonard Hofstadter 8GB flash drive!
They have not had useful components for over a year. Another one bites the dust.
{sigh}
Yea, many years ago the back of the local one went from electronic parts galore, to just a few drawers of picked over parts. I seldom find what I want there in a pinch. My on-line source, Hossfeldt, has also gone dark. The electronics hobby has kinda become more of a niche hobby then it used to be. I used to buy bags of parts at the Shack, but they don’t cater to us anymore. They are into to toys that I am not into. The times they are a changin.
I worked for various divisions of Tandy for well over 10 years. As a Radio Shack store manager I made really good money, but my pay was P&L based. If I didn’t make a good profit and have big inventory gains it would have been barely minimum wage. When I got tired of retail hours I went to the tech side. First doing field support support of multi-user POS systems and ended as a PC bench tech before I finally moved on.
A bunch of years back Tandy sold off all of it’s manufacturing in a move to gain favor by market analysts. The analysts just couldn’t comprehend Tandy’s vertical integration. At one time there was a division of Tandy that produced everything the company needed to build, run and stock a retail store. They gave all that up and began their slow downward spiral. When they had to buy products and services form a third party it ate up what used to be huge profit margins. It was just a matter of time.
BTW - I still have, in pristine condition, the entire series of Radio Shack Computer catalogs from the first Model One catalog to the final Computer Center catalog just before they bailed on that business. I wonder if that will ever be worth anything.
About as much as my old “Woodworkers Warehouse” catalogs!
John, who knows. there are folks on Flea Bay that will pay good money for almost anything.
I have a feeling that Sears may be next.
Steve
On the West coast people have Fry’s for getting their parts over the counter.
In the Boston area there is one large store still around called (YDI) You Do It Electronics and they have lots of electronics/parts on hand.
However, it is hard to beat the Internet prices but you have to be willing to wait for a shipment and sometimes from China.
Anybody remember those red and clear perforated project boxes? You’d buy a kit and put it together by putting the component leads through the holes. Then the clear part of the box finished the case.
1700 is a LOT of stores to close; but it looks like the one by me will remain open.
Here’s a list of closings. I used to visit a lot more, but rarely go in at all anymore.
Add in that nobody “repairs” electronic today, when they break you toss’em and buy another. Shameful wasteful use of resources but thats the business model these days. Everything’s crap.
According to that list the one nearest me is safe… for the moment
I’ve been hitting one of the few remaining open stores in my area. It has been deemed the “RS Closeout Store.” They ship all remaining inventory from other local closed stores and the local RS warehouse to this store for liquidation. 50 to 70% off. I’ve got limited “tech” skills, but still managed to pick up a few good hobby related things- LEDS, resistors, simple electronic kits, etc… All for cheap- My kinda price.
-Kevin.
All Electronics and Ebay have been my source for parts since RS decided to be a mini Best Buy outlet with stereos and cell phones.
RS still has an Ebay store, but I noticed the parts are diminishing.