Posted on 02/04/2014 2:41:04 PM PST by SeekAndFind
I'd be satisfied with just one as long as the inventory was kept up.
Not as much as, say, "Walgreens" or "Starbucks", but they're certainly close.
My experience with Radio Shack is that everything is way overpriced but it is a good place to find hard to get batteries.
I miss the old Olson Electronics store. They handled a lot of neat stuff, like kits, etc..
Back in the day Radio Shack was a Mecca for young budding inventors and electrical engineers.
I’m not sure why they still exist.
It was funny but I don’t think it helped the brand. Really it just showed that RS used to be a great store to go to with all your electronics needs, and now they aren’t.
They have some things that I can’t find anywhere else, but I don’t like the attitude of the people they have working there, so I shop online where possible.
I won’t miss them.
RS used to carry all kinds of electronic parts..All of that went bye bye 10+ years ago.
I learned on my own how to replace transistors, capacitors etc., do basic troubleshooting and have save thousands in repairs over the years.
I get my electrical components on-line now.
And I don’t have to deal with 27 year olds who don’t know zip about anything..
RS has phones and Chinese trinket gadgets.......When the entire country is awash in cell phones and cheap gadgets..Did RS executives go to business school to learn how to destroy a business?
I remember the CB craze in the late 70’s and RS was the place to go for all sorts of equipment related to it.
“I miss the old Olson Electronics store. They handled a lot of neat stuff, like kits, etc.”
That was a long time ago. 45+ years ago, one of my first “hacks” was an AM radio transmitter “sort of kit” I got from them; I also got a part to boost my walkie-talkie power. You never knew what you would find in their “prices as marked” boxes. In Chicago, they were right across from Allied Electronics, which was also a very cool place with a retail desk and shop.
I went in a couple of years ago and asked for a capacitor the saleschild looked at me like I was speaking Martian
Their parts are for the most part outrageously overpriced, and the quality is basically Chinese floor sweepings. I once was buying a switch and noticed that it had fallen apart in the package! I’m sure that the clerk put it back...
Now ya send in your electronics and fat screen TV’s for a $700 repair as they use a .25 cent parts to make the repair.
Or the sheep just replace it and buy a new one or spend hundreds on extended warranty rip offs.
the population of the country barely has any capability to understand the purpose of circuit boards, diodes or capacitors let alone how to design a circuit to utilize them.
we’ve dumbed down the population to sub third world status
“Now ya send in your electronics and fat screen TV’s for a $700 repair as they use a .25 cent parts to make the repair.”
I’m sorry, I just have to say something here...actually, some of the parts on a modern surface mount circuit board cost considerably LESS than $0.01...BUT...it might take several thousands of dollars of equipment to find it and some boards simply can’t be diagnosed without a five-figure test fixture. Contrast this with fixing a transistor radio with some electronics knowledge and a $5.00 VOM from Radio Shack. Worse, instead of a $7.00 soldering iron and $3.00 of solder, it might take a hot-air gun, a “reballing” station for the ball-grid-array chips, and a circuit board oven to de/resolder the part, and the solder is now fairy exotic and perishable!
I was in Radio Shack last month. Needed some kind of overpriced stereo whatsit connector piece.
Half of the store was cellphones and possibly cellphone services.
There was also a display of vibrators (uh, personal massagers) in the middle of the room as well.
I guess they know how to get their battery sales up.
“the population of the country barely has any capability to understand the purpose of circuit boards, diodes or capacitors let alone how to design a circuit to utilize them.”
Not all of them...but I feel that the percentage of capable young people is much smaller in propotion to “the rest” than it was even 20 years ago.
I buy most of my geek parts from China these days, and they are making original, creative sruff, stuff that clearly was never “invented here first”, and yes, it hurts for me to write this.
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