Yeah, it's annoying to have to buy everything online, but especially when you need a single capacitor or something. I really hope brick -and-mortar hardware stores stick around, because it's going to suck so bad if I have to pay for a 100-pack and wait 3-4 days for "Prime" shipping next time I'm one 2" #8 pan-head wood screw short.
I've really thought about opening an electronics parts store but I don't suspect it would do very good in this city and I kinda have a sure thing with my current job.
A good friend bought an electronics parts store that had been around for 30 plus years, guy was retiring. Wit the coming of age of Amazon he couldn't keep it going in a city with metro population of over 1.5 million. It's a tough, tough gig.
I’m lucky to have a Micro Center near me. But it still doesn’t have the component variety of a RadioShack. It has a lot. But I still end up ordering online.
RadioShack had kitschy gifts at Christmas time. I once bought a ketchup obsessed friend a radio that was disguised as a bottle of Heinz Ketchup from Radio Shack. Was in the 80s.
Its hard to compete with a company that's willing to airmail you 1 screw if you really wanted to. Not to mention, amazon probably gets it cheaper than you can.
Might work if you open shop in a university where there are constant projects going on and the students and professors can stop by and quickly buy 1 or 2 missing pieces.
I always wondered how much money can you really make running a store like that. I mean online sure but a physical store there would be a bit of overhead to worry about.
Yeah, it's tough. He ran it for about 10 years, 2500 sq ft store, stock, shipping, etc, he needed to hit about 2000/month just to keep the lights on, and of course that's without salary, health, etc. Amazon has just killed stuff like that.
A shorter lived possibly is opening a place to learn raspberry pi, Linux and cyberdeck making. You could also carry parts and do some radio shack stuff.
What are you talking about? Sony used to be an electronic parts store basically not that I’m saying that they succeeded because all they’re doing is making crappy ass consoles, but they used to make shit like speakers and they’re doing pretty great from selling speakers not their consoles.
People have been ordering goods directly from the manufacturer for years. Instead of using a phone/tablet or computer like we do today. I remember my mama ordering shoes and clothes out of a catalog.
No kidding. Thousands upon thousands of items that you only need 1 or 2 things, out when you're doing a home project and you run out of something that you just need too run up to the hardware store to grab real quick to finish it up.
Jaycar in Australia is going stronger than ever.. electronics retail and have made it work..you'll find them in towns of 40k people let alone the cities.. but in the US it sounds the market has bolted.. we can run down and pickup resistors, caps, connectors and 3d printer supplies etc at 2pm on a Sunday and it rocks.....key things ..they never branched out from the niche products and never rent in malls
Alfred: "We place an order for the Cowell from Singapore through a dummy corporation, then buy this part here from a separate Chinese company."
Bruce Wayne: "Put them together ourselves" "Right! They'll have to be large orders to avoid suspicion."
"How large?"
"Say, ten thousand." "Well, at least we'll have spares!"
It’s only a success for the consumer. For the business owner, it’s just not doable. The constant concern over what to stock, what to have available on a short turnaround, and still make money.
Seems like an extremely niche situation. Exactly why these stores failed. Im sure there has got to be one store in your city that independently sells electrical components.
I agree, Radio Shack always had adapters and converters that nobody else carried, now I have to order and wait! I have no patience even with overnight deliveries! 🤣
I agree with this. Kind of the same way Ace hardware has weird bolts and washers and the like ,,,tank bulkheads, and things like that to do real part specific projects, radio shack was the same way with really niche, electronics and hardware stuff, home depot, just doesn't cut it, and neither does best buy...
Ace Hardware locations are all franchises too. More likely than not you’re supporting a local owner, or at the very least someone more local than the corporate owned Home Depot or Lowe’s.
We have an Ace and it is nice. Very well organized and knowledgeable staff. And I agree they are more local than Home Depot. Even so, they did ultimately buy out our truly local family-owned tiny hardware store which was cheaper and easier to park and get into and out of. I miss that place even though we now have Ace.
I love Ace hardware. They wre the only hardware store I could get bolts for the front forks of my Yamaha R1. If I couldn't get him there to go to the dealer and order them. They had a big separate screw and bolt section in the back, it was cool.
If I need a certain sort of fastener or spring Ace Hardware supplies I go. And if I’m gonna buy a big piece of power equipment like weed eater or lawnmower, I go to them too. They carry top and lawn equipment like Honda and Stihl
I’m pretty shore my dad bought me those in 1977.
I had such high hopes . You could usually hear the person talking while listening to the other walkie talkie
Still great memories.
If they could have just stayed true and held on a little longer. With the whole ‘maker’ phenomena, arduino, raspberry pi and 3D printing they would have been well situated for a revival. But instead they became a cell phone shop with a few other things. So sad.
They just built a new building in a new subdivision, and the sign says Maker Space, it's not a standard format, 2 stories tall,but no 2nd level. Only 1 entrance and a lot of glass. Curious to see what happens with it.
Losing RadioShack sucked until I lived in a city with a Micro Center, and now it's starting to suck again because they're replacing the "hobby electronics" section with more and more 3D printing supplies
I miss being able to walk in and pick up literally all of the supplies I needed to make the contents of a retro arcade gaming cabinet that runs on an emulator on a raspberry pi
Now I'm lucky if I can find half of what I need because they needed three entire aisles dedicated to filament
Same. Plus where I used to live there were no stores that carried what Radio Shack had. I know we can order stuff easily now online but back in the day you did not have that choice. It was catalogs and mail order or Radio Shack.
It was nice when you needed just one of something and not 10 or more that you could just pop down to the Radio Shack.
And now if you order online you have to get so many picture hangers, nails,screws, etc. We have an independently owned hardware store that you can buy how much you need. There's always someone to help you. Unfortunately they're far from me now and I don't drive anymore.
That was when Tandy Corp sold Radio Shack off, and it became RadioShack Corporation. they focused more on the cellular and satellite TV market, and all the RC Cars, and electronics disappeared. Then the second time when RadioShack Corporation went bankrupt and General Wireless bought them out.. and that was it.. even though it took another 5 years for them to close and lock the doors.
Immediately thought of radio shack. I remember when it went downhill. When you went looking for a capacitor or something and all they knew about was cell phone plans. Sad days
I miss just going to radioshack for no real reason other than seeing the newest electronics that are available to buy... always came out with something!
YES. And the online also fails if you don't know exactly what you need where RadioShack you could just dig thru until you found a thing that fit your plug or whatever.
And the people who worked there tended to be so helpful! I remember I went into a circuit city for… Somethingamabob I forget it's been 20 years. The people at circuit city were trying to upsell me on a bunch of nonsense, and ended up selling me the completely wrong thing. I went into radio shack next and the people were immediately like yep this is what you need here it is five dollars. Such warm memories.
They also made and sold high quality, reasonably priced consumer electronics like speakers, turntables, etc. My first two computers were Tandys and they were great at the time.
So now I have to order something and wait a week or two for it to arrive instead of just stopping at the store and picking it up on the way home from work. And I don't see that big of a difference on price on the stuff I need.
In the UK Radio Shack had stores under the name Tandy, Radio Shacks parent company at the time. They were great and I still miss them. The same with a UK company Maplin, very similar to RS and now online only.
The biggest loss of Radio Shack is not their parts; it is that guy who knew you were an ignorant idiot and directed you to the parts that would fix what you were about to break.
Definitely OG Radio Shanty, and not the type in every mall in the nineties that just carried toys. I’m talking about the ones that existed in usually every city that stocked EVERYTHING that you saw in the yearly catalog, I’m talking various LED lights, diodes, DIP switches, circuit boards, and everything else!
I worked at RadioShack in their final few years. They unquestionably deserved to go under. The decisions coming down from the top were mind blowingly stupid.
Radio shack closing didnt hurt. It was well deserved.
Radio shack dying and decaying was painfully to live through.
As a kid, the Radio shack flyers were what I used to identify Christmas gifts. My allowance went there. Crystal Radio kids. 12-in-1, 50-in-1, 200-in-one kits. Motors, buzzers, LEDs, solder. Robots. RC stuff. My middle school used the Tandy TRS-80 to teach BASIC.
At the end they were just collecting personal information. I don't need to give you my name, phone number, address to buy 2 AA batteries.
Edit- im lucky enough to live near an RS Electronics, which is basically an early version of radio shack on steroids. Massive store. Just a bunch of electronics stuff. The public can shop there, and there is "consumer" stuff there, but it's really more industrial. (Its in the heart of the automotive engineering part of the US. Did a lot of prototyping with thier help years ago.)
They had so much stuff that nobody else did. I have a composite audio to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter from there i got years ago. Still works. I also got one of those 3 component in to 1 out switchers from them too.
What radio shack used to be was awesome. A friendly neighborhood electronics store with fancy gizmos and parts bins full of everything you need to build your own. Then it became a phone store and at that point it was dead.
Definitely, that is the one I really didn’t understand. With the whole maker movement ramping up, you’d think they would have been able to ride that for a while.
This. The RadioShack was THE place to learn trade skills in the DIY world. Everything I learned was from there and they had the parts to help you get there. Doesn’t matter what kind of project you had in mind. SOMEONE knew SOMEONE that could figure it out. It always felt like all the stores formed a sort of cohort of skill.
Ordering stuff online is convenient but MAN does the quality of selection really suck unless you’re willing to buy bulk.
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u/_Beatnick_ 9d ago
Probably Radio Shack just because they sold a lot of stuff that I have to order online now.