"Radio Shack" predicted to disappear in the next year.

10 AM?

I wonder if part of their overall problem isn't because of the fact that the don't open until 10 AM?

 

Biggest loss will be not having Radio Shack to hate....

From reading some of the foregoing posts and others over the years here on QRZ.com, the biggest loss, if Radio Shack really does tank, will be not having the company to bitch about. Radio Shack has really been out of the electronic hobby business for a long time now. I used to enjoy being able to buy parts and components in our local stores, too. I did it for a good many years, but you have to get realistic (no pun intended!). Consider the number of hams in the population local to any one store, then consider the number of those hams who actually build or repair anything. (The numbers are available.) Do that and it should not take a genius to see why RS faded out of the parts and radio business. I really wonder how many of the guys who slam RS for not having parts, etc actually ever built or repaired anything at all.

 

RADIO NOTHING

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM OPENING AT 10 AM. H.R.O. OPENS AT 10 AND I DO NOT SEE THEM HURTING. THIS IS BEEN A LONG TIME COMING. IF YOU GO INTO A STORE THESE DAYS AND ASK THEM A QUESTION, THEY HAVE NO IDEA OF WHAT THEY ARE TAKING ABOUT. THEY WILL BE JOINING THE RANKS OF THE GOOD BYE SEE YOU LATER CLUB. NO BIG DEAL! NO BIG LOSS!,


BYE RADIO SHACK - - - -SEE YA.

 

Good point. How many hams actually repair or build stuff? I find here in Guadalajara that RS is as useless as in the States. All cell phones and appliances. Steren--the national chain--still carries discrete components, as do many other local stores. But even those are hurting. Times are changing...

 

Another piece of history fading away.

I will miss Radio Shack as much as I do Heathkit. Actually, I already miss Radio Shack as it was 30 years ago. I was a regular user of their tube tester. My first license manual was "From 5 Watts to 1000", and my first HF receiver was a DX-150 (drifted terribly, but I did learn to copy code with it). I'm still using the push-up mast that I bought there 35 years ago.

About 15 years ago, while my wife and I were shopping, we agreed to meet at our local mall's Radio Shack, to look at computers. She got there first, and started looking at the operating display model, and I arrived a few minutes later. A rude young sales "assistant" stepped up and told us they didn't allow people to "play on their computers". I turned, told him I had enough cash in my pocket to by 3 of the computers, and enough plastic to buy the store's entire inventory, but that me and my money were leaving. Even then, radios and electronic parts were taking a back seat to consumer electronics. We walked down to the next store at the mall, Sears, and bought a computer sporting the latest in operating systems - Windows 95.

Oddly enough, they have announced that a new Radio Shack store will be opening soon here in a new shopping mall. I'd bet the franchise holder is getting nervous.

 

I'm really going to miss educating RS "associates" on what an SO-239
connector is, and that they actually carry them...

 

Radio Shack

Too bad stuff like this happens to once good companies. Last year I went into a RS store and asked to buy an so-239. The store manager replied with "we don't sell no cb radio stuff". I advised I wasn't looking for cb radio stuff but an antenna connector part. Complete blank look. Same store was loaded with motorized toys at Christmas.

It's true that if there was money to be made in stuff hams want then RS would have pushed hard for that business. But, they pushed hard for cell phones, toys and other stuff and still cannot make money. And their employees are still clueless, making it even harder for them to find a good job elsewhere.

Hurts everybody all around.

 

Radio parts or Gigashack??

Wouldn't this be a great opportunity for companies such as Gigaparts or HRO to make a move for a buyout... though it is more likely impossible as Radio Shack would steeply over value their true worth.

 

I can't even get an external communications speaker at my local RS store anymore.

 

I agree that for RS to survive, they need to return to an ACE Hardware mentality. Let the individual store owners do what the do best...

But to compare the ACE Hardware model to Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards, etc. is dead wrong. That was what got ACE into a heap of financial trouble. At the time of the Sutherland's, Home Base, Builder's Square and Handy Andy failures, ACE was closing in on the same fate. It took the corporate managers actually listening to the owners of the stores to stop it.

ACE reinvented themselves implementing ideas from their independent franchise holders. It was these store owners that constantly pushed the ideas of better and deeper product lines. They are the ones that had the experienced, and knowledgeable employees. They had a much better read on what they needed from a corporate supplier and partner than the corporate people ever did.

For RS the story is much the same. Look at the posts here saying that they have very good RS stores. I would almost bet money that these are locally(or semi-locally) controlled franchise stores rather than corporate owned operations. The closest RS to my home was a franchise, they held onto electronic and radio parts and pieces much longer than the mall-corporate operations did just a few miles away. Unfortunately, now even the close RS has gone the way of not much more than a cell phone stand.

 

Lucky Ones

We must be the exception to the rule.Our RS has a pretty good selection of connectors and small parts.
73,rich w5iay

 

Individual parts never did bring in the money that some people thought they did. That is the reason Radio Shack stopped stocking as much--along with the shifting of consumer electronics from repairable to throw away.

Radio Shack stopped selling radios and radio equipment because people were buying it from discount department stores. THAT was their mainstay, just as it was for the Layfayette Radio stores--and they went out of business over thirty years ago.

Radio Shack tried to find another niche, but they badly misjudged that when they went hog wild for cell phones. That and the electronic toys--not the ones they have now, but the kits and the parts that could be used to build things--to learn about electronics.

With the wide availability of electronic items, nobody wants to dabble in building or repairing anymore. They haven't for many years now, and THAT is what really killed Radio Shack.

 

Individual parts never did bring in the money that some people thought they did. That is the reason Radio Shack stopped stocking as much--along with the shifting of consumer electronics from repairable to throw away.

Radio Shack stopped selling radios and radio equipment because people were buying it from discount department stores. THAT was their mainstay, just as it was for the Layfayette Radio stores--and they went out of business over thirty years ago.

Radio Shack tried to find another niche, but they badly misjudged that when they went hog wild for cell phones. That and the electronic toys--not the ones they have now, but the kits and the parts that could be used to build things--to learn about electronics.

With the wide availability of electronic items, nobody wants to dabble in building or repairing anymore. They haven't for many years now, and THAT is what really killed Radio Shack.

 

As a recovering RS store manager, let me throw my thoughts about RS and radio hobbies out here.
They did have some decent ham radio gear, HTX-202s were built like tanks and I'd bet that most of them are still out there in working condition. RS was so worried about the possibility of lawsuits for modified radios they demanded that they be non-modifiable and most customers wanted out of band RX at the least. If they had listened to customers instead of lawyers, they might have been a major player in the HT market.
The first dual-band HT RS had was introduced and recalled within a month (I ordered one for myself and never got it) They were a rebranded ADI and there was a "secret menu" that allowed for all sorts of mods. After that recall my store went from selling one or two HT's a month to nothing. Most people just spent the extra $50 instead of buying a factory crippled radio from the Shack.
Then there was the 10m radio that was a stripped-down HR-2510 that RS priced $10 MORE than a 2510. It was a decent radio, but they should have priced it better.

For a while they made Alinco, Ameritron, MFJ, Hy-Gain and Vectronics available through RS Unlimited and a very few stores kept some Alinco radios on hand. When the ARRL convention was held in Riverside, we ordered 2 DX-70's for the show, but when we got there the "show price" that RS allowed us was still higher than anybody else and when it was over, we were stuck with the radios. We did ship one of them to another store that had a customer waiting for one and when they finally did a closeout on Alinco, I bought the other one for just over $300. As a quick note, next time you go into a RS ask the manager to see the "deval" list, I can't count how many brand-new scientific calculators and universal remotes I've bought for less than $1 each and even a pair of $400 speakers for $80, the boxes were still sealed and they came with the full 5-year warranty.

They never did themselves any favors with CB's, just about every person who came into the store looking for a CB wanted to buy a long-established model with a good reputation like a Cobra 29, RS changed about 1/2 of the line every 6 months and I don't recall any model that lasted more than 2 or 3 years. Not good for reputation.

Before I left, there was an announcement that RS would be "refocusing on our core" and the list included CB, Ham, SW and Scanners, they even announced that they were working with Motorola on a new line of ham radio equipment. As you can tell, nothing ever happened. I'd be sorry to see them go, I made a decent living from the Shack for 11 years, had a lot of fun and sold a lot of stuff. If it wasn't for the politics of the whole thing, I'd probably still be there.

 

I'm sure there are many other old guys like me that remember some of the other stores, now gone. Lafayette radio, Applebee Electronics, McGees (great for speakers), and when I grew up in Toledo there were two companies called Lifetime and Warren Radio where you could walk their isles and find about 95% of the parts needed to build anything.

And let us not forget, Heathkit.