Big Boxes moved in and they couldn't focus and adjust. So they panicked, went away from what made them great and started peddling Dish Network contracts instead, then cell phone contracts with their wall of crappy accessories. Big Boxes went online and Radio Shack again couldn't focus and adjust as they didn't have anything tangible to sell online. The final nail in the coffin was Amazon which is now doing to Big Boxes what Big Boxes did to mom and pop stores.

It's sad too because when I was younger loved to go to Radio Shack and look at all the gadgets. Hell our first computer was a Tandy 1000 now cmon!! Anyone else play Dr J vs Larry Bird???

I loved playing Dr J vs Larry Bird on my Apple IIe

Sad to see the end of an era.

Boom goes the dynamite!

IMG_0963 (resized).PNG

I last went to the one in my town about a year ago to get some transistors/fuses and was overwhelmed by cigarette smoke, the employees were clearly smoking in the store. Then I was mugged by the Sprint salesman trying to get me to switch my phone plan. I have a soft spot for the old RS but good riddance.

And yet places like Fry's and Microcenter have no problems keeping open.

Having left the Wireless phone business a few years ago I can say its a pretty toxic business and there is NO money in it if you aren't the carrier.

There are actually a few local electronics stores here thankfully. I haven't gone yet but I'm set to go this week for some really obscure chip, apparently these places are lined with boxes of old chips and electronics.

I heard Radio Shack used to have MUCH more of a selection. Now you can't get jack shit there for specific applications besides some fuses and a generic LED - the rest is just expensive Walmart-esque material rather than the smaller more specific kind of stuff, you can find AA batteries and an expensive keyboard but not often can you find things you need to solder onto a board. Happy to be able to even find a generic transistor there anymore. I rarely have any need to go there "now", they never have anything I need. I did manage to get fuse holders there recently and some fuses, but that is pretty generic. They've only had two rows of drawers of the circuit stuff for quite some time now.

I had dr. J and Larry Bird on my Commadore 64. will have to find another place to get fuses from i guess.

The internet is killing all brick and mortar. Endless selection and 2 day delivery. I drove to 4 different hardware stores looking for a particular can of spray paint and came up dry. Went home and ordered online.

This. Exactly.

I think there will be a time when future generations are confused about how we used to travel around for our shopping. Shop store to store, bring it home with us.

I've had these same experiences - even Home Depot, which used to have pretty much anything I needed in terms of hardware, is starting to branch out into weird stuff, filling the gap that Sears has created of late.

This concerns me though; as we move toward less locality-based work, everyone will end up working for Amazon or UPS. That government stipend will start to look mighty attractive.

Retail going out of business:
Yesterday I was trying to buy some soldering flux for electrical work at a local store here in Miami. I went by the ACE hardware store on my way home from work. After an extensive search in the soldering and electrical department I came up empty handed. The associate wasn't much help either. OK HomeDepot MUST carry some basic item like that. After fighting rush hour traffic for 1/2 an hour I arrived at the local HD store. Nothing in the electrical department. Somewhere around aisles 7 to 9 I was told by a not so friendly sales associate. The shelf with the flux was empty. The sign was still there but no product. So after a while I found another sales associate willing to help. Yes, according to the inventory database it should still be somewhere in the store. But ultimately he wasn't able to find any flux for electrical work, only for plumbing.
So after a stressful 90 minutes I got home and spend 2 minutes ordering some of the correct flux on E-bay. That's what I should have done in the first place. Retail stores are a waste of my time. Traffic, lack of product, local taxes and unfriendly sales associates are all things I can do without.

On the other hand, the new head of the FCC says net neutrality's "days are numbered" so get ready for a cable style menu for your internet. So maybe whatever site you are looking for will be in the "top tier" or "ultimate" internet plan which you don't have so you're back to driving around town...which will suck.

2 bankruptcies is not that bad.

I know of a very famous TV actor who is up to 6 bankruptcies and had his yacht repossessed; has not slowed him down one bit.

You guys are my kind of people. This was my favorite game on my Commodore 64. Their was a war game that I played that yelled out medic!!! That was great too.

Say goodbye to the head of the FCC if he tries to implement that. Won't happen.

Best part of Larry Bird vs Dr.J was when you shattered the backboard and a guy with a broom swept it away.

I hope you're right but I imagine all the big carriers will support it...not many people pay attention to this either. Plus, I think it's already happening!! It'll likely end up in the courts...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/technology/trumps-fcc-quickly-targets-net-neutrality-rules.html?_r=0

In total, as the chairman of the F.C.C., Mr. Pai released about a dozen actions in the last week, many buried in the agency’s website and not publicly announced, stunning consumer advocacy groups and telecom analysts.

The biggest target will be net neutrality, a rule created in 2015 that prevents internet service providers from blocking or discriminating against internet traffic.

On Friday, the F.C.C. took its first steps to pull back those rules, analysts said. Mr. Pai closed an investigation into zero-rating practices of the wireless providers T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon. Zero-rating is the offering of free streaming and other downloads that do not count against limits on the amount of data a consumer can download.

Yes I did and I watched that EA logo whiched seemed to take as long as the game but we didn't know any better and was great fun.

That fuckin great back in the day.

I'm curious what your position is on this one? The big carriers are the ones who got him that job in the first place. His term as panel member actually ended, but he was foisted up as the new acting FCC chair, after Tom Wheeler stepped down. So from where I'm standing it's likely it will be upheld. Huge, huge, extremely important issue for the open market, and is just not well-understood, so it's flying under the radar.

So for those of us who believe a true open market exists in the real world, as brick and mortar stores close down and everyone moves to the internet... if you need to pay just to get in the game, the big companies win. There will be no more small business in the states

It's really muddy when they allow different types of industries to own one another or have partnerships...ie cable giants and phone carriers, content providers with service providers...net neutrality goes down this will be a MESS.

Again, this is happening now. The FCC is dropping regs like hot potatoes and these companies are going to "maximize" their profit which means screwing internet users and fleecing the most $$$ out them. They don't want free content.

We have a MicroCenter near me. Nice store. I shopped at a Fry's last weekend while in Indiana and I'm sure I spent at least an hour just looking at all the stuff in the parts section and selecting some for purchase. Wish there was a Fry's here where I live....

So I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned in this thread their plans to hit up the locally closing RS stores to buy the parts bins!

Agreed that retail stores are becoming a total waste of our time. Traffic, bad customer service, parking, lack of product, rude people. Its much more efficient to order everything online nowadays. Even groceries. I think the older generation (like my in-laws) love the thrill of the hunt. Driving around all day to different stores looking for anything new to buy. Myself personally, I rather use that time to spend with my family, play pinball and have shit delivered to us. Better use of everyone's time IMHO.

Well hopefully Adam West will be better off now with Stern gig.

My position is that internet providers will not charge different tiers to access different websites as stated.

I had larry and dr j on my c64 as well. that game was awesome!

There are some old complete (annual) Radio Shack catalogs hosted and available to view on the internet. Check out what they used to have.

Some years back when the company I was working for went out of business I picked up an extra job at a Radio Shack while I looked for another one. It actually turned out to be a decent one for the time I had to put in there. Depending on the type of contract, plan and number of phones the customer activated it was pretty common for me to get $75-200 from each of those activations. Needless to say even though I tried to be helpful to everyone that came in I definitely paid more attention to you if there was even a slight interest in a phone activation.

They closed 2 stores by me. Actually closed within 2 weeks(today being last day). Was nice to pickup some more fuses, etc.. since most people did not know about the store closing. Think I got all of it for like 70-90% off.. I was just running out from the last time they closed stores!!!

Cool. I still have my Mach Two set from 30 years ago...

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1987/h022.html

I saved forever and still had to wait for a sale. The Radio Shack catalog was the most read book of my childhood.

Technology kills another..............lets go back to 1981..........

I've been saying for years that radio shack should have gotten into makerspaces. Instead, they just kept trying to sell cell phones, which turned out so well for them.

Radio Shack didn't do anything to deserve this. It's just life.

I hope some of them cling to business as they can be an extremely conveinient spot for me to pick up fuses, tools, solder, switches, and buttons. But that's simply the way things are blowing. We love to dump on them for trying to pay the bills with cell phones the last 15 years, but I don't think any of can honestly say we'd have kept them in business if they were stocking the same stuff they did in 1980. It's like when people lament the closing of their childhood arcade, and you ask them when they last time they actually went there was.

I know the maybe 75 bucks I spend annually at Radio Shack isn't doing much to keep them going.

Thought Radio Shack had already been shut down. Where are people buying their radios these days

I went to two stores asking about their parts bins. The 16 year old said they weren't for sale, but I had him call the manager. He wouldn't give a price either.. So i'll have to go back weekly until I can grab my set.

that's an excellent point. What do they do will all this stuff if they liquidate it? where does it end up?

I'm pretty sure that they would have gotten to the bankruptcy point (if not simply closing tons of locations which they likely should have done long ago) many years sooner if it weren't for cell phones. Activating phones is very profitible however if you have to use that profit to keep what was at one point over 3000 locations running which were already in trouble before the phone push due to a combination of bad decisions, some questionable business practices and simply a changing marketplace you're not gonna make any headway.

It's true that changes in what people purchase, how they purchase and a host of other factors that make up "life" are big contributors. However between my time there, long-time employees I know and a couple of district managers I kept in touch with I feel pretty safe in saying a good chunk of it they did to themselves with bad decisions and some pretty questionable practices.

Radio shack has helped me out with quite a few fuses and transistors when needed. Also who didn't get the lcd handheld toys back in 1988.

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Just picked up some parts at fire sale prices this weekend. I plan on going back and raiding the parts bins, which are currently at 50% off.
I remember wanting a TRS-80 Model 100 SOOO bad when I was a kid. Now, explaining to my kids why I was enthusiastic about a 300 baud acoustic coupler modem is like speaking a foreign language to them.....

Or getting their one free battery per month
The Battery of the month Club. Always got the 9 volt.

I remember the battery club. I used to get the 9volt too LoL. I totally forgot about it.

There's a HUGE maker movement that's been ramping up for the past 8 years at least. Had Radio shack attempted to work with the community, maybe have monthly classes teaching things like 3d printing, arduino, circuit builds, they might have survived. Hobby shops today usually don't' survive alone, unless they have some sort of consistent income.

Race tracks help, if people come there and race, that's income.. if they break parts, they aren't going to go online if they can buy the part right there and now. If they have a vinyl printer for airplanes, they can print other jobs that aren't hobby relatd.

Still the coolest commercial ever, yet I long for those old days of boring walls

Maybe "we" should crowd fund a buyout... and convert back to oldsckool Radioshack with HeathKits, arcades, and pinball machines for sale!
Yeah - I know... not practical; but would still rock in my opinion.

I will miss them when they go, but more so from my rose tinted nostalgia glasses. Current RS are nothing like what made them great. I agree with a previous comment about them getting into 3D printing and branch out from there. Would love to see a makerbot and it's different iterations before buying one.

On the other hand, I'm part of the problem when it comes to big box stores. I only see them these days as a place to "see it in person"), and then purchase online for cheaper. Even the few times I was going to impulse buy a Bluray, the poor customer service deterred me into purchasing it through my prime membership on Amazon app using my phone.

I also forgot about the free battery of the month club until mentioned above! The TRS80 was my first computer as a kid.

I think I'm in a minority, I like getting in the car and going to a specialized store. Radio Shack used to be such a cool place to go as a kid. Buy parts to make radios, the kits with all the wires, and springy things to at hook the wires to, etc...Which I still have a bunch of those kits boxed away.

I know it's a thing of the past, but I hate going into a walmart or a Home depot, walk around all over the place not to be able to find what you want anyhow, I'd rather going to a smaller specialty type store. But radio shack really had nothing in parts compared to the past. The one here has 3 people in there working most of the time and no one buying in the store, I can't believe they hung on this long!

I caught the tail end of everyone using "radios". I think that may have been what they originally started in. Not really sure. Every construction company, retail store, or whatever used radios. Even the home radios that I use to see as a kid I think are dead. The ham and CB type stuff everyone had. Now, everyone has the net and cell phones.

I wonder when Sears will be joining them...

Ya!! How are kids supposed to sit at the grown ups table with out the phone book sized catalogs?! If that wasn't enough? Add the montgomery wards to it!! And grandpas or dads belt tied around the kid and chair to keep them from sliding off!