Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Eulogy for RadioShack

sbnation.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 171 posts

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#81

Post by busterarm »

morganvachon wrote: post #25

I'd be willing to bet that this is exactly the way it was at most, if not all, corporate RadioShack stores. On the other hand, the franchise stores (which mostly no longer exist) could be great places to shop and to work, because they were owned by actual breathing human beings, not faceless corporate overlords. My first "real" job after high school was at the local RadioShack, which was owned by one of the most amaz…

RadioShack corporate did all of the damage there. The unfathomable boneheadedness of this company goes back so far -- at least to the mid-90s.

The franchise stores were doing so well that corporate got the 'brilliant' idea that they would open up corporate stores within spitting distance of every successful franchise. They figured they could steal the customers away and make more money -- and thanks to friendly financing terms for much better locations, they did. The only franchise stores that survived are basically the ones that have always been run by fantastic people and could outmaneuver the company that should have been their partner all along.

Ever since then, my beloved RatShack has been peddling useless crap. Still, there's nowhere else I can go when I need circuit parts in a hurry.

RadioShack is an absolutely parasitic entity and deserved to be dead and gone decades ago.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#82

Post by derekp7 »

vegashacker wrote: post #64
brianberns wrote: post #60

I learned to program in the early 1980s by playing with a TRS-80 floor model for an hour or two at a time while my mom shopped elsewhere in the mall. My first program animated a sine wave in BASIC by printing a single character one line at a time, and letting the lines scroll up the screen. I would've loved to own one of those computers, but my dad refused to buy one because he said it would be too tempting for me. H…

If my memory serves, two decades ago they were doing the zip code thing.

When did they just drop to the zip code? My memories were that they wanted full name and address for each purchase.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#83

Post by derekp7 »

Part of the fall of Radio Shack is that the market for discrete components isn't what it used to be. This is because not as many people take up electronics as a hobby. And that, in turn, is because a lot of people that would go into electronics, got sucked into computer programming instead. After all, the decline of Radio Shack coincides with the rise of affordable personal computers.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#84

Post by mb_72 »

breadbox wrote: post #7

It's awful to read that and compare it with what Radio Shack was for us geeklings in the 1980s. For those of us living far from big cities, Radio Shack was the source of electric parts, IC chips, LEDs, not to mention hands-on access to actual computers.

I lived in a country town in South Australia in the early 80s, and without the local Tandy (Oz brand of RS) I wouldn't have got into electronics or software, both of which now are my main source of income and also a source of a hell of a lot of fun. Fortunately these days the opportunity for kids to discover new stuff is provided by Internet access, but it's still a sad coda to the joy RS provided in my youth.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#87

Post by madengr »

softbuilder wrote: post #68

Radio Shack was always two stores in my memory. There was the legit geeky side with electronic parts, and there's the Realistic/Tandy side hawking so-so also-ran consumer electronics. The perspective always seemed to be that parts were sort of a loss-leader for consumables. The employees almost never knew anything technical, and were often suspicious of nerdy kids like me lingering in the parts section. I remember on…

Ha ha, 0.2 pF are strictly RF SMT caps. Probably was 22 pF.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#88

Post by vitd »

pud wrote: post #49

I worked at Radio Shack. I was in high school and lived with my folks. I had almost no expenses. It didn't occur to me until much later what a bummer it all was. - You get paid commission, something like 1% per sale. Commission was pointless because almost everyone already knew what they needed (AA batteries or a headphone adapter...). - If your commission didn't add up to minimum wage, you got minimum wage. Since it…

This is funny to me because, as a young customer, I distinctly remember thinking, "God, I hate coming to this *$#%@ store. The sales people seem like they're not plugged in. I'm trying to buy an and they keep trying to get me to buy an which has nothing to do with what I'm looking for. What are they smoking? They're not even listening to me!"

I had no notion of selling on commission, but I did understand selling someone a bill of goods rather than what they wanted or needed. And that's about when I stopped shopping there.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#89

Post by ourmandave »

api wrote: post #27

Radio Shack was my toy store as a kid, as far back as I can remember. My favorite toys were volt meters, little electric motors, power adapters, LEDs, bread boards, and those little electronics kits with the spring terminals. Radio Shack deserves some of the blame for making me who I am today. :)

Preach!

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#90

Post by praneshp »

ams6110 wrote: post #72
ChuckMcM wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an idea I've toyed with for a while, I called it 'prototype electronics' where the 'store' part had inventory that was known to work together so that projects could be designed, built, and sourced out of the store parts. (this was true early in the RS era as well of course) There are some annoying liability (ie expensive) issues with letting minors operate soldering irons on the premises or while using solder…

It's a shame really. I learned to use a soldering iron when I was about 10 years old. My dad used to buy home electronics from Heathkit and we would put them together. I took an electronics course in middle school and we would use soldering irons there also. Also a shop class where we used drill presses, sabre saws, all kinds of oil-based paints and stains, etc. (the table saw was one of the few tools that were "off…

+1. I learnt to solder when I was 14 or so, and did hurt myself a couple of times too. But I lived in India, where there's not many liability issues.
Post reply on HN