Radio Shack May Be Filing For Bankruptcy

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What the hell kind of bank would not be willing to modify their agreement in order to help make a company solvent? Now Radio Shack goes bankrupt and the bank is only going to get a little of their money back. *sigh*

At any rate, Radio Shack has gotten exactly what they deserved. A year or two ago they ran a commercial about "The 80's called, and they want their store back" and that is absolutely correct! Radio Shack was a great place that you could go and pick up any cable, adapter or part that you needed right away. Their price was higher than shops like Parts Express, but it was still a reasonable price and you did not have to buy parts in bulk. But now it is all crap RC cars and rip-off phones and contracts.
They still have some component parts, but good luck finding anyone with any amount of intelligence that could help you! I remember a few years back needing to get an RCA to BNC adapter and the person at the desk refused to sell it to me because (and this is a direct quote) "RCA is for analogue signals and BNC is digital"! OMG! How stupid can an employee be?!?!?! I tried to (somewhat politely) explain that I knew what I was doing and that they would not make such a part unless someone needed to buy it. After spending 10 minutes TRYING to buy something from them I threw it behind the counter and ordered an adapter online paying for overnight shipping. It cost an arm and a leg, but it was still better than dealing with the Radio Shanty. So long, and good riddance!
 
I was just discussing this with my dad. They just aren't relevant. Most of the things I can think to get there, IF they even have it, is always more expensive. The one here in town where I live has just moved and ever since it moved, its selection of ANYTHING has been pathetic. Their selection wasn't great at their old location either. When I was at university, there were 2 in the city there, and they were halfway decent but still total ghost towns.

The last time I bought anything was when I was still there working at an auto parts store while still at university and a fuse blew in our memory saver for changing batteries in cars. Weirdly we didn't carry the one it needed so I picked one up there. That kind of stuff was about all they were good for to me cause anything else like cables, home theater stuff, tablets, etc. you could get cheaper elsewhere and have a considerably better selection to boot.
 
RadioShack should really go back to being a parts store. They could sell computer parts along with audio and other electronic tidbits. I might go there if I needed something today. Taking a role somewhere between Mouser Electronics and Newegg, they might attract more serious customers and raise their reputation. And having a robust online catalog couldn't hurt either.
 
...I remember a few years back needing to get an RCA to BNC adapter and the person at the desk refused to sell it to me because (and this is a direct quote) "RCA is for analogue signals and BNC is digital"! OMG! How stupid can an employee be?!?!?! I tried to (somewhat politely) explain that I knew what I was doing and that they would not make such a part unless someone needed to buy it. After spending 10 minutes TRYING to buy something from them I threw it behind the counter and ordered an adapter online paying for overnight shipping...
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BS.
 
I loved radio shack as a kid. They really should have stuck to those educational electronics kits, that stuff is like crack cocaine to a nerd.
 
That's a damn shame. In my teens, I eagerly awaited each new yearly catalog, bought all kinds of parts packs there, and had and used a lot of the Forrest Mims III experiment books.
The sad part is, I'll bet today's kids don't even know what a radio shack is...

They're already gone though. Yeah, you can still find parts there, but mostly it's a toy and phone store. RIP.
 
i would buy guitar strings there at a premium with a small selection because the only other place to do so was like a 30 minute drive..

the executives just need to walk into a best buy and take a look around.. why did no one buy this tv we had on sale? because there one here that cost less and is bigger with a nice picture that you get sit on a leather couch and try it out if you want.
 
I honestly haven't stepped into a Radio Shack since the PC became main stream. I was a TRS-80 Model I / Model 100 / CoCo I,II,III nutcase back in the late 70's early 80's. My 1st PC was a Tandy 1000 that I quickly modded from Pin Out ISA slots to Slotted (soldered myself pin by min) so I could go from 300 baud modem to 2400.

Batteries were always crap. Cables and Plugs (for guitars, speakers) and Electronic parts (Capacitors and Resistors) used to be top notch. Record Needles too!

Before TRS-80's my father would always get me 50-in-1 100-in-1 and bigger electronic, slide wire into spring, learning kits.

Bye Radio Shack. (Glad Fry's is less than a mile from me... at least I know I'm buying sub standard parts up front 😉 But it's where I generally get my Monitors and Graphics Cards.
 
@ Dyseman...

I too had every electionic kit, up to and including the 200-in-1, which I still have in a trunk to this day, just havn't been able to bring myself around to throwing it out. :)

I had a TRS-80 too, learned much from it, but still don't code to this day, rather editing code as instructed by the software team whilst on site, when asked to do so, just small code stuff like that. The TRS-80 gave up the ghost eventually, and a PC repair man was unable to resurrect it. As I was learning microprocessors & assembler at the time, I thought I'd get around to fixing it myself, but you know, some things get cast aside.

When I was 21, and finally with some money in my pocket I bought their 200-ch scanner, and was unable to believe my own ears as phone sex lines were broadcast over analogue frequencies for all to hear. Honestly, I thought I was a little open minded to all that stuff, but *clearly* not. Some sick people out there. Drug dealers were SO dam obvious, I'd ponder why the police couldn't do some real investigative work. I did not, and still do not, understand the laziness of our local police.

During work days, ever needed a 7404, that had to be a specific Low Power Shottkey, etc? Radio Shack had it... Whilst RS was VERY good (and much more expensive), RS (Tandy in the UK) was a drive up the road, and then you could continue your work.

I still have a pair of those solid metal small speakers in my living room, which function as rear surround channels too (or did, no sound DSP at the moment).

Do you remember how big those loudspeakers that they stocked were? A childhood dream.... But then, I'm running something similar now anyway. :)

Having our labs near Fry's in San Jose, and thus being a frequent visitor, I know exactly what we are missing out on in the UK, and I'd just about kill to have one here...

But I'll always miss Radio Shack / Tandy. Shame they HAD to take down your name and address everytime you made a purchase...

And their batteries were fine, as long as you bought the quality ones!
 
The company has failed to evolve into the online era. Their site is a joke for shopping. Their stores are a joke for shopping. Radioshack has been a parts store. The last 4 times I've gone in there looking for parts, they don't carry the items. Simple things like splitters they don't carry, as an item to sell with the products they sell.

They also keep trying to sell their branded crap, which is of such low quality it's not worth buying. Their micro usb cables are the worst quality possible.
 
Their hand-held scanners have always been good equipment and I have two of them. The first one was bought in 1992, the second one in 1999. Both still work perfectly. Maybe someone will buy the company out, but I doubt it. Between the competition, abysmal sales, and changing times (not nearly as much interest in electronic "tinkering" these days), I just feel their expiration date is coming.
 
Between the competition, abysmal sales, and changing times (not nearly as much interest in electronic "tinkering" these days), I just feel their expiration date is coming.
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I don't know, with Arduino and RPi growing in popularity, I feel like DIY electronics is becoming more and more relevant than it's been in a long time. And it's a shame that Radio Shack isn't adapting to meet those needs, because if there were a nearby store full of everything Arduino, I'd spend half my waking hours there.
 
The paper reported that RadioShack's financial woes actually started back in the 1990s when the company began to heavily push smartphone sales rather than its portfolio of electronics.
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Well that's kinda what happens when you try to sell something that doesn't exist yet. 😛
 
The reason I never shop at RadioShack is because you can get anything they have from Amazon after shipping for about 30% less. This is of course, if they have what you are looking for, which they never do.
 
Smartphones did not exist in the 1990s perhaps the article meant normal cellphones

Smartphones only came out with the Iphone, smartphone being these computer phones
 
I hope they don't go out of business. People everywhere in the mall, when they want to pass gas, go to Radio Shack to release their gas freely without having to worry about someone might be next to them.
 
No doubt, Mouser has a phenomenal selection of components, but if you need something right now for a project, it's hard to beat a brick-and-mortar like Radio Shack used to be. It makes me wish I knew what happened to my old parts cabinet; hmmm, I wonder if I left it at the Ancestral Cave; I'll bet I've still got a drawer full of CK722, 2N2222, 2N3904, and 2N3906 transistors. Those were the days...
black-brown-red-orange-yellow-green-blue-violet-gray-white
 
3 perfect examples of why they're struggling:
$120 for a $35 raspberry pi and case.
No longer carrying circuits for DIY people (transistors, etc).
No such thing as a universal AC to DC wall outlet adapter anymore.

That was the only 3 things I needed from them and they failed on all fronts. Makes it feel like a cheap Best Buy knockoff; which sucks in itself as well.
 
They actually still have a few parts, but they are poorly stocked. They're in those thin-drawered cabinets now on a few shelves, not in bags covering the walls like they used to be. I was able to find all the parts I needed to build a simple circuit to combine two stereo channels into mono; no it is NOT a simple "Y," or the channels will try to drive each other, which isn't good for your amp. But yes, they still have some parts.

...and yeah, their prices on a lot of stuff are outrageous.


 
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