Thought you might enjoy this...

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/even_ceo_cant_figure_out_how

http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/RadioShack.article.jpg

That article sums it up really well. I stopped going there after I got tired of having to explain to the sales staff what a tube is everytime I needed one. I used to live for the Radio Shack catalog every year but now there is very little that interests me when I go in there. I've been predicting their eventual demise for about ten years now. I still think it's only a matter of time.

To me they were once a decent "mid fi" store that was fun and interesting to go in and look around- now it's deal is to sell me a cell phone (with warranty) a dish, or a credit line- very impersonal and the shelves are loaded with imported electronic junk. It bothers me to have to go into one now.....
DC

I despise having to give them my family history for 3 generations just to buy a pack of batteries...And no, I DON'T want a cellphone or a dish....Lots of times, when dealing w/Boatanchors, you have to get around using an Unobtainium antenna or power connector...Ratshak used to have a very good selection of those, & you could generally "work around" until you got something that would work...Not any more...Just those cheap, disgusting toys, & know-nothing sales staff.

Man after reading that it seems to me they have the wrong person at the top. After the line about "hams" and "digital age" it's all over for them. They just don't understand there are people out there that understand how the equipment works and need part sources. At least we have the internet to help find parts. When I was a kid I liked Radio Shack now I hate going in to one. They could have grown up to be Fry's but they made all their money selling cheap parts and electronics and now they even do that right. Just my two cents...
Steve

You guys do realize that "The Onion' is a parody/humor site, and not actually "America's Finest News Source", right???

Looks like the humor was both a bit too subtle and on-target...

That's the allure of The Onion: there's always at least a grain of truth to their stories, some have more than others, and their stories are always perfectly plausible. I'm betting that a lot of the brass at Rat Shack are wondering how in the world The Onion got their situation so accurately.
Tom

That's what made me post it... I was just surfing around a deadmall site (another little web-interest of mine) and if you ever pay attention to failing retail centers, you'll always find that Radio Shacks (and GNC stores) are there until the bitter end!

Around here there's a plaza with about 3% occupancy... A HUGE power-center type place. The Super K-mart is dead and buried, so is Pet Smart, HQ, KB Toys, IHOP, Don Pablo's, etc. etc. It's funny because they installed this big pond out in front, and the last time I cruised through the lot, these huge geese were looking into the (empty) store windows.

The only thing hanging on for dear life is Radio Shack and a check-cashing store!

I have no idea how Radio Shack stays alive, and I guess I'm not alone!

Having nevr heardf The Onion my fist thought was this guy deserves a raise as he is the first executive to admit he does not have a clue about abusiness model of a company that is makig money. At the same time I thught, he'll be looking for a job aboutthe same time I finish reading the aticle. Though RS is no longer in Canada having been renamed "The Source" it is still herein model as The Source is as disjointed though in some of the bigger locations thereis emerging at least a theme and some continuity of product. I di hve a laugh whe I wasin 1 recently and the salesperson saw me looking at radios, stereos and teles. He approachedin all his glory and askedif he could show me somethng. I politely thanked him but tld him that since buying a crystal radio frm RS in the '50s and it was working so well, I was not thinking really of buying anything. He proceeded to ask me if I needed any batteres for it as they had battery sale going at the moment. I nicely explained that it is not a battery set as it operates on dylithium crystals. His respnse was that they did no have any crystls in stock but he was sure he could find some at another store or even special order them for me. I told him I'd keep it in mind next time I needed some.

radio shack at one time was a great store . You were able to buy record player needles, semiconductors, batteries and much more . However the store has changed so much . Here in NJ , the radio shack here does not carry any semiconductors or components . And everything in the store is like twice what it is elsewhere . The sales help seem eager to assist you and make a sale however they really dont know their poroduct all that well . I rarely ever go there anymore . They usually dont ever have what i need and if by chance they do , it rediculiously priced .

Whoever wrote that is a genius! I got halfway through, thinking repeatedly "I can't believe the Ratshack boss says this... but if he does, it sure explains a lot!" before finally concluding it had to be a spoof. Brilliantly done, and it hits the nail on the head.

It has been about 3 or 4 years since I set foot in a Radio Shack, and it was a real disappointment, compared to what I remembered from twenty-plus years earlier. While I did finally get what I went in there for (the last ones in the store, and no thanks to the "sales" cretins, er, people there, who didn't know what it was or where it was until I found it and showed it to them!) I couldn't see that they were doing anything right, and wondered how they stayed in business.

Sad, sad, sad...

...I politely thanked him but tld him that since buying a crystal radio frm RS in the '50s and it was working so well, I was not thinking really of buying anything. ...I nicely explained that it is not a battery set as it operates on dylithium crystals. His respnse was that they did no have any crystls in stock but he was sure he could find some at another store or even special order them for me. I told him I'd keep it in mind next time I needed some.

:lmao::lmao::lmao:

That's hilarious. You should have seriously left your number with a promise to run back and pay immediately, if he found you dilithium crystals! Who knows... maybe you'd end up with an offer to share in his Lithium-based medication or something.

And to think that Radio Shack salespeople used to almost all be ueber-geeks who knew the characteristics and uses of nearly every one of the thousands of components they had in stock. The kind of guys who designed and built amps with their toes, keeping one eye closed while eating lunch, just for the heck of it.

I'm glad we still have components shops in Hong Kong that stock all the kind of stuff that RS used to in the States, and some salespeople who know their stuff. Those shops are diferent from the phone shops, but they still good staff and still have patrons, too. Hope we never "catch up" to the States in this respect.

Carmine, deadmall site? Sounds interesting! Those things always fascinate me. There are some properties near here that are like that. And, yes, Radio Shack really does hang on to the bitter end. They did it at the old Salisbury (MD) Mall, and were the last thing open on that wing, leaving only when managenment decided to close it off to save money. My nearest Shack is the only thing left in its strip-mall. The supermarket, drugstore, dollar store, apparel stores, beauty shop, all boarded up-but there in the middle proudly stands the Shack! They have saved me a few times with some overpriced components in a drawer in the back, just don't expect the staff to know what you are talking about. Do what I did one day: walk in with a selenium rectifier and ask for a replacement. The guy did at least try to cross it.

There was a time when they sold good stuff? Radio Shack has been synonymous with junk for as long as I can remember (I'm 29). They some how managed to find the worst quality suppliers for everything they sold back when they only sold their own brands. I used to go in for the occasional thing like a fuse, but now that I'm near a Fry's there's no need.

How many of you were users of the radio shack Tandy computers? I've always been an Apple guy so I used to not think much of the Tandy stuff, but some of it is quite collectible now. The Tandy 1000 pc clones were very advanced for their time, and were actually clones of the IBM PCjr, so they had better sound and graphics than a stock PC and there were a lot of game titles that had special Tandy versions released to take advantage of those features. The older TRS-80 machines also have quite a following. It would be fun to take a Model III back into one of their stores and watch the sales staff fumble about and try to figure out what it is, LOL

Andy, you were born right about when RS started dying. I was a teenager in the 70's, and they dropped probably half of their components and similar items from the 1975 catalog when it came out, compared to the 1974 catalog. Now, they have maybe ten percent of what they had even in the '75 catalog. No build-it-yourself kits for various electronic gadgets (audio amplifier, shortwave receiver, AM radio transmitter, etc.), no long list of analog and digital ICs, no in-the-catalog list(!) of all the tubes they carried in-store...

One thing, though. They do keep things in stock (what little they carry, that is) much better now than in the 70's and early 80's. We used to have to do the "Radio Shack Shuffle" to three or four stores to find everything for a project. They had a "Battery-A-Month" club, with a card they would check off for a free battery each month for a year and the store's address stamped on the front. I remember carrying a card for each of the stores I went to, so at least during the shuffle I might end up with a set of five D batteries for the free flashlight they gave away each December. :)

How many of you were users of the radio shack Tandy computers? I've always been an Apple guy so I used to not think much of the Tandy stuff, but some of it is quite collectible now. The Tandy 1000 pc clones were very advanced for their time, and were actually clones of the IBM PCjr, so they had better sound and graphics than a stock PC and there were a lot of game titles that had special Tandy versions released to take advantage of those features. The older TRS-80 machines also have quite a following. It would be fun to take a Model III back into one of their stores and watch the sales staff fumble about and try to figure out what it is, LOL

My first computer was a Tandy Color Computer 2 that my parents bought when I was a kid. Even after various parts were replaced under warranty it was somewhat flakey, but at the time we didn't know any different. It was only much later when I picked up another one at a flea market that I realised it was more reliable than the one my parents bought new.

I spent a lot of time in the local Tandy store as a kid messing with the demo computers, buying bargain bags of assorted parts and generally annoying the staff. That store never really updated anything right up until the day it eventually closed in the early 90s. The old stock just stayed on the shelves. Pretty much right until the end I bought ribbons for my DMP-105 printer. They even had a manual for the PC-2 pocket computer I bought at a flea market.

That Color Computer 2 was my start in computers, just as a Tandy 160-in-1 project kit was my start in electronics. I've still got a few Color Computers, a TRS-80 Model III, a couple of Tandy 1000s, some Realistic audio gear and a Micronta multimeter. Only the Mach One speakers have seen any recent use, the rest I just hang on to for sentimental reasons.

[QUOTE=Arkay;1260717]:lmao::lmao::lmao:

And to think that Radio Shack salespeople used to almost all be ueber-geeks who knew the characteristics and uses of nearly every one of the thousands of components they had in stock. The kind of guys who designed and built amps with their toes, keeping one eye closed while eating lunch, just for the heck of it.

Back in 1970 I was one of those 16 year old uber-Geeks who did know what was in the store and actually helped the customer find the correct "needle" for his stereo. Once we sold a very complicated nixie tube clock kit (LEDs were just coming out) and one poor customer could not get his to work after a month of nights building and troubleshooting it. I took it home and found the problem, each nixie tube was soldered 180 degrees out of place. I spent a full day removing then re soldering them for him. I was happy to do it. For the last year or so I kept a rough list and RS had what I needed about 20 % of the time, stuff like 6 volt dial lights, batteries, knobs, small common transistors or any component. But they have plenty of DVD players with NTSC tuners made in China that will be worthless in a year. Sorry for the rant.:rant:

Dr Ido, though I predate their computers by a few years my first laptop was a Tandy 100 with accessory disk and cassette drive with the Scripsit and Multiplan roms. I used to download it into the TRS Model II with the 4 disk bay and eventually the 16 with 4 hard drives operating under Xenix with 6 Wyse 50 terminals for my law practice. My brother went the IBM route and was paying through the nose for his IBM word processor. I had accounting, billing, docket control, WestLaw, 1 of the 1st computer based tax programs, spreadsheets and a host of other programs as well as multi-tasking and multi-user ability when the IBM PC was still based on the 8088 and DOS.

In some was RS was a real leader in the industry but somewhere they lost their focus. I think had they concentrated on their computer market more and not tried to be all to everyone, we'd all be using either Apples or RS Clones (both based on Xenix/UNIX/Linux) today and MS would be a poor 3rd alternative.

There was a time when they sold good stuff? Radio Shack has been synonymous with junk for as long as I can remember (I'm 29). They some how managed to find the worst quality suppliers for everything they sold back when they only sold their own brands. I used to go in for the occasional thing like a fuse, but now that I'm near a Fry's there's no need.


Well, not really any high-end stuff, but long ago, FUN stuff. I will always have a soft spot for Radio Shack, as that's where I used to go all the time when I was 10 years old. That was in the late 70s. They were more of an electronics hobbyist parts store then. They had a wall of caps, resistors, pots, and most everything you would need to restore radios and build things. Chassis blanks, PC board etching kits, tube sockets, you name it!

Some of the unique things I remember are the Free Battery Club card... You'd get a free battery every week; NO purchases required. There was no record of it, so it was on the honor system that you had one card. And there was a tube tester, in fact two of them at the Westwood Blvd. store in West LA to handle the flow of do-ot-yourself TV repairmen (or tube-jockeys, as they mostly were.) Radio Shack had those "gold clad" lifetime tubes, which I suppose they must still honor if you can learn enough Farsi to explain to the teenage Iranian sales staff what a tube is.

I built good friendships with the staff at that Radio Shack store in West LA. Mickie Eckert was the sales manager, and she actually let me hang out in the back of the store once while the school bully hunted for me. (I should be embarrassed to mention that, but I appreciated it.)

The Radio Shack computer lineup was just about their last gasp at being "cutting edge," so I too am surprised they're still around. Circuit City is about shot, and Federated is long gone. I think the only reason RS is still with us is the rudely-pushy cellphone sales effort.

Anyway, that's my Radio Shack essay.

Charles

Ah Radio Shack. Lot's of memories. Here's one.

In the mid '70's the Publisher of the magazines I edited and the CEO of Radio Shack huddled and came up with a plan to list a Shack part number for every component in the construction articles we published. The responsibility to carry out their agreement, which, reciprocally, included selling Elementary Electronics in all Shacks, fell on my shoulders. I didn't have a problem with the concept because you want anyone who tries to build a project in your magazine to be successful and finding the right part is a big part of that success. If nothing else, it's just good business.

There was also an agreement to let a guy in RS's HQ in Texas (among other things, he edited the Shack's comic book) review the parts list and 'make corrections' before it was published. This was a pain in the ass as it was something that had to be implemented by snail mail and phone, and in general I don't make many construction-article editorial screw ups and so didn't need or appreciate the monitor. But sure enough, this guy soon stabbed himself in the foot when he added/changed a component that if implemented would have fouled up the project, and so I got my independence back... and Radio Shack got the part number of any component they sold added, if it was the right part.

Pete

If you are old enough to remember when Radio Shack was worth the gasoline to drive there you may also remember the best electronics store, Olson Electronics. They sold everything from parts and sub assemblies to mid level audio gear, even some top of the line Ampex reel to reels. As a 14 year old kid who took the bus to visit the store the salesman would take the time to find out what I was trying to do then suggest the proper parts for a sale of almost $5.00! And sometimes if I was a little short for bus fare home the manager (Ray) at the downtown Miami store would tell me that today was a special no tax day or a part was priced wrong so I would not go home disappointed. Imagine that kind of service today. It happened.
I bought an Olson RA-809 AM/FM stereo receiver on ebay, it was the last tube receiver they sold. The output tubes lit up with the nicest lightning storms you ever saw. After I re-capped it and replaced the outputs I still had some trouble receiving stereo so I put out a help needed post on several sites. I received a reply from Irving Olson himself, who remembered the unit and thought he had a service manual somewhere, and in a few weeks I received a copy. Now that is customer service, a forty year old device and help from one of the company founders for no cost. BTW Irving Olson is in his mid 90's and last I heard going strong.
Sorry to get off topic but I wanted younger folks to know what this hobby used to be like.
Richard.

There was a time when they sold good stuff? Radio Shack has been synonymous with junk for as long as I can remember (I'm 29). They some how managed to find the worst quality suppliers for everything they sold back when they only sold their own brands. I used to go in for the occasional thing like a fuse, but now that I'm near a Fry's there's no need.

I'm 51 years old and have been getting all my electronics parts, tubes (when vacuum tubes were in vogue), etc. from Radio Shack for years. Never had a bit of trouble with the sales people knowing what I was talking about when I asked a technical question.

As to RS equipment quality: I have a Radio Shack (Realistic) SCT-11 stereo cassette tape deck. This deck was Radio Shack's best stereo cassette unit for 1977, as it has the normal/CrO2 (chrome tape) bias selector and Dolby noise reduction. My unit, which I purchased used a couple weeks ago, works great as well even after 30 years, which speaks volumes for how RS-branded gear was built back in those days. My point in mentioning it, however, is that RS was not always synonymous with poor-quality merchandise; there was a time, from about the '50s through the '80s or so, when they sold really good hi-fi gear and electronic test equipment under the Realistic and Micronta brand names respectively.

Those were the days.

Hi! to All,

My 2 cent's worth...

I live in France and am 54 years old. I had the privilege of coming to the US West coast every two years when flying time to NYC was 14.5 hours and 23 hours to SFO with 4-5 refueling stops (1950s-60s - before jets).

For a kid from Europe, Radio Shack was heaven! "unobtainium" components hanging readily available which we MIGHT see in 2-3-4 years across the pond. I purchased scanners which gave me years of fun listening to the French Police, the first LEDs, no one had seen in France, voice synthesizer chips at which adults listened with disbelief, fingernail-sized audio amps, high-power CB walkie-talkies, etc.

To this day, when i travel to the US, i still visit a RS shop. Components such as 75 Ohm to 300 Ohm baluns for vintage TVs, F-to-RCA, F-to-SMA adapters, US TV modulators are difficult to source in Europe, they still have them.

OK, the company is slowly dying, i just wanted to add my tribute to what was once-upon-a-time an exciting reason to visit America.

Best Regards to All,

jhalphen

great article. The onion does a great job of making a joke seem real. I as well was a frequent RS customer. I also applied to work there back in my high school days which I'll explain shortly. The store by my old home in Downers Grove, IL was one of those "left behind" stores, meaning that it didnt get remodeled untill around 1999 or so. Back in the early to mid 90's, I remember the entire back of the store was nothing but components, all resistors caps etc. hanging on the hooks. Back when everything said "Archer". Always well stocked. They remodeled again around 2001 and thats when basically all of the RS stores went over to that annoying pull out drawer system for condensing what little components they still carried. I was very dissapointed and I remember each year little by little the parts stock got smaller and smaller, then stuff I used tp pick up at the store had to be ordered! I used to get the catalog too! I remember going into the store in 2000 and going to pick up a catalog and the guy at the store says to me "sorry RadioShack no longer prints the catalog, everything is on line now and its better". I though that was total crap. Nothing beats a catalog!
As a kid, the employees were always older men, most likely hams as they knew electronics. I always got along great with them and they always greeted me by name when I walked into the store. They asked what I was doing with the parts and I always explained. They were pleased to see someone my age with an interest in electroincs. I always ordered my tubes from them. They had that big pull out customer catalog on hinge in the store. I would order any phono needle or tube out of that book and would get it in about a week. I remember those tubes I'd get though. This was not the gold plated realistic tubes like you guys are familar with. These would be rebadged tubes with the realistic name on it. If you put your breath on the tube, you could sometimes make out who made the tube! It didn't bother me. If alpha TV didnt have the tube I needed, RS always did so I was in luck. Those were my only tube buying options back then, obviously before the popular internet.
Today, I think the store is total joke. Its a bunch of kids my age who know basically nothing except whats the latest and greatest cell phone. Dont bother asking a question about a part you need, even if you know its something they stock. When I walk in the store they always ask the usual "how can I help you", I simply repond, "Im looking for a part, I know where it is thanks". Should you say I need a 22uF lytic at 35volt (they still stock those) they have no idea what you're talking about. Ive had countess times when I called up the store asking about a cap they have in stock. You can tell they are confused and they try get out of it, they pretend they when to look then when they get back on the phone they say "sorry we dont have any". When you go over there yourself, the part you called about is sitting in that pull out drawer all along. Its not their fault I guess, RS doesnt care about that as its a small money maker for the store as they dont train the employees to become familar with those parts.

When I was still HS back in 1999, I applied for radioshack at the district offices in Lombard, IL. Everyone that applied had to go there and they only did applicantions on tuesdays if I remember right. I remember being in a big room full of other applicants about my age who applied. There the RS guys talked about attitude, sales skills etc. Then we had a private one on one interview in an office with the lead man. I remember all of the questions this guy asked me. "why do you want to work here, what can you offer the customers at radio shack". I told him about my hobby, I work on TV's vcrs etc and know your electronic parts line up almost by memory as Ive been going to the store buying parts since I was 10 years old. Then there were more of the ususal interview questions I thought I answered well. Then he asked where I see myself in the future, I replyed in either electrical or mechanical engineering. "Oh, ok thats great!" he says. The interview continues......
Then we got onto sales skills. Remember, this was the the transition time when RS was basically becoming a cell phone store. I remember him asking my about my opinion if I were only to be paid on sales commission as it was way to make good money at radio shack. I said that wouldnt be a problem, but I haven't really been a salesman before. At the time, I couldn't tell this inteview was aiming at finding the "outgoing salesman" personality. I remember wondering why this guy was so enthusiastic about sales and being a people person. (which was the opposite of me, I was quite and often serious.). He then gave me his cell phone and asked how I would describe it to a customer. This was the funniest part, I told him I dont know, Im not much of a sales man for cell phones, I dont know enought about them. Then he asked "don't you have a cell phone". I said no. "no" he says. THe guy looked at me like I was nuts and said "you need a cell phone in todays society" and I remember saying I really dont have a need for one at this time. Right then the interview ended and got the "we'll get back to you thank you for your application"
About one week later I got a letter from radioshack. I was excited to read it as I still though I got the job. I remember reading the BS letter this guy wrote me. He said at this time we are not looking for technical people like we did 20 years ago, you would have been our first pick, but Radio Shack is currently striving to find applicats who want to stive in sales of computers and cell phones as they are the future of the company.

Right then and there I lost alot of respect for RS. It was not long after that I got my job as a mechanic at Buttery Rental Service which was one heck of a great job for me at the time, way better than any radio shack job would have ever been!

After reading your post I am glad I was at the proper age to work as a tech geek at Radio Shack, I was too young for the Olson Electronics hey day but actually got to help customers at RS rather than push service contracts on them. I guess those days where retail stores had real customer service are gone forever.
Richard.

Radio Shack sucks.

The Onion is distributed locally here in Madison WI. I read that article and laughed my ass off! I love the Onion!

Evan

Hi! to All,

My 2 cent's worth...

I live in France and am 54 years old. I had the privilege of coming to the US West coast every two years when flying time to NYC was 14.5 hours and 23 hours to SFO with 4-5 refueling stops (1950s-60s - before jets).

For a kid from Europe, Radio Shack was heaven! "unobtainium" components hanging readily available which we MIGHT see in 2-3-4 years across the pond. I purchased scanners which gave me years of fun listening to the French Police, the first LEDs, no one had seen in France, voice synthesizer chips at which adults listened with disbelief, fingernail-sized audio amps, high-power CB walkie-talkies, etc.

To this day, when i travel to the US, i still visit a RS shop. Components such as 75 Ohm to 300 Ohm baluns for vintage TVs, F-to-RCA, F-to-SMA adapters, US TV modulators are difficult to source in Europe, they still have them.

OK, the company is slowly dying, i just wanted to add my tribute to what was once-upon-a-time an exciting reason to visit America.

Best Regards to All,

jhalphen

I do have a French 1989 Radio Shack catalog somewhere when a friend went over to study at the University of Strasborg for a year. In fact, I bought him a DX-360 shortwave radio to take over as a birthday present.

Chuck

Dr Ido, though I predate their computers by a few years my first laptop was a Tandy 100 with accessory disk and cassette drive with the Scripsit and Multiplan roms. I used to download it into the TRS Model II with the 4 disk bay and eventually the 16 with 4 hard drives operating under Xenix with 6 Wyse 50 terminals for my law practice. My brother went the IBM route and was paying through the nose for his IBM word processor. I had accounting, billing, docket control, WestLaw, 1 of the 1st computer based tax programs, spreadsheets and a host of other programs as well as multi-tasking and multi-user ability when the IBM PC was still based on the 8088 and DOS.

In some was RS was a real leader in the industry but somewhere they lost their focus. I think had they concentrated on their computer market more and not tried to be all to everyone, we'd all be using either Apples or RS Clones (both based on Xenix/UNIX/Linux) today and MS would be a poor 3rd alternative.

In the early to mid 90s I was going around picking up all kinds of odd old computer gear. The kind of stuff that I had drooled over in magazines and catalogs, but could never afford when it was new. I used to work for a guy buying more recent gear at auctions he couldn't attend. The arrangement included storage and transport for the $5 pallets of old stuff that no-one else wanted at the end of the auction. Any locals may remember me as the messy looking kid hanging around MGS and ICA auctions loading stuff into a beat up silver ute towing a trailer.

For a while I had a Model II with 4 8 inch floppy drives running TRSDOS-II and Pickles & Trout CP/M, a Model 12 with an external 8MB 8 inch hard disk, but I never did find a model 16 or 6000.

Perhaps part of what killed of killed off Tandy computers was the pricing on their higher end systems. Most of the Tandy systems I saw were bought as the absolute bare minimum system and then upgraded with third party components either by the end user or by various companies that resold upgraded systems. The labels on the bottom of my TRS-80 Model 3 and 4 identified them as being sold with the minimum RAM and no disk drives, but they came loaded with expanded RAM and 4 internal drives along with another companies label on the front.

I miss the old radio shack, lafyette. allied radio and canal and chamber streets in nyc when you could buy parts and fix anything. I still have a radio in nj near me that has a guy who knows what parts are and how they are used. Unfortunately, they don't sell the parts I need and if they do, they are overpriced.

With all this talk about RS, is there anyone out there who ACTUALLY HAD all of the "flavors" of the "flavoradio"? (Those were a cheap 1978-ish AM transistor set that came in a half dozen colors, or "flavors", and were offered in the catalogue and stores for several years.)

Charles

I don't have all of the Flavoradios but I do have a couple of them somewhere...it seems like there was an AM-FM model too. Both the AM and AM-FM Flavoradios were sold at least through the mid-late 80's.
I had the battery club card too and the 5-D Cell flashlights.

This is at least the second thread bitching/whining/lamenting about RatShak...They certainly DO bring out strong emotions in us, don't they ?

This is at least the second thread bitching/whining/lamenting about RatShak...They certainly DO bring out strong emotions in us, don't they ?

Not to worry Sandy, Pretty soon I or someone else will go back to FCC bashing for shutting down the analog transmitters. I am old and grumpy and I LIKE IT!

At one of the local ones here, even the recently huge "cable" section is now a shadow of its former self (maybe 1/3 of what it was just a few months ago); I can't really figure out what took its place. Though the cell phone section is predictably large (half a wall, at least), every now and then some back-room "find," sometimes from the Archer/Realistic/Tandy era, will show up on the clearance table for a good price, and for that it's worth stopping in every once in a while.

Yesterday dropped in my local RatShack and they no longer had the parts drawers or pretty much anything else other than cell phones or other big electronics appliances.... No wifi coax connecters.

Wow, you have an actual Radio Shack that has neither "radio" nor "shack" in its inventory anymore. If I find one of those here, I will gladly tell the manager why it will be my last visit to his or her store, and how I plan to give the same suggestion to the numerous friends I have who are always looking to me for advice on tech equipment decisions.

What I did have here a few years ago, though, was a Walgreens Drug Store that did not sell drugs (it had no pharmacy). They had a number in the phone book for "prescriptions", but it went to another store. I found out the hard way. :wtf: