I Miss Radio Shack

[MyOwn]

It use to be nice when I could walk in and find a fuse or a resistor

[tromprof]

We still have one in my area but it doesn't carry much useful stuff any more. Seems to be catering to cell phone users. Fortunately Parts Express is 20 minutes up the road.

[MyOwn]

We still have one in my area but it doesn't carry much useful stuff any more. Seems to be catering to cell phone users. Fortunately Parts Express is 20 minutes up the road.

You are one lucky individual

[MORE KLIPSCH PLEASE]

We still have one in my area but it doesn't carry much useful stuff any more. Seems to be catering to cell phone users. Fortunately Parts Express is 20 minutes up the road.

So does Parts Express have a show room or like a store front??? 

 

They would be my friends

 

MKP :-)

[JJkizak]

I have learned to use Amazon.com and Mcmaster Carr mainly because the selection is light years ahead of brick stores. Sometimes I get one day delivery with standard shipping.

JJK

[oldtimer]

I never knew there was a Miss Radio Shack.  Now I miss her too.

[minermark]

Sometime back i started this, and as before, if anyone has any input, feel free to post links.

 

  https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/148096-parts-all-kinds-of-parts/?hl=%2Bparts+%2Bsupplys#entry1948217

[minermark]

I have learned to use Amazon.com and Mcmaster Carr mainly because the selection is light years ahead of brick stores. Sometimes I get one day delivery with standard shipping.

JJK

Ah, Mcmaster, now here is a man who knows his chit.   well done

[MyOwn]

Maybe a bit further back in time.....

 

The first 40 years

 

1995-2013 logo, still used in many locations.

The company was started as "Radio Shack" in 1921 by two brothers, Theodore and Milton Deutschmann, who wanted to provide equipment for the then-nascent field of amateur, or ham radio.^[3] The brothers opened a one-store retail and mail-order operation in the heart of downtown Boston at 46 Brattle Street, near the site of the Boston Massacre. They chose the name "Radio Shack", which was the term for a small, wooden structure that housed a ship's radio equipment. The Deutschmanns thought the name was appropriate for a store that would supply the needs of radio officers aboard ships, as well as "hams" (amateur radio operators). The term was already in use — and is to this day — by "hams" when referring to the location of their stations.^[4]

The company issued its first catalog in 1939^[5] as it entered the high fidelity music market. In 1954, Radio Shack began selling its own private-label products under the brand name Realist, changing the brand name to Realistic after being sued by Stereo Realist. After expanding to nine stores plus an extensive mail-order business,^[6] the company fell on hard times in the 1960s. Radio Shack was essentially bankrupt, but Charles D. Tandy saw the potential of Radio Shack and retail consumer electronics and bought the company for $300,000.^[7]

[MyOwn]

Sometime back i started this, and as before, if anyone has any input, feel free to post links.

 

  https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/148096-parts-all-kinds-of-parts/?hl=%2Bparts+%2Bsupplys#entry1948217

I'm so sorry I screwed your original post...I'm drunk and that is my excuse... :emotion-22:

[oldtimer]

As an aside I knew the CEO of Tandy/Radio Shack from the late seventies.  He didn't live too far from the university.  Nice down to earth guy.

[MyOwn]

As an aside I knew the CEO of Tandy/Radio Shack from the late seventies.  He didn't live too far from the university.  Nice down to earth guy.

My first computer was a Tandy TX1000...Ohhh Man that brings back memories

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandy_1000

[Marvel]

I never knew there was a Miss Radio Shack. Now I miss her too.

 

i'm sure you couldn't resistor...

 

 

We have a Radio Shack about ten minutes from us. The manager is pretty knowledgeable, too.

 

Bruce

Edited December 25, 2015 by Marvel

[oldred]

 

My first computer was a Tandy TX1000...Ohhh Man that brings back memories

 

Man....... I thought I was old...... Oh yeah I am... I remember mine was a Sinclair 1000. Man was it everything you ever needed. 

 

G.E.M 

[tromprof]

We still have one in my area but it doesn't carry much useful stuff any more. Seems to be catering to cell phone users. Fortunately Parts Express is 20 minutes up the road.

So does Parts Express have a show room or like a store front???

They would be my friends

MKP :-)

PE does have a retail store attached to the warehouse. A bit of a hole in the wall but still everything's available that is in the catalog. For bigger stuff you tell them what you want and they go get it out of the warehouse.

[MyOwn]

 

 

My first computer was a Tandy TX1000...Ohhh Man that brings back memories

 

Man....... I thought I was old...... Oh yeah I am... I remember mine was a Sinclair 1000. Man was it everything you ever needed. 

 

G.E.M 

 

Yes at that Time.... I only had 2 3 1/2 inch floppy drives, I booted from these and ran programs...Do you remember the old dial up bulletin board systems?

Edited December 25, 2015 by Steve_S

[DizRotus]

Things seem to have come full circle.  In my youth, during the 50s and 60s, I would drool over Allied Radio catalogs.  Knight kits, raw speakers and associated bits could be ordered over the phone and delivered from Chicago in a few days.  The catalogs contained items that did not appeal to enough people to justify retail stores in every town.

 

Then in the 70s Realistic Radio Shack consumed Allied Radio, much to my dismay.  But wait, this was not the end of the world.  Now it was possible to pop into a Radio Shack on a weekend and get the switch, terminal, resistor, etc. needed to repair some bit of gear or complete some DIY project.  Some of the raw drivers, such as the 40-1197, were quite good.  Sadly, those days are all but gone.

 

Now, it again makes no sense to have many retail outlets with substantial capital invested in a large inventory of small bits with limited appeal.  What makes this so?  The Internet of course.  High quality items ordered from Amazon, Parts Express, Mouser, Madisound, etc. can be delivered to your door within a day, or days, at very reasonable prices.  On the whole, it's a better model.

 

Do I still sometimes bemoan the loss of the last minute fuse?  Of course.  But, I'm no longer in such a hurry that a few days will kill me.

Edited December 25, 2015 by DizRotus

[MyOwn]

Things seem to have come full circle.  In my youth, during the 50s and 60s, I would drool over Allied Radio catalogs.  Knight kits, raw speakers and associated bits could be ordered over the phone and delivered from Chicago in a few days.  The catalogs contained items that did not appeal to enough people to justify retail stores in every town.

 

Then in the 70s Realistic Radio Shack consumed Allied Radio, much to my dismay.  But wait, this was not the end of the world.  Now it was possible to pop into a Radio Shack on a weekend and get the switch, terminal, resistor, etc. needed to repair some bit of gear or complete some DIY project.  Some of the raw drivers, such as the 40-1197, were quite good.  Sadly, those days are all but gone.

 

Now, it again makes no sense to have many retail outlets with substantial capital invested in a large inventory of small bits with limited appeal.  What makes this so?  The Internet of course.  High quality items ordered from Amazon, Parts Express, Mouser, Madisound, etc. can be delivered to your door within a day, or days, at very reasonable prices.  On the whole, it's a better model.

 

Do I still sometimes bemoan the loss of the last minute fuse?  Of course.  But, I'm no longer in such a hurry that a few days will kill me.

Beautifully said

[DizRotus]

 

I never knew there was a Miss Radio Shack. Now I miss her too.

 

i'm sure you couldn't resistor...

 

 

We have a Radio Shack about ten minutes from us. The manager is pretty knowledgeable, too.

 

Bruce

 

 

 

I never knew there was a Miss Radio Shack. Now I miss her too.

 

i'm sure you couldn't resistor...

 

 

We have a Radio Shack about ten minutes from us. The manager is pretty knowledgeable, too.

 

Bruce

 

 

Perhaps he meant Miss Philippines.   Now you'll get ohm sick.

Edited December 25, 2015 by DizRotus

[jjptkd]

Yep, nothing like popping into the local Rat Shack and being told that they don't have what I'm looking for but I could probably find it online? Haven't been back since.