They supply the Fry’s fix for those who do not have access. Sort of like methadone, Radio Shack takes away the edge, but not the urge.
Yeah, I’m thrilled to have a place I can drive to, just across town, where they sell D-sub crimping tools, but NOT D-sub pins.
:smack::smack::smack::smack:
That was an utter waste of an hour today!
RS leaves me alone and lets me shop, yet if I have a question, the employees either know the answer or tell me they don’t. At BB and its ilk, the noise is deafening, I can’t get rid of the “help,” and when I have a question, the employees don’t know or care, or they make up an answer.
Speaking as someone who used to work in an Australian electronics store very much like RadioShack, I can tell you that Components (or “Fiddly Shit”, as we used to call it) are more trouble than they’re worth from a sales point of view.
They required Specialist Knowledge (which none of us had), they were Small And Fiddly (and subsequently impossible to find the right one of because they always got mixed up), and because they were only identified by product codes, if people didn’t write them down on the pads we provided (and no-one ever wrote the product codes down), we then had to go fossicking through the little plastic trays and drawers with the parts in them until we found the code. Which could take ages, unless it was a really commonly sold item for which we had memorised the product codes and prices (like RF Antenna- F Type converters or 3.5mm-6.5mm plug converters).
All to sell 35c of resistors. And in the meantime we’d probably lose a TV sale or a Printer Cartridge sale or something similar because we were busy trying to help Oldfart McSpecialist-Hobby look for an 8Ω wire-round resistor that would fit his 1958 vintage Radiation King radio. :smack:
It just wasn’t worth the hassle, basically.
The Op asks a good question.
Radio Shack has pissed me off something fierce over the years. So much so that if something I need can be found at a different store, even if it’s further away and more expensive, I’ll go there instead of RS!
I do a lot of little audio/video projects that I need supplies that radio Shack would come in handy. But because of their business practices (and, usually, higher prices) I avoid them.
They’ve gotten worse, too:
It used to be that employees were genuine geeks, who could actually help with advice for projects I was working on. In the last couple of years I’ve found that is not the case! I don’t need a 19 year old punk trying to hard sell me a cell phone when I came in for some BNC conversion connectors.
The OP asks a good question. One which I think eventually will have the same answer that the last buggy whip company got: They can’t. Goodbye!!!
I get the impression a little bit more of the store has been eaten by cell phone displays every time I pass one.
I’m and ex Radio Shack Manager from 81-86.
The profit margins on the “parts and pieces” are extremely good and enough to justify their continued existence as SKUs as long as they move at some point. I’d hate to tell you how much profit there was in a TV antenna sale with all the wires connectors and other trimmings
Just as a general and probably biased observation RS does seem to be winding down in terms of “presence” as a retailer, and may have to consolidate stores in some markets in the future. The store model back in the day was interesting as some managers would make 6 figure incomes (and bear in mind this was the 70’s & 80’s) if they had decent locations. In the early 80’s Radio Shack was the shit re cutting edge computers, telephones and consumer electronics. We had people lining up to get Model 100s etc. and there several unique items only we sold.
Store managers were directly responsible (and were paid from) net profits. This was huge if you ran a tight ship and had good foot traffic. There were some mangers making $ 200,000 + per year, averages were obviously quite a bit less, but you could make a decent middle class income from an average strip store. Sales people were paid on commission and a good part timer could make a very decent income.
All this changed in the mid-eighties. The pay plan changed and corporate focus seemed to be on sourcing out the cheapest, clunkiest crap they could sell. RS didn’t carry major brand Sony/JVC etc. Walkman style units until the early-mid 90’s because there wasn’t enough profit in them. We had third tier Chinese junk that people would only buy if naive or desperate.
I left RS in 86 in that the 70-80 + retail hours a week weren’t going to work with my marriage at the time. I stop in occasionally for “stuff” but I don’t know what they’re doing these days. They seemed to have a steady stream of “pay as you go” cell users depositing cash for cell time when I was last there.
'Tis a bloody shame. Because RS should really be considered part of that Greatest Generation. Anybody who uses email, let alone anybody who considers themselves a techie, owes this company a hell of a lot of respect. The United States would never have assumed a leadership role in developing the marvelous technologies of our age had its young pioneers not been able to shop at Radio Shack.
Right now, I need a few cables and small electronic parts. I know they have the easy to find stuff at Radio Shack at the mall by my work, but they kind of rip you off on the price of individual items compared to an online retailer like buyextras.com.
And since it is in a mall, the help is pretty much schooled to sell cell phone plans, run-of-the-mill cabling and crappy electronics. They can be generally surly/aloof about the fact that they don’t have an IC or resistor that you need, if they even know what it is. So I wait until I need a bunch of stuff and order it online all at once to save shipping, then the process starts over again.
It’s a bit of a paradox. I’m glad that they’re still in business because they are pretty much the only game in town if you need something “today”, but I recognize that by failing to support them by buying my other components from them I am also contributing to the not-so slow death of the well stocked local electronics store. The other thing I do is stock up on things I don’t need, because I know I can’t just run down to RS to pick it up. So I buy 10 for 3.99 online to save from having to buy 1 for 1.99 next time at RS. Never mind the fact that RS has maintained the same exact spec and part number and stocked it for like 39 years down the street just in case I needed one. <Jerry Seinfeld> The next time I need one, I’m buying TEN online, from some operation that works directly with the Chinese. I interpret this as saving two bucks.</Jerry Seinfeld>
I’m sure I wind up losing out in terms of wasted time and frustration by buying online, but Radio Shack doesn’t really stock the inventory of things I need. And I totally don’t blame them for it, because people like me don’t buy stuff there anymore. People buy cell phone accessories and flash card readers and shitty DVD players, so that’s what they sell.
Where I live, it’s the only place for 50 miles where I can buy a chassis-mount audio socket of almost any kind. If I need quantity and I’m not in a hurry, I’ll order thru the Internet, but sometimes RS is just the ticket. And their entire component inventory would fit in my clothes closet.
But I just can’t believe how ridiculously high their prices are for such items as WiFi adapters, CD/DVD blanks, radios and phones. Wal-Mart & Target beat them in every one of those categories and have a greater selection besides.
Martini Enfield:
Off-topic, but I would like to thank you for using the marvelous term ‘fossicking’ in your reply. It is a pity that few persons have that in their vocabulary.
I too, am puzzled. RS used to stock all of those electronic parts-when i was a HS kid, i built an audio amplifier from parts obtained at RS. Face it, that hobby is long dead-it makes no sense to make your own stuff today. Also, they used to sell their own brand name stuff-the “Realistic” audio line was pretty good (it was the same as marantz underneath). but they seem to sell low-end brands today, and a lot of it is junk. One good thing-they stock all of the oddball watch batteries. But, I don’t see how they can stay in business much longer.
Oh-forget using their video cables-they are absolute crap 9low quality and high attenuation (lousy connectors)!
I only go into RS on the rare occasion that I need a specific type of connector, or some inexpensive speaker cable in bulk, and those nice helpful geeks are always able to deliver. That’s the (ok, one) difference between RS and BB- the BB employees are morons, generally, only interested in upselling you from a splitter to a 56" plasma TV. I think RS fills a limited but critical niche.
Psst…try Monoprice.com. Incredible prices, good selection, quick shipping, and so far I haven’t found a bad cable in a bunch.
No, I don’t work for them or own any stock. 
Pfffth. A few years back I went to a RS to buy a simple audio adapter; nothing more. After standing around for fifteen minutes being ignored by the two clerks (who were busy trying to sell extended cell phone contracts), I gave up, rehung the item, and walked out. I’m not sure the clerks noticed. . . .
So I’d guess that these days they’re making most of their money off of cell phones, a notion supported by a couple of the later posts in this thread.
And their stock of “doo-dads” is nothing like it was thirty years ago. (And was never a match for a local place called Amateur Radio Supply, now deceased, where you could find all manner of specific components [e.g., an 8085 chip for a few bucks].)
Oo…oo…I need me one of those to upgrade my IMSAI 8080.
Not trying to hijack further, but seconded. Their prices seem insanely low, but I’m also shocked at the apparent quality of the cables I’ve received from them.
Radio Shack is the only store that supplies the market between the non-geek, who buys a complete system at Best Buy and just plugs it in, and the geek, who orders a R-155A Class C Input Recycler online. Radio Shack sells to the semi-geek who wants to be able to walk into a store and tell somebody he needs a part that will plug into this kind of DVR so he can connect it to his stereo speakers. It’s a store for somebody who wants to do some of his own electronic work but is not a professional. It’s the Home Depot of electronics.
Except in my case, i couldn’t have asked for specific part numbers. My specifications going in were “Blue LEDs in three noticeably different brightnesses, somewhere in the general vicinity of 1 candela, and a red LED of approximately the same brightness as the brightest blue one, plus batteries and resistors to match whatever the specs for those LEDs turn out to be”. Which meant that even allowing that some of the LEDs were ordered online, I still had to stand around in the corner of the store for about half an hour with a pencil and paper to work out the resistors (I’m a little out of practice on that). The “not being bothered by store staff” someone mentioned is a good point: At one point, the cashier asked if I needed any help, since it was taking so long, and I said no, I was just calculating the resisters, and he left me alone.
Thanks! It’s a very useful word and one that doesn’t get nearly enough airtime IMHO. 
In our store, we had a set up display of LEDs (that were illuminated) along with their respective part numbers underneath them. And almost none of the staff could tell you what a “Candela” was; they’d most likely be saying “Point out the one you want on the display”.
The thing is, you obviously know what you’re doing. Most of our customers after that sort of thing would say “I want an LED that’s not too bright, but still bright enough to clearly see in daylight, and I want the resistors and batteries to go with it, and a switch.”
We even had signs up saying “This section is entirely self-service” and “Staff are unable to assist with Component Part enquiries”, along with “PLEASE MAKE A NOTE OF THE PRODUCT CODE OR WE CANNOT PROCESS THE SALE”, and yet no-one paid the slightest bit of attention to it. :mad:
OK, I could have worked with that. I trust that the display also included somewhere in the fine print the technical specs (voltage and maximum current) for those LEDs?