I know people that would not be hired b/c they were overqualified for the job. One guy was trying to get a job when the job market was doing very badly and he tried to get a job at a bakery and he was told he was overqualified . The bakery didn’t want to invest time in training him b/c they said he would be too bored and quit . The guy did get job as a city planner . People can be way overqualified for a job .
I have a buddy who can’t be re-hired at any GhetroPOS–err, MetroPCS store any more because he knows too much about the inner workings of Android.
Basically, he is now “blacklisted” by them.
How did that happen? The higher-ups apparently hang around Android fansites and developer sites (especially the message boards) and blacklist people they can positively identify.
When he told me that, it shed so much more light on why the employees at such stores tend to be useless (and ghetto).
I feel your pain. But the Internet has improved, Radio Shack has not. What was once hard to find, hard to order, and slow to deliver, is now not as hard to find, easier to order, and faster to deliver (overnight if you really must have it).
I live in a small town, with a small Radio Shack as a corner of a hardware store. I go there only when I need some item that they might have, for a ridiculous price that overcomes the one-day wait and cost I might incur from online ordering.
First, this franchise store says they will still be in business after the Radio Shack bankruptcy, and Second, I doubt it it will make much difference if they close down. In a small town, you have to accept the possibility of slow (1 or 2 day) delivery of items; if you don’t like it, move to the Big City.
If I lived in The Big City, it would make no difference whatsoever.
Seriously, folks, in 1960, I mailed a hand-written order for electronic parts to Allied Radio in Chicago, enclosed a check, and received the goods in about 4 weeks. Wonderful! What are you complaining about?
That’s never been their core business. They used to be competent at it, for sure, but their primary revenue stream before they tried to become a cellphone store was always overpriced electronics, keyboards, underpowered computers (Tandy!) and stereo equipment. The people coming in for transistors and ICs were never especially valuable customers. But RadioShack was basically the only place you could get that stuff outside of mail order (or today, Digikey and Mouser’s websites.)
I thought they began selling parts, hence the name.
You might be younger than me, but pre-Tandy they were for parts and even tubes. Back in those days they did have competition from a bunch of small independent shops. Then one by one they closed and only Radio Shack was really left and then they kept reducing their small part selection.
I don’t have a cite for this, so don’t shoot me for being wrong, please. But, I remember hearing that Tandy’s leather business was still profitable enough that it was providing life support for the Radio Shack stores for the last couple of years. I know here in Fort Worth, they moved and expanded their leather store.
I suppose you guys are right - back in the old old days ( 
) their primary business was for hams and such. But that ended even before the TRS-80 (by far their most successful product) was around.
The mangers don’t want to hire someone that could be a threat to their jobs. The guy that was overqualified to work in a bakery could had very easily ran the whole bakery . It was a well known bakery and supply it products to grocery stores and restaurants in a few cities.
As I recall in my dotage, the Trash-80 was their first product.
They were making stuff under their Realistic brand since at least the 60s, I think. Mostly stereo gear and CB radios.
Oh yes, I had one of their amps. I believe Lafayette had stores or stores like Radio Shack sold them.
I was walking past the neighborhood Radio Shack the other day, and wondering how long they had left. Based on never seeing a customer inside, I doubt they’ll be one of the 1700 surviving stores, so I guess the answer is “not long”. I just hope they put something useful in the space like a used book store or a CD shop. Maybe even a photo processing lab.
Wait, what?
NPR mentioned that Amazon might be buying up to half the stores. There appears to be plenty of stories on it. Here is one from Time
Apparently, The Shack has now eaten the big one.
Vaguely related: Here’s a 1981 Radio Shack computer catalog I ran into yesterday. Just for the nostalgia… and the hair!
Glass half full: here’s hoping this is a boon to small retailers.
Glass half empty: this shows that electronics have progressed to the level that all but the most determined tinkerers are effectively out of the game. The vast majority of our population continues to become more and more alienated from the way things work.
I thought this was interesting. A blogger recently came across a Radio Shack newspaper ad from 1991. He noted that of the fifteen items listed in the ad, his iPhone replaces thirteen of them. I suppose that says more about how useful a smartphone is than what Radio Shack is selling. But it speaks to how difficult the consumer electronics business is.
That’s not true. More people are getting into hobby electronics now than any time in the past. The difference is they’re inventing new stuff and working from kits, rather than tweaking or fixing commercial products.
in doing some net noodling today:
OSCAR 10, the 10th Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio, was made of store bought components in 1983. the solar cells were bought from RS. they were tested and the best ones kept.