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Non-NEC Console Related Discussion => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: BigusSchmuck on February 05, 2015, 10:35:13 AM
Title: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: BigusSchmuck on February 05, 2015, 10:35:13 AM
Where Radio Shack is filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/radio-shack-files-for-chapter-11-bankrutpcy/
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: NightWolve on February 05, 2015, 10:38:34 AM
Hah, yeah, I just saw that. Quote: Part of me says f--k 'em, but I would wander in locations from time to time and find things I could stomach to buy... Throughout history their prices always sucked and they thought their customers were stupid, but yeah... Anyway, gotta remember to stop by a location to catch the upcoming clearance sales!
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: Desh on February 05, 2015, 10:47:22 AM
Yeah, I stop into my local shack from time to time if I need a component and am too impatient to wait for the mail. Even this has been hard the last few years as they've completely downsized their selection. Also, it seems the only things they teach their employees anymore is the cell phone biz.
I am also excited about upcoming clearance sales but, I am saddened all electronic components will now need to be mail ordered.
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: NightWolve on February 05, 2015, 10:58:39 AM
I have a nearby Microcenter that has some things RadioShack had (solder, irons, etc.) and is a helluva lot cheaper than RadioShack ever was! Fry's (http://www.frys.com/) is the next best alternative, but it's way way too far from me.
FYI, just remembered this, but Microcenter was founded by 2 former RadioShack employees, so hey, it still lives on in a sense! ;) Great, great stuff to find in there if you have one in your area! It's the cheapest place in Chicago to buy solder, e.g. $2.99 for a thin precision roll of the usual length. I also bought my solder irons from there, as well as 2 Windows 8.1 tablets (7" for $30 with coupon and a 10.1") during the last Black Friday sale.
http://www.microcenter.com/
What I love is the discounted prices on return items. Any item returned immediately gets a reprinted sticker with a discount price. I bought a USB 3.0 4-port hub for real cheap thanks to this and the 10.1" tablet I got at $160 instead of $200. Black Friday price was $150, but I missed it for a BestBuy deal that I regreted - no biggie for $10 bucks, it's a great Windows 8 tablet.
EDIT: Yeah, shouldn't be all trashy, so RIP RadioShack... Thanks for the Tandy1000 memories!
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: SephirothTNH on February 05, 2015, 12:25:12 PM
^Microcenter is great!! I hate braving that Houston traffic to get to my nearest one though.
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: csgx1 on February 05, 2015, 01:59:40 PM
I'm really surprised they lasted this long. Every time I've visited my local Radio Shack it was always empty.
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: Jibbajaba on February 05, 2015, 02:05:55 PM
I'm surprised they lasted this long, but it still makes me sad. I used to f*cking LOVE going into RS when I was a kid. Dicking around with the TRS-80s, checking out the toys. They had an awesome selection of toys during Christmas back in the day. Radio-controlled cars, pocket games, etc. I used to have one of those howevermany-in-1 electronic project kits and loved it. Radio Shack was also my first job out of high school, which was definitely at the tail end of their relevant years. RIP Radio Shack.
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: BigusSchmuck on February 05, 2015, 03:41:22 PM
I have a nearby Microcenter that has some things RadioShack had (solder, irons, etc.) and is a helluva lot cheaper than RadioShack ever was! Fry's (http://www.frys.com/) is the next best alternative, but it's way way too far from me.
FYI, just remembered this, but Microcenter was founded by 2 former RadioShack employees , so hey, it still lives on in a sense! ;) Great, great stuff to find in there if you have one in your area! It's the cheapest place in Chicago to buy solder, e.g. $2.99 for a thin precision roll of the usual length. I also bought my solder irons from there, as well as 2 Windows 8.1 tablets (7" for $30 with coupon and a 10.1") during the last Black Friday sale.
http://www.microcenter.com/
What I love is the discounted prices on return items. Any item returned immediately gets a reprinted sticker with a discount price. I bought a USB 3.0 4-port hub for real cheap thanks to this and the 10.1" tablet I got at $160 instead of $200. Black Friday price was $150, but I missed it for a BestBuy deal that I regreted - no biggie for $10 bucks, it's a great Windows 8 tablet.
EDIT: Yeah, shouldn't be all trashy, so RIP RadioShack... Thanks for the Tandy1000 memories!
Yeah the closest Frys to me is in Wilsonville Oregon (6 hours good lord), I guess I'm stuck going to Platt's Electric but really out here the only way you'll get any good deals for electronic supplies is by ordering online. That's the price you pay out in the sticks..
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: Necromancer on February 06, 2015, 01:17:47 AM
I can't say I'm surprised. They've not changed with the times, with way too many locations and not competitive in online sales.
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: xelement5x on February 06, 2015, 02:55:31 AM
Yeah, the thing about this that makes me most sad is I have a friend who works for Radio Shack right now. The ratshack I grew up with doesn't exist anymore to me.
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: esadajr on February 06, 2015, 03:33:47 AM
it is sad to see all these companies either "downsize" or go bankrupt in a time when we need more jobs to be created.
I agree with Nightwolve, thanks for the Tandy 1000 memories :)
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: EvilEvoIX on February 06, 2015, 03:43:37 AM
According to Review Tech USA, Sprint will is buying them, closing half of their stores, and making the other half Sprint Location.
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: SignOfZeta on February 06, 2015, 04:35:56 AM
Back in the early/mid 80s Radio Shack was basically paradise. The first place I ever saw a portable CD player was RS. I've purchased tons of components and cables there.
However, man, they really really suck now. Every location. It's the worst place to buy anything if you can get it someplace else. Back in the day they used to need your name address and phone number written on carbon triplicate forms just to buy a blank cassette tape and all the stereo stuff was junk from RCA rebadged "Realistic", but at the same time, in an era when technology moved forward at a much slower pace they were kind of an oasis with the educational toys, computer parts, and electronic components.
Now, all the "good" is gone and the "bad" is twice as bad. They actively seek out the sleaziest wannabe used car salesmen to interrogate you every minute you are in the store about your mobile provider, and that's merely an evolution of grilling you about satellite shit, which is what they did in the early 2000s. It's a place that preys upon old people's lack of understanding of electronics for half its business.
In a time when gadgets and computers and home theaters and games and phones and shit like that are all most people care about, they can't turn a profit? There is no reason for these stores to exist. Let them all turn into. Tanfastics and Chinese takeouts. It's so long long overdue. f*ck them.
GameStop is next and for the same reason: they are the worst place to buy anything you can get someplace else.
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: Jibbajaba on February 06, 2015, 05:12:44 AM
Back in the day they used to need your name address and phone number written on carbon triplicate forms just to buy a blank cassette tape.
God, that was the worst part of my job when I worked there. f*cking EVERYBODY would ask why I needed their name and address, and I don't blame them. But we had to ask. They literally kept track of that shit, like what percentage of customers you got names and addys for. One of my friends actually got fired because he put some smart ass comment in the name/address section of someone's receipt. Something like "this job sucks". So someone was actually reading that shit.
One of my fondest memories of working there was this: We used to sell a shitty little guitar amp at the store. My co-worker and I both played the guitar, so one day I brought my electric guitar in. We would open the back door to the stock room and stand in the doorway smoking weed, then take turns playing the guitar. I just remember being high and helping some customer find some whatever thingy while Duane was in the back room wailing on my guitar with the amp turned up to 11.
We also used to sell computer games there, and for some reason sometimes the boxes weren't shrink-wrapped. So we had a copy of that game "Indy Car" by Papyrus (this was in 1995) and it wasn't shrink-wrapped. Literally NOBODY ever bought those games, so I took the disks out and took them home to play the game, fully intending to return the disks to the box. Well, before I had the chance, my manager discovered that the disks were missing (probably because he wanted to do exactly what I had already done) and he went off on us, saying that people were shoplifting in the store right under our noses and we weren't paying proper attention. So obviously I couldn't return the disks at that point or he would know that one of us took them. I still have them. :P
Lastly, I bought my Atari Lynx from one of my co-workers there (the same guy who got fired for the address thing) and I actually bought a Lynx game out of the Radio Shack Shop-at-Home catalog. I thought it was pretty neat that we sold those, since the Lynx was pretty much a dead platform by then. Desert Strike, in case anyone is wondering. Still have that, too.
Title: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: esteban on February 06, 2015, 08:21:30 AM
I just loved looking through the the annual catalog. It was an awesome tome of stuff. I learned so much from the damn catalog. Every single page.
But, I always knew that Radio Shack ("The Shack" hahahahahshashs) was not nearly as awesome as other stores that sold audio/video equipment (that's all I cared about when I was a kid, even though I knew about the LED's and UHF antennas and crystal radio kits RS sold).
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: SuperGrafx on February 06, 2015, 12:50:16 PM
Radio Shack in the 1980's was nirvana. Who can forget all those cool lcd handheld games they carried, the 'free battery of the month" promo, and the ever popular Whiz Kids comic book that they produced (to advertise Tandy computers and whatnot)?
Those were magical times. Times we'll likely never see again in our lifetimes... :(
Radio Shack in the 1980's was nirvana. Who can forget all those cool lcd handheld games they carried, the 'free battery of the month" promo, and the ever popular Whiz Kids comic book that they produced (to advertise Tandy computers and whatnot)?
Those were magical times. Times we'll likely never see again in our lifetimes... :(
:roll: :roll: Radio Shack Theme Song Commercial Advertisement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS1XN7Ka60s#)
A two minute festival of lies.
To point the yeah we got answers you got questions,not really for radio shack.Though in the 90's at least they were about selling parts for electronics.
Title: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: SignOfZeta on February 08, 2015, 04:58:33 AM
Radio Shack, for whatever reason, did and still has the trust of helpless uncles and grandmas. People really do ask them for advice. This was probably the most valuable of all the resources they squandered. They really did have a good reputation, and they worked like hell to ruin it.
In 80s they wanted your name and address because they wanted to mail you junk.
In the 90s the Post Office decided that bulk mail was the only way to survive so they made it really easy to just carpet bomb entire zip code areas with ads. RadioShack had no use for your info anymore, but then they came up with a new reason to have it, they wanted to sell you satellite TV crap. They pushed it really hard.
Then, in the 2000s, they switched to pestering you about cell phone plans, still need that info, see.
So they really never stopped asking for your address! If someone came in and spent $200, that was never good enough for hem. They don't care about revenue in itself.. They want their tentacles in your life. It never worked for them. They are now going out of business, and I'm sure the people running the company have all sorts of explanation as to how it's nobody's fault, but it's pretty obvious now that constantly making your customers uncomfortable is not a way to run a business.
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: ProfessorProfessorson on February 08, 2015, 05:23:09 AM
Radio Shack, for whatever reason, did and still has the trust of helpless uncles and grandmas. People really do ask them for advice. This was probably the most valuable of all the resources they squandered. They really did have a good reputation, and they worked like hell to ruin it.
In 80s they wanted your name and address because they wanted to mail you junk.
In the 90s the Post Office decided that bulk mail was the only way to survive so they made it really easy to just carpet bomb entire zip code areas with adds. RadioShack had no use for your info anymore, but then they came up with a new reason to have it, they wanted to sell you satellite TV crap. They pushed it really hard.
Then, in the 2000s, they switched to pestering you about cell phone plans, still need that info, see.
So they really never stopped asking for your address! If someone came in and spent $200, that was never good enough for hem. They don't care about revenue in itself.. They want their tentacles in your life. It never worked for them. They are now going out of business, and I'm sure the people running the company have all sorts of explanation as to how it's nobody's fault, but it's pretty obvious now that constantly making your customers uncomfortable is not a way to run a business.
Yeah its not much different then Toys R Us or Best Buy right now. They are in a situation now where they are in debt and their internal solution they came up with to get out of it is to put customers in debt with high interest credit cards or magazine subscriptions and unneeded insurance plans, so checking out at TRU or Best Buy now requires being hassled by the cashier about all sorts of unneeded bullshit. These companies don't get that you do stuff like this and it leaves customers with a bad taste in their mouth. Eventually they get tired of being hassled and they shop elsewhere, or online. Specialty stores cant afford to do shit like this, but they don't get it so f*ck them, let them die off.
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: cr8zykuban0 on February 08, 2015, 06:40:33 AM
you make a good point professor. I hate how companies do that just to get a little extra money but screwing customers at the same time! eventually, we'll get tired of it!!
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: SignOfZeta on February 08, 2015, 09:22:53 AM
I wish I could just go into a store and buy a thing.
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: NightWolve on February 08, 2015, 09:33:41 AM
Unfortunately, MicroCenter did inherit the aggressiveness of wanting a customer's address info at checkout by its ex-RadioShack founders. Still a great store, though. Also, this has spread to BestBuy and when you return an item, they want to scan your driver's license which fully IDs you. The other way many stores are doing this is with rewards cards that you must register for... It's just not in your financial interest to shop without one when all sales prices are dependent on your card being scanned to get that 20-40% discount...
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: SuperGrafx on February 08, 2015, 09:40:17 AM
I wish I could just go into a store and buy a thing.
Me too. That's why I'll always try to buy something at a brick-and-mortar store as opposed to amazon or some online store whenever possible.
There's something to be said about seeing, touching and instantly acquiring an item as opposed to waiting days for it to appear in some generic cardboard box on your doorstep
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: BigusSchmuck on February 08, 2015, 03:39:15 PM
And a list of them: http://uk.businessinsider.com/radioshack-store-closure-list-2015-2
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: InfraMan on February 09, 2015, 03:35:10 AM
Aww, man... I used to love those electronics project kits Radio Shack sold. For some reason, that's the first thing I always think of now when I hear "Radio Shack."
That and the TRS-80, which was still a thing when I was really young.
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: SuperGrafx on February 09, 2015, 01:45:18 PM
You know what I always wanted?
Those robotic arm things that you controlled with twin joysticks. Anyone remember those? Radio Shack was famous for that product!
Title: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: SignOfZeta on February 09, 2015, 02:01:15 PM
Armitron. I had one. It was pretty solid, honestly. I got it expecting it to be shittier.
EDIT: Wikipedia says it was made by Tomy, which explains everything.
Which reminds me, there was a fairly basic synthesizer sold by Radio Shack that was actually built by Moog. I've played with one personally and I'm pretty confident it's the best keyboard they ever sold.
Title: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: esteban on February 09, 2015, 05:44:16 PM
Armitron. I had one. It was pretty solid, honestly. I got it expecting it to be shittier.
EDIT: Wikipedia says it was made by Tomy, which explains everything.
Which reminds me, there was a fairly basic synthesizer sold by Radio Shack that was actually built by Moog. I've played with one personally and I'm pretty confident it's the best keyboard they ever sold.
Radio Shack was a mix of crappy <--> decent rebadged products.
I've told this story before, but I got a rebadged Sony boom box in 85-86 that was excellent quality (specifically, the double-cassette deck was great, I used it with receiver + CD player....not many portable stereos had line-in line-out with clean sound). It didn't die until 15 years of constant use.
Anyway, who knew? Sometimes RS had decent stuff sometimes it was total crap.
This boom box was huge, mind you.
If anyone has RS catalog circa 1985 I'd love to see a pic of it!
Realistic.
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: BigusSchmuck on February 11, 2015, 01:15:30 AM
This is probably the best advertisement for Radio Shack ever in a movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE4V4AXTRkM
Title: Re: Oh what sad times we are living in...
Post by: VenomMacbeth on February 11, 2015, 02:03:22 AM