
A Eulogy for RadioShack - Thevet
http://www.sbnation.com/2014/11/26/7281129/radioshack-eulogy-stories
======
morganvachon
I'd be willing to bet that this is exactly the way it was at most, if not all,
corporate RadioShack stores. On the other hand, the franchise stores (which
mostly no longer exist) could be great places to shop and to work, because
they were owned by actual breathing human beings, not faceless corporate
overlords.

My first "real" job after high school was at the local RadioShack, which was
owned by one of the most amazing people in my early adult life. I had shopped
there for years as a teenager, as it was the only place I could find
electronic parts without cracking the Mouser catalog. This was the mid 90s,
and there was nearly no e-commerce yet. One day I was in there looking at the
HTX-202, RadioShack's entry into 2-meter amateur radio handsets, as I had just
been licensed as a Technician Class ham for the first time. Richard said "Hey,
Morgan, you still looking for a job?" "Sure, but what happened to Dennis?" I
replied. He said "Well, Dennis kinda died." Poor Dennis, his only employee and
an elderly gentleman, had suffered an aneurysm and just like that, he was
gone. Thus, thanks to the untimely death of a nice old man, I got my first and
only RadioShack sales associate position.

Working there was an absolute blast; the pay sucked and the only commission to
be had was on Primestar satellite sales, but Richard was like that cool uncle
everyone has. I learned a lot about how to run a small business from him, and
there was never a day that we didn't have fun. Christmas season could be
hectic, but in a good way, with parents who were delighted to see that we
carried batteries for all the toys their kids were getting (along with some
nifty toys like R/C cars, too).

Even after getting a better full time job a couple of years later, I stayed on
part time with Richard for over a year, until he could hire someone to replace
me. I still drop in when I'm in my hometown to say hi, and we still keep in
touch via email. It really saddens me to know that he'll likely have to drop
the RadioShack name one day soon, but I know his store will continue operating
for the foreseeable future. His kind of salesmanship stands far above what you
get at the corporate stores.

~~~
toomuchtodo
> It really saddens me to know that he'll likely have to drop the RadioShack
> name one day soon

Could he turn his shop into a for-profit hackerspace that has inventory for
projects?

~~~
ChuckMcM
This is an idea I've toyed with for a while, I called it 'prototype
electronics' where the 'store' part had inventory that was known to work
together so that projects could be designed, built, and sourced out of the
store parts. (this was true early in the RS era as well of course)

There are some annoying liability (ie expensive) issues with letting minors
operate soldering irons on the premises or while using solder that has lead in
it. But mostly people just don't go out. So when you look at the probability
of having enough "customers" you find you need a really large population base
while maintaining a very small foot print. New York comes to mind or London.
Hard to scale it to more spread out places.

~~~
ams6110
It's a shame really. I learned to use a soldering iron when I was about 10
years old. My dad used to buy home electronics from Heathkit and we would put
them together. I took an electronics course in middle school and we would use
soldering irons there also. Also a shop class where we used drill presses,
sabre saws, all kinds of oil-based paints and stains, etc. (the table saw was
one of the few tools that were "off limits" to the kids).

We're now so scared of liability that kids don't get a chance to learn how to
work with their hands.

~~~
praneshp
+1. I learnt to solder when I was 14 or so, and did hurt myself a couple of
times too. But I lived in India, where there's not many liability issues.

------
chipotle_coyote
While it's glib to say that Radio Shack was lost for the want of a space, the
change in their corporate identity from "Radio Shack" to "RadioShack" \-- 1995
-- coincides with their slide to irrelevance nicely enough to seem kind of
symbolic. _We don 't really know what the Internet is, but we've noticed that
cool companies are using CamelCase._

I suspect it's hard for people who are under 30, maybe even 40, to believe how
different RS once was from the sad sack we have today. I don't think they were
ever really cool -- that air you now get from their '70s and '80s catalog of
old white dudes trying to be hip is an air you got from those catalogs even
when they were brand new, trust me -- but they had big selections of really
interesting stuff, most of which was exclusive to them, and frequently had
salespeople who were genuinely enthusiastic about electronics and computers.
And the importance of the TRS-80 in the early computer scene seems to be
vastly underestimated today, I suspect in part because of that perpetual lack
of cool. You might dimly remember "Trash-80" jokes, but you may not remember
that for a few years it was the best-selling computer in the world. And unless
you followed the company, you almost certainly don't remember that they had
separate "Tandy Computer Center" stores, or that they sold an IBM PCjr "clone"
called the Tandy 1000 that fixed all of the PCjr's problems and became so
popular that big name games had exclusive Tandy 1000 features, or that they
actually shipped a frikkin' Xenix workstation (The TRS-80 Model 16) years
before most people had any idea what that was or why they should care.

And, really, that last one sums up Radio Shack in a nutshell, especially with
computers: always either a few years ahead of their time, or a few years
behind it. As someone who grew up with the TRS-80 Model I and later Model 4
(and who did a lot of strange mad science stuff with it up even into the early
'90s), I'll miss RS -- but the RS that I have fond memories of has been gone a
long time.

~~~
personZ
Quite a few comments about how Radio Shack lost their way and squandered their
opportunity, but really their business model was dead. Nothing they could have
done would have changed what happened.

It was a store with a very large number of SKUs that they could only sustain
through very high profit margins. Sure that works great when it's Sunday and
you need that resistor now, but the vast majority of times people would just
order online.

~~~
kjs3
RS was out of the "grab a part on the weekend for a project" business a decade
or so before "order online" was an option.

~~~
CamperBob2
I still use them all the time for just that. You no longer get a choice of 10
different bipolars and 3 different VMOS FETs, but the parts drawer is still
pretty useful when all you need is a relay or an Arduino board.

~~~
georgemcbay
Same here, though it depends on the Radio Shack.

There are a few of them near me and one is still a pretty decent "need it
right now" electronic components place (with very limited selection) but the
other two just sell cellphones and HDMI cables and basically nothing else.

~~~
kjs3
Yeah...this is my experience. I hear people say _their_ local RS has
components, but all the ones near me are exclusively cell phones, crappy
knock-off RC toys and batteries.

Fortunately, my local Frys has a very good components selection.

------
IvyMike
Obligatory link to The Onion article "Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack
Still In Business":

[http://www.theonion.com/articles/even-ceo-cant-figure-out-
ho...](http://www.theonion.com/articles/even-ceo-cant-figure-out-how-
radioshack-still-in-b,2190/)

That's from 2007, making the continued existence today even more perplexing.

------
pud
I worked at Radio Shack.

I was in high school and lived with my folks. I had almost no expenses. It
didn't occur to me until much later what a bummer it all was.

\- You get paid commission, something like 1% per sale. Commission was
pointless because almost everyone already knew what they needed (AA batteries
or a headphone adapter...).

\- If your commission didn't add up to minimum wage, you got minimum wage.
Since it was nearly impossible to sell $800/hr at Radio Shack, everyone made
minimum wage.

\- There was a computer screen in the back room that showed a leaderboard of
on-duty employees, and how much each sold for the day in real-time. So even
though everyone was making minimum wage, the employees were pitted against
each other. This made every employee your enemy.

\- If somehow you made a commission for the day, when the item was ever
returned, they dock the commission from your next paycheck. So you ended up
making _less_ than minimum wage.

~~~
vitd
This is funny to me because, as a young customer, I distinctly remember
thinking, "God, I hate coming to this *$#%@ store. The sales people seem like
they're not plugged in. I'm trying to buy an <xyz> and they keep trying to get
me to buy an <abc> which has nothing to do with what I'm looking for. What are
they smoking? They're not even listening to me!"

I had no notion of selling on commission, but I did understand selling someone
a bill of goods rather than what they wanted or needed. And that's about when
I stopped shopping there.

------
plg
I remember flipping through the Radio Shack catalogue as a kid in the late
70s, early 80s, and making my virtual xmas shopping list (I almost never got
the things I actually wanted). radio-controlled cars, walkie-talkies, metal
detectors, tape recorders, electronics kits.

I also remember being able to walk into a Radio Shack in my local mall and
stroll over to the electronics section and pick out just the right resistor
that I needed to complete my circuit project at home. I think I was 12 at the
time.

~~~
jmelloy
Two Christmases in a row, I got a radio-controlled car from Radio Shack. Two
years in a row, that car was dead by New Year's. I never asked for one again.

~~~
thenmar
Were you recharging them?

~~~
ChuckMcM
I suspect he was. I used to take Radio Shack R/C cars and re-purpose them into
robots. The best ones used treads as that would allow for differential
steering which was _much_ easier on the inverse kinematics than the front
wheel steering. And Radio Shack always had a 'closeout/clearance' junk table
that said R/C cars would end up on.

That experience lead me to understand that a common failure mode was that the
radio receiver circuit had some tuning caps on it that would get jostled
about, causing the car to cease responding. Not sure why they went with trim
caps other than it meant everything else could be wider tolerances if they
just tuned it once fully assembled. It did lead to a lot of fallout though.

------
vibrolax
Radio Shack had a lot in common with Sears, now also on death's doorstep.
Sometimes the contract manufacturers making RS's house brand speakers or Sears
"Craftsman" power tools or "Kenmore" appliances would turn out a top-
performing product for a great price. As the actual manufacturer might change
from year-to-year, one could never rely on the brand to deliver a good value.
One had to read magazine or other reviews to discover where the diamonds were
hidden.

------
bane
I actually remember the point that RS became irrelevant to me. After spending
lots of free-time hanging out there in the 80s at the local malls, and getting
much of my early computing stuff from them, I ended up with a 386sx bought
from another local computer store. It was my real first entry into IBM
compatibles and I remember how easy it was to mix and match various parts and
cards and extend your machine into something much better than what you bought
without too much fuss or expense.

And I remember lots of those old early games had special settings for Tandy
computers, special video modes, 3-channel sound, that sort of thing (I don't
remember the specifics), I wondered what all the fuss was about since you
couldn't buy a Tandy video card or audio card and they weren't really
"industry standards" in the way a VGA graphics card or a Sound Blaster was.

I went back and visited my local RS to see one of their Tandy machines and
came away singularly unimpressed. I realized then that there was really
nothing Radio Shack could offer me that I couldn't get easier and cheaper from
dozens of other, larger, stores with better selection.

Years later I stopped by to pick up a cuecat and I've never visited a RS
outside of that.

I never understood why they didn't start aggregating their small stores into
bigger stores. Heck, even Office Depot offered me more selection than my local
Radio Shacks. With the coming and going of Circuit City, the entrance of Frys,
Best Buy, CompUSA, etc. I never understood why they stuck by the old '70s
electronic store tucked away in the corner of a strip mall next to the
Laundrymat model.

------
brianberns
I learned to program in the early 1980s by playing with a TRS-80 floor model
for an hour or two at a time while my mom shopped elsewhere in the mall. My
first program animated a sine wave in BASIC by printing a single character one
line at a time, and letting the lines scroll up the screen. I would've loved
to own one of those computers, but my dad refused to buy one because he said
it would be too tempting for me. He didn't even want me to have a hand
calculator, and gave me his old slide rules instead (which were fun - not
complaining!). I didn't have unfettered access to computers until I went to
college a few years later.

I never made a big purchase at RS, but I always appreciated that I could pop
in for electronic sundries as needed over the years. My opinion of them
started to go south about a decade ago when they began insisting that they
needed to know my zipcode every time I bought something. That was very fishy
and heralded their sad decline, I think.

RS has been obsolete for years and I really don't know how they've managed to
stay in business this long, but I'll miss the name when it's gone.

~~~
dragonwriter
> My opinion of them started to go south about a decade ago when they began
> insisting that they needed to know my zipcode every time I bought something.

When I worked for RS just out of high school (1990) that was already corporate
policy.

~~~
anonbanker
Every time I'm asked for a postal code (in Canada) I always use V4G1N4. They
never notice.

------
breadbox
It's awful to read that and compare it with what Radio Shack was for us
geeklings in the 1980s. For those of us living far from big cities, Radio
Shack was the source of electric parts, IC chips, LEDs, not to mention hands-
on access to actual computers.

~~~
SomeCallMeTim
Exactly. It makes me sad that the only remaining source of electronic parts in
many areas is likely to close down.

Even with other options nearby, Radio Shack is still the closest place to me
that sells such parts -- and the only one that's open past 5pm, or on Sundays.

I wonder if there's a way for them to double-down on the geek side of their
inventory. They're at least picking up a lot of "maker" inventory: Arduino and
related kits, etc.

They just need to raise demand. They could, for instance, provide and promote
free curriculum plans for schools or clubs that just happened to need the
kinds of components you can't buy anywhere locally but Radio Shack.

~~~
breadbox
Exactly! With the current maker movement you'd think they would be primed to
reinvent themselves.

After reading that article, however, I'm inclined to think that their problems
are not so much from a market that changed out from under them, but rather are
internal and self-inflicted. If so, then they completely deserve their current
situation.

~~~
sjm-lbm
Yeah, that's their problem.

They've actually tried somewhat to stock parts that maker movement-types might
want: I was in an RS recently, and I was shocked at how much Arduino stuff
they had on the shelves, for instance. When you look at their website, though,
it's dominated by Beats headphones and iPhone 6s - they've somehow managed to
survive for at least 20 years or so without really picking the market they are
trying to serve.

------
mrbill
Some of the locations have started to carry a bigger electronics component
selection again (instead of a single pull-out file of resistors and
capcitors), along with 3D printing supplies, Arduinos and related parts
(retail packed from SparkFun), and so forth.

Unfortunately, they started doing so 4-5 years too late. I was _shocked_ in
2007-2008 when I needed a couple of resistors to finish a project, the local
Nerd Palace (Electronic Parts Outlet, in Houston) was closed on a Sunday, and
the local Radio Shack actually had that pull-out file of components with what
I needed.

------
VLM
My Dad worked there in the 80s between contracts for a couple months. "Well
this contract ends this month, and I've got an awesome database migration
contract starting in 6 months, so I've gotta find something to do meanwhile
(decades before FOSS type stuff), and I've spent tons of money at RS since it
was allied radio and I was a kid ..." This was before they turned into Cell
Phone Shack. About half the time they got well over minimum wage back then,
even on low sales stores. Sounds like they earn even less now than in the 80s,
not adjusted for inflation! One thing that didn't change was the Shack
expanding to own your life, so it starts as part time and somehow 3 months
later you're an asst mgr (why?) and "working" 90 hours and then a couple
months later you're all WTF am I doing here at 100 hrs a week, my contract job
starts next week, bye!

The article had a lot of weird stuff about not understanding why people
wouldn't leave a crappy job. Well, perhaps 90% of the time the only crappy
part was the paycheck, you just hung out and screwed around and occasionally
sold stuff to people. So I'd take the city bus to his store after school and
we'd play video/computer games for HOURS during the slow times. We had kind of
a game on betting when the last customer would come in, maybe 6pm or so most
days, then we had the store to ourselves till 10 or so, literally a kid in a
toy store. It honestly was a lot of fun almost all the time, just not much
pay. You could make a ton of money at lunch and after work rush, and
saturdays, like $40/hr (which in the 80s was a lot), but you had to hang out
all night long at minimum wage if you wanted the plum hours. Sales were
extremely uneven over time. I still don't understand why they ever opened
before noon or were open after 6pm or so.

I can prove he worked there... in the mid 80s each shipment contained a
hopeless VCR tape of sales blather not for public consumption. Sell Sell Sell!

------
adricnet
That's certainly an interesting read... and one I can't really argue with the
anecdata of from my own experiences. So I'll add one:

After it was too late by that author's reckoning, the parent of Radio Shack
tried another venture, a "big box" store called The Incredible Universe. When
that failed and they wrote it off, it wiped out the entire profit of Radio
Shack thousands of stores for that financial year.

I still think of it when I'm trying to understand the machinations of large
companies.

And I, too hope that the folks I worked with at RS in the 20C found better
jobs, especially the poor store managers.

~~~
cicero
The Fry's in Dallas is in the space of a former Incredible Universe. The Fry's
is decorated like a cattle ranch, but Incredible Universe was like a rock
concert. The first time I went in there, I immediately thought they were
trying too hard to be cool. It was completely over the top, so I'm not
surprised they wiped out all of their profits. It's too bad they couldn't find
a happy medium.

~~~
mrpippy
Yep the San Diego Fry's also moved into an Incredible Universe after they
closed down (probably 15 years ago). Fry's never gave it a theme though and
never even took the Incredible Universe logo off the delivery trucks

------
marincounty
I think Radio Shack could be reborn if it did a few things. Get rid of the
cheap toys. Go back to just electronic parts, and today's technology--like
having the Ardino and Rasberry always in stock--along with all the less know
electronic kits. Try to keep the prices down. Keep all radios and cell phone
stuff, but get rid of the advertisements(I don't like to walk into loud
stores). I would also devote a small section of each store to
used/recycled/surplus stuff. The workers shouldn't be required to wear ties.

~~~
pconner
I wonder how big the market is for Arduino/Raspberry Pi kits at a brick and
mortar store when it's so easy (not to mention inexpensive) to buy them online
at hobbyist sites like Adafruit.

~~~
mathiasben
Microcenter has a lot of this stuff now a days.

------
leoc
> RadioShack is a company of massive real estate, and is peddling a business
> model that is completely unviable in 2014.

We have good evidence to suggest that the RS business model is indeed viable
in 2014: it's Maplin
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8328621](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8328621)
(followup
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8329953](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8329953)
).

~~~
timthorn
Maplin has been doing ecommerce for over twenty years - anyone else remember
CASHTel?

~~~
linker3000
Yep. My Maplin customer number is only 4 digits - which always throws the
staff if they use it/

Mind you, Maplin has turned into a UK Tandy and is really no longer a sane
source for electronic components. Wouldn't be surprised if they eventually
went down the pan or shrunk their stores base.

Remember the orange/green/white collectable discount vouchers you'd receive
with your orders.

~~~
72deluxe
Yes, I thought they were turning into a strange PC-World / odd electrical bits
shop too.

------
realrocker
So last month I was in US for the first time and I was dying to walk into a
RadioShack, the temple of cool things as I have been hearing about on obscure
and popular electronics hobby forums since I was 16. After checking out 6
stores in 4 cities, I was really disappointed. No cool stuff. All I could find
was phone cases, cheap earphones and a few IC's(mildly interesting). To be
honest, I didn't know what I was expecting but certainly not what I saw.

~~~
parasubvert
That's what RadioShack was like up until the 90s - lots of cool stuff there,
and an easy place to get electronic parts for hobbiests. There were Laser
Discs on display in the 80s, TRS-80 CoCos (color computers), followed by Tandy
PCs. I remember having free access to play with a TRS-80 hooked up to a
thermal printer and dot matrix printer so you could figure out what you
preferred - big and noisy or small and silent.

I also remember my friend in high school picking up a special ordered US
Robotics 14.4k HST modem with his Tandy PC in 1989 from Radio Shack - I was
still on 1200 baud on my c64 and I lost a $5 bet that such a fast modem even
existed. I was utterly blown away by the speed.

At some point management decided it needed to be another CarPhoneWarehouse or
RandomTechJunkShack

------
logn
I wish RadioShack would transition to selling hackable electronics (Raspberry
Pi, Arduino, stuff on SparkFun, Maker Bots, etc). That's how they started and
now as they're nearing bankruptcy, that market is finally back and getting
bigger. Further, most of these parts are made by small-time businesses with
suboptimal distribution and RadioShack could be enormously helpful. And I see
blogs all the time about how if you have the inside connections to factory
owners in China you can get all sorts of cool stuff at very low prices--
RadioShack could resell all this.

Edit: but I think RadioShack's future is in the hands of Wall Street types who
only see it as an interesting financial instrument where they can cheat some
fools out of money before totally liquidating.

------
blhack
Radioshack, want to save you business? Turn every single one of your stores
into a hackerspace.

You don't even need much. Get a laser cutter, a 3D printer, a drill press,
free WiFi, some tables, and a stack of arduinos and you'll be doing awesome.

Then build an instructables-esque community website for people to show off
their projects.

I'll even consult with you guys on this if you make a big enough donation to
the hackerspace I help run in Phoenix.

~~~
spiritplumber
I tried to tell this to the RS closest to my home, they won't. I even offered
to give them a 3d printer for two months to try, they won't. The manager there
told me that the electronics stuff is basically overhead, they're there to
sell phones 11 months a year and RC cars in December. The funny part is, the
guy is a hardcore libertarian.

~~~
Roboprog
I suspect he is telling you the truth, that most of their net revenue comes
from phones and toys. It's risky to change to something that sounds like a
current loss leader as the primary business, even if in reality there is a
significantly different emphasis.

Sadly, the opportunity costs of running a 2nd rate phone store must suck.
Sounds like it would be more profitable to use the space to make and sell
hamburgers or pizza.

Hmmm. Maybe they could have a "maker" workshop that also sells pizza and
beer???

------
steven2012
The Radio Shack where I grew up gave out free batteries once a month. I did a
science fair project that compared how good Radio Shack batteries were to
Duracell, etc, and they were superior by far. It's sad that they are basically
dead, but it's the Circle of Life, I suppose, and a good reminder to never
rest on your laurels or take it for granted.

~~~
michaelcampbell
Yup, when I was a kid my local RS had the 'battery of the month' club. I
remember the card they'd punch and everything. The town was small so the guy
knew all of us so we couldn't cheat (although none of us would have even
considered it).

I remember being excited to get my free 9v every month. Simpler times.

~~~
webnrrd2k
I was a member of the Battery of the Month Club, too. The local Radio Shack
was next to a record store named Licorice Pizza, and they usually had a jar of
free licorice next to the register. I'd swing by, get some red licorice, then
go next door and pick up a free battery.

------
bsder
While Radio Shack deserves the scorn, it had two big problems at a crucial
time.

1) Charles Tandy died in late 1978. This was right as the computer revolution
was taking off and his loss of vision was bad news.

2) IIRC, one of the corporate officers embezzled an enormous amount of cash in
the 1980's right as the IBM PC clone business was taking off. This stalled the
company at a point when it needed to be pivoting. Unfortunately, I have only
my memory to rely on as I can't seem to pull this out of any of the web search
engines.

------
jmspring
Radio Shack at this point is a sad caricature of itself. I remember being able
to buy all sorts of ICs, analog parts, interesting radios and kits. Now it
peddles cell phones and overly prices things -- I recall needing a battery for
my cordless phone recently, they wanted $23 for a battery for a $50 phone? Uh,
no.

Two other bay area places that have changed a lot are Frys and the now closed
Quement Electronics. Fry's still has a few components, but nothing like the
80s and 90s.

RIP.

~~~
chrischen
> I remember being able to buy all sorts of ICs, analog parts, interesting
> radios and kits.

They still do. Most radioshacks I've visited carry arduino kits and ICs,
electronic parts, LEDs, resistors, capacitors, etc.

~~~
technomancy
IME it depends on whether they're inside a mall or not. The ones inside malls
tend to just be glorified mobile phone sales depots, but you can actually get
components at the standalone ones.

~~~
eropple
A lot of the standalone stores are franchises, where most of the mall
locations are corporate. Big difference.

------
msherry
I applied to work at a Radio Shack when I was 16. I didn't get a job there.
The guy interviewing me spent most of the time making sure I knew the
difference between being paid hourly, and being paid on commission, and making
sure I _really_ knew what a spiff was. In retrospect it was kind of weird. It
was kind of weird at the time, too.

Reading these, I don't feel like I missed out on too much.

------
softbuilder
Radio Shack was always two stores in my memory. There was the legit geeky side
with electronic parts, and there's the Realistic/Tandy side hawking so-so
also-ran consumer electronics. The perspective always seemed to be that parts
were sort of a loss-leader for consumables.

The employees almost never knew anything technical, and were often suspicious
of nerdy kids like me lingering in the parts section. I remember one time I
was building a circuit and needed a .22uF cap. I asked if a .22pF was the same
(I was like 10 or 11). Instead of saying "I don't know" the sales guy just
kind of stared at the package and then shrugged and said "Yep". My circuit did
not work.

I hear people floating the idea of RS reinventing itself as more of a hacker-
friendly place, but from an investor's perspective you'd be switching from a
giant consumer market to a much smaller niche market. Personally, I think
that's a great idea, but I'm not sure you could ever convince investors of
that.

~~~
madengr
Ha ha, 0.2 pF are strictly RF SMT caps. Probably was 22 pF.

~~~
softbuilder
I think you're right, 22pF. Definitely wasn't anything SMT, this was 1984 or
so.

------
hagope
I actually think RadioShack can turn things around. "Hacking" electronics is
gaining ground esp with Arduino, Rpi, etc. Here's what I would do: \- Beef up
stock of "maker" electronics, Arduino's, Rpi, modules, kits etc. \- Buy/build
modules/kits, work with suppliers like SparkFun, Shmart, Adafruit for help in
this area \- Create "recipes" for building electronics and guide customers
through purchasing the materials \- Clear out all the rip-off electronics
unless you are willing to match Amazon prices. \- Get rid of smartphones, who
buys these from Radio Shack??? \- Most importantly, hold regular (weekly) free
"maker sessions" for kids to learn principles of electronics and get them
excited about it...similar to what Home Depot does

The more they focus on building/diy electronics the better, this is higher
margin (and lower price) than simply retailing finished electronics, although
they'll need to do some of that too I suppose.

~~~
kenrikm
If you've been to Radio Shack recently, they have a decent number of Arduino
kits and the like.. however I don't think people are not dense enough to pay
$60 for a kit you can purchase for $20 on Amazon. I think their was a point
where they could have course corrected though I think they missed the exit
half a decade ago.

~~~
Kluny
I bet they'd pay 10 bucks an hour for shop time with access to tools and
advice, and buy arduinos at a slight premium out of impatience to get projects
done.

------
api
Radio Shack was my toy store as a kid, as far back as I can remember. My
favorite toys were volt meters, little electric motors, power adapters, LEDs,
bread boards, and those little electronics kits with the spring terminals.
Radio Shack deserves some of the blame for making me who I am today. :)

~~~
ourmandave
Preach!

------
rbanffy
What saddens me most is that RadioShack was one of the pioneers that sparked
the personal computer revolution. I can easily remember my first interactions
with a TRS-80 (a clone - I live in Brazil), reading avidly their manuals,
understanding how their block graphics worked and writing my own small
programs I would go to a computer store to test.

It's a little bit tragic, but we all know RadioShack's time has passed. We
appear to be living in a time of rapid transformation. RadioShack will soon no
longer exist. Like payphones, printed newspapers and magazines and soon books
and bookstores will follow the video rentals and record stores into history.
Change can be difficult for those who live through it, but in return, we get
stories to tell our grandkids.

It's not that bad a deal.

------
ryandrake
This isn't really a story about Radio Shack. It's about how awful it is to be
a retail employee. You could have written this about the working conditions
inside any retail store in any dying shopping mall: Forced to work off the
clock, no overtime pay, pay structure resulting in pay below minimum wage,
capricious, last-minute schedule changes, do-it-or-leave ultimatums, callous,
abusive management, exhausted and overworked management, management-by-
screaming-at-people, nonsensical rules and policies from corporate, revolving
door for employees and management, and widespread apathy. Nothing here
specific to Radio Shack, folks, this is the standard retail work environment
in the USA.

~~~
goostavos
I don't know if that's entirely accurate. I did a good stint of retail early
in my college career and Radio Shack, at least in my experience, was on a
whole different level.

I think the author nailed it on the head with this statement:

>Working at RadioShack was sort of the worst of two worlds: there was the
poverty-level income of a blue-collar retail job, coupled with the
expectations, political nonsense, and corporate soullessness of the white-
collar environment.

There was a non-stop, life or death pressure from management to sell --
especially phones and "add ons." I was once written up for selling a phone
without attaching 3 accessories.

One day the manager stuck a clipboard behind the counter with stack of paper
on it. After __every __customer interaction, we were supposed to log What
phone they had, what service they had, when they 're due for an upgrade, and
like 2-3 other things that I can't remember. Failure to do this would result
in a write up, and eventual termination.

With a Target or Publix gig, you can more or less mind your own business and
stock shelves -- helping customers is actually an awesome break from the
monotony in that case. At Radio Shack, every customer interaction was painful
because it was turned into an awkward interrogation.

------
wheaties
It's not just the company is odd and off the mark. The bond holders are also
screwy: [http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-13/radioshack-
lende...](http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-13/radioshack-lenders-seen-
escalating-default-risk-distressed-debt.html)

The bond holders stopped them from closing unprofitable stores...

------
jrapdx3
Honestly, I don't know what to make of the "news" of RS' imminent demise. Just
2 days ago I visited a nearby RS store and bought stuff there. The store was
well-stocked and I wasn't the only customer in the store. The employees didn't
have that unhappy, "short-timer" look either, that is, didn't emit even a
whiff that the store was closing down.

Besides, there are at least 6 RS stores in this city, the furthest I know of
being maybe 10 miles away, so I'm guessing there must be a few RS stores out
there that I don't know about. Since they've all stayed in business for many
years, they have to be selling _some_ items or services or _something_.

I can report at least two positive aspects of my RS visit. The guy at the cash
register actually knew something about the gear I was interesting in and could
answer technical questions. Second, prices were low and the quality of items
seemed pretty good.

So yeah, there are reasons I would hate to see them go...

------
RevRal
Ah RadioShack, where I acquired Jazz Jackrabbit and a circuit board toy with
my dad. It's sad that RadioShack isn't as fun as I remember it being, but last
time I was in I saw a similar circuit board toy which is nice. It's always sad
to hear that a company treats their employees as though they are no more than
cattle tugging a plow.

------
NextPerception
I read this post, felt sorry for RadioShack, and decided I would give them one
last shot and try their price matching policy for a pair of beats solo
headphones. I hoped to avoid the long lines at some of the bigger retail
outlets and, by utilizing their advertised "extra 10% off" price matching,
avoid mail in rebates as well. Long story short, after waiting close to an
hour for one of the two working associates to become available I was denied a
price match. They ended up losing my sale because of this and leaving me
wondering how they have lasted this long. I had a bit of sympathy for them
earlier but the only sympathy I have left is for the people still working for
them.

[https://twitter.com/MatthewTavares/status/538138578208169984](https://twitter.com/MatthewTavares/status/538138578208169984)

------
amorphid
As of today (Nov 26), Yahoo Finance shows RadioShack as having 3-ish billion
USD in revenue, and a market cap of of 83 million USD. I guess there isn't a
lot of faith on Wall St. that RadioShack is going to turn itself around.

------
conductr
My SO worked at RS corporate for a few years during late 2000s. The Internet
is definitely what killed this company. They had loyalty with a older
generation and that's how they survived until now. They never found out how to
bring young people into the stores in an Internet age. That's what the whole
"the shack" thing was all about. It failed. Now that loyal customer segment
they did have is 1) aging out of the market 2) coming around to online
shopping.

I can't really say much about how store ops ran, but I'm sure it was a result
of the financial pressures the company was under just trying to survive.

------
beloch
In Canada radioshack rebranded itself as "The Source". I used to pop into
radioshack to find plugs, adapters, and the occasional electronics component.
They stopped carrying those years ago and now, if I want anything like that, I
either drive across town to a hobby shop or order online. Since "The Source"
now seems to specialize in overpriced junk, I haven't set foot in one for
years. This article makes me feel good about that decision. It would be better
for ratshack's workers to be out of a job and then in a job that treats them
as human beings.

------
Shivetya
I guess one of Radio Shacks biggest problem is the same as most brick and
mortar stores, many us just want to order it online have it show up.

They could have tried/could try to become the home tech store. Take your home
to the newest level, LED lighting all around, wireless integration of home
automation and security. Sharing video all around the home. Then show it off
in store. Hell, sell solar panels or such, I don't care. Just give today's
geek a reason to come in. I don't need a phone or a computer; but a
specialized home automation turn key system... well...

------
mgirdley
Just tonight my father-in-law's new TV required a HDMI cable. He suggested
RadioShack. I said "I'm going to Target. At RadioShack you have to talk to
people."

The days of high-touch service are over.

~~~
Retra
I might like to talk to people if they weren't all hiding incompetence behind
a sales pitch.

------
neurobro
I shopped at RadioShack just one time in the '90s. I bought some walkie
talkies, and the cashier insisted that I provide my name and address to make
the purchase. I said I didn't want junk mail. He assured me that it was only
for recordkeeping purposes and that my info wouldn't end up on a mailing list.
Within weeks, I started receiving RadioShack catalogues and flyers. I'm pretty
sure they spent more on postage, paper and ink over the next few years than I
had originally spent on the walkie talkies.

------
Scuds
Christ, I can't imagine what their corporate IT must be like.

Probably the Windows XP syndrome of never ever ever never investing into your
infrastructure, but stretched over fourty years.

~~~
jschwartzi
It's all TRS-80's with null modem cables, as far as the eye can see.

------
chipsy
My earliest memory of Radio Shack(which is probably circa 1990, so even before
the name change) is that I walked in accompanied by my mother and attempted to
play the display miniature pinball game, and then was yelled at by the manager
for this crime.

I've had better experiences, I even got a microSD from them the other
day(after being tipped by a friend that they were cost competitive on this one
item). But it has never been warm fuzzies.

------
derekp7
Part of the fall of Radio Shack is that the market for discrete components
isn't what it used to be. This is because not as many people take up
electronics as a hobby. And that, in turn, is because a lot of people that
would go into electronics, got sucked into computer programming instead. After
all, the decline of Radio Shack coincides with the rise of affordable personal
computers.

------
zafka
I still have a cuecat!!! I never intended to use it for it's intended
purpose,but thought it was great to get a free bar code reader.

~~~
joezydeco
I always associated CueCat with WIRED magazine, I had no idea RadioShack was
an investor.

~~~
michaelcampbell
Same here, and when Cranky Geeks was still going one of the regulars was Dave
Mathews; who I always thought was the inventor. (And according to
[http://www.crunchbase.com/person/dave-
mathews](http://www.crunchbase.com/person/dave-mathews), he is.) Never heard
of this Hutton Pulizer guy.

------
taivare
It saddens me to read this I bought my first computer from Radio Shack a Tandy
1000EX, it's now gutted and hanging on the wall above my desk,my nephew
said,look mom a computer with a typewriter built into it !. Upon discovering
,how I memorialized my first computer , my nephew went on a search for his
first phone..rest in peace RS.

------
ArtDev
The RadioShack employee I spoke with had no idea there was a Mini-Maker Faire
in Portland. RadioShack could have had a presence there. When the company
finally dies, where can you go to grab some Arduino kits or components? I hope
another company takes its place. Places like BestBuy don't even carry cables,
let alone components.

------
Elzair
Here is a good blog post on the history of the TRS-80 that also discusses
RadioShack's corporate culture. [http://www.filfre.net/2011/06/the-
trash-80-part-1/](http://www.filfre.net/2011/06/the-trash-80-part-1/)

------
jdeibele
Surprised that nobody has mentioned BatteriesPlus. Checking their website,
they have at least 586 stores selling batteries - cell phone, laptop, car,
etc. - and light bulbs.

Focusing in those areas seems exactly what RadioShack could and should have
been doing.

------
sz4kerto
Maybe I have a sad life otherwise, but I was laughing so hard sometimes.
Thanks for this.

------
squozzer
No matter what happens to RadioShack the stories were told masterfully. Stoned
Craig is my hero, who reminds me of myself. Hacking the merchandise in an
anti-social way is what being a RadioShack customer is all about!

------
Naga
If you think working on Thanksgiving is bad, the crummy retail store I work at
(bookstore in Canada) is open New Years Day. Its actually open every day of
the year except Christmas Day.

------
GoldenHomer
Oh RadioShack, I hardly knew ye. I do regret getting that crappy Virgin Mobile
smartphone, which was the only thing I bought ever from a RadioShack. RIP in
pieces.

------
vincentbarr
"We all line up in expectation of hordes of customers. Six on one side of the
store, six on the other side, pallbearers of an invisible casket." Lol.

------
kefs
for nostalgia sake

[http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalog_directory.html](http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalog_directory.html)

------
drdeadringer
I just read a description of a business calibrated to "Kafka Settings", or at
least a feature biography in "Zombie Business Today".

------
bch
This reads like a revolting Douglas Coupland novel.

Well done.

<not_sarcastic/>

------
no_future
The person who wrote this seems reasonably intelligent. Why did he work at
Radioshack for so long if it was so horrible?

------
mbubb
One thing the local radioshack is good for is to recycle old batteries - will
have to find a new place to do that.

------
foxhop
This honestly reminds me of Sears Electronics Department, I worked there for 3
years.

------
jumblesale
Brum did not have a song.

~~~
michaelcampbell
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqsEHRfsp4k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqsEHRfsp4k)

------
amorphid
arrow

------
RickHull
Food for thought: any organization is vulnerable to such stagnation and
dysfunction, particularly when it was born for and evolved with a state of
affairs that no longer exists. Either the organization must adapt, or it
should die. Thankfully, the death of dysfunctional organizations is a given in
free markets -- perhaps even a reason for bittersweet celebration.

Governmental organizations, in contrast, have no incentives to adapt, and no
"recycling" mechanism. Failure is emphatically _not_ an option. Worse,
bureaucracy inevitably takes on the primary mission of preserving itself.

~~~
Retra
Your food for thought is hundreds of years old and getting a bit stale.

------
larrys
Nice bashing of a company fighting for their life. Point being it's easy if
you are awash in profitability to do the right things, hire the best people in
management, pay for the top consultants. [1] And of course give people
massages and free lunch and all sorts of benies. Or if you have been funded
with funny money that gives you "runway" to burn through.

The highest quality people don't generally decide they want to join a sinking
ship (let's say a store manager or district manager). The quality people are
either happy elsewhere already (and not looking) or they take advantage (as a
general rule) of the better opportunities either because they can or because
they are smart enough to recognize those opportunities and pursue them. At my
first company there were people that didn't even show up for interviews. Maybe
they saw the facility and didn't like the way that it looked.

Separately, presumably if the author had a better opportunity he wouldn't have
suffered for "three and a half years as a RadioShack employee".

[1] But even then if your basic model is not viable you aren't going to stand
a big chance of making it. This isn't something like "People still buy cars
Chrysler just can't make a car that people want".

