Don't get too worried, that was just a metaphor to get you to open the thread. But it's an appropriate one. This will probably be more interesting to the older crowd on the forum.
Radio Shack is no more.
Growing up during its heyday I remember going in there often. I'd buy books on electronics, kits, parts. Use to make all sorts of electronic projects as a kid. I use to live out in very rural country where school friends lived miles away. Several of us had Commodore Vic-20 computers. Back then if you typed in a program (game) the only way to store it was on tape cassette since there was no hard drives yet. Several of us would type in game code out of Compute! magazine so we could play stuff like space invaders without buying the game cartridge. Then to share them I bought all the parts at Radio Shack to build an FM radio transmitter. Simply pop the cassette in the big ole' boombox and become a radio station. Five or six other kids would all have their radio's tuned in to record the program onto their cassettes.
Don't lecture me on the illegalities of broadcasting on a set capable of transmitting 15 miles on an FM station with no license. It was the back woods and i was young and dumb. :lol:
But the thing is I remember making dozens of projects all with parts from there. Joined the electronics club in high school, Radio Shack was the main supply point for everything in the club. My brother bought the world's first 'portable' cell phone from there. It's in one of the commercials on this webpage if you look at the videos.
But cell phones is when it started to die. My other brother was a manager at a Radio Shack at the beginning of cell phones becoming popular. I remember talking to him about how this is killing the store. Because at that point they started to not stock nearly as much electronics stuff. They wiped out half the store floor space to turn it into cell phone displays. It was that point for me I went in there less and less.
I went from at least once a month, or more often, to maybe once a year. It was easier to find the parts online from then on. That was when they started to lose all their core customers.
They've made many other mistakes that just made them irrelevant since then. But you could see the writing on the wall way back then.
It's kind of sad to see they are finally done. But I think it's more like I was sad 15 years ago upon learning of a friend diagnosed with a terminal disease. Reading the news today I was merely shocked they lasted as long as they did.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-02-02/inside-radioshack-s-slow-motion-collapse
Radio Shack is no more.
Growing up during its heyday I remember going in there often. I'd buy books on electronics, kits, parts. Use to make all sorts of electronic projects as a kid. I use to live out in very rural country where school friends lived miles away. Several of us had Commodore Vic-20 computers. Back then if you typed in a program (game) the only way to store it was on tape cassette since there was no hard drives yet. Several of us would type in game code out of Compute! magazine so we could play stuff like space invaders without buying the game cartridge. Then to share them I bought all the parts at Radio Shack to build an FM radio transmitter. Simply pop the cassette in the big ole' boombox and become a radio station. Five or six other kids would all have their radio's tuned in to record the program onto their cassettes.
Don't lecture me on the illegalities of broadcasting on a set capable of transmitting 15 miles on an FM station with no license. It was the back woods and i was young and dumb. :lol:
But the thing is I remember making dozens of projects all with parts from there. Joined the electronics club in high school, Radio Shack was the main supply point for everything in the club. My brother bought the world's first 'portable' cell phone from there. It's in one of the commercials on this webpage if you look at the videos.
But cell phones is when it started to die. My other brother was a manager at a Radio Shack at the beginning of cell phones becoming popular. I remember talking to him about how this is killing the store. Because at that point they started to not stock nearly as much electronics stuff. They wiped out half the store floor space to turn it into cell phone displays. It was that point for me I went in there less and less.
I went from at least once a month, or more often, to maybe once a year. It was easier to find the parts online from then on. That was when they started to lose all their core customers.
They've made many other mistakes that just made them irrelevant since then. But you could see the writing on the wall way back then.
It's kind of sad to see they are finally done. But I think it's more like I was sad 15 years ago upon learning of a friend diagnosed with a terminal disease. Reading the news today I was merely shocked they lasted as long as they did.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-02-02/inside-radioshack-s-slow-motion-collapse
