Goodbye Radio Shack

[Pennyrick]

In 1963, the year after I got married, a guy named Tandy bought out Radio Shack (a firm out of Boston founded by two brothers who were Ham radio enthusiasts) and moved their headquarters to Fort Worth where he ran a chain of leather craft stores.

He expanded Radio Shack (named after the place on boats where the wireless equipment was housed) modeling it after his leather business. He stocked thousands of items in the stores that appealed to radio hobbyists… batteries, cords, switches, dials, capacitors, etc. and by 1971 there were 1,000 stores.

I bought my first radio kit at Radio Shack. My first 23 channel CB unit came from there. A set of Radio Shack Realistic shelf speakers were a nice add to my stereo system and in 1979 I bought a TRS-80. A 12 inch monitor with just one shade of gray, 16K of memory and a cassette player where you could save data while waiting for someone to invent a hard drive. What a wonderful thing it was. (The operating system was from Microsoft).

Then along came cell phones and Radio Shack jumped in with both feet. The company changed from one where employees could assist people in hooking up their VCR to their TV to one where all they did was push cell phones and cell plans.
Ask an employee for a Y cable to turn an RF into a mini and you would get a blank stare.

But the monster cell phone company, soon began to kill off their merchandise lines… the GPS, the camcorder, the voice recorder, answering machines, etc. were all swallowed up in one device called an IPhone. The IPhone had negated any need for fourteen of the fifteen lead items in the Radio Shack 1996 catalog.

Ahhh, the catalog. It was a pain in the rear to record your name and address with each sale but it got you on the list to be mailed that great catalog… it was fun to read.

Goodbye Radio Shack… R.I.P.

[SNOOPY]

You got married in 1962?


Ohsnap!!!



I'm in the wrong group.


.

[Pennyrick]

You got married in 1962?


Ohsnap!!!



I'm in the wrong group.


.

Yeah... I was a child groom.

[SNOOPY]

Married to the same woman?

[SNOOPY]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurahel...s-not-the-end/

[Cruzr Joe]

You got married in 1962?


Ohsnap!!!



I'm in the wrong group.


.

I got married in 1968, still with the same crazy woman that married me.

Cruzr Joe

[SNOOPY]

I got married in 1968, still with the same crazy woman that married me.

Cruzr Joe

That's awesome.....but I was barely a sparkle in my parents eyes. LOL

[SNOOPY]

wait a minute...47 years?

You've been married my entire life.

.

[Chupaca]

I remember Tandy well. My first computer was the well known "Trash 80" programming ont cassetts. The competition between Radio Shack and Lafayette was fierce. But it was a fun cataloge and store. Sad to see...

[Cruzr Joe]

wait a minute...47 years?

You've been married my entire life.

.

they said marriage is forever, but this one is taking too long.

Cruzr Joe

[SNOOPY]

they said marriage is forever, but this one is taking too long.

Cruzr Joe

Suck it up Princess

.

[retread]

At one time, you could buy kits there that covered almost anything in the electronics world, I built quite a few of them. Can't find things like that anymore.

john

[Pennyrick]

Married to the same woman?

Yep.

[SpyderAnn01]

I remember Tandy well. My first computer was the well known "Trash 80" programming ont cassetts. The competition between Radio Shack and Lafayette was fierce. But it was a fun cataloge and store. Sad to see...

Was that a TRS-80? It was an entire table/desk. Back when a good copy machine was about 10' long. Now when Double Trouble first experienced Radio Shack most businesses still used the Abacus.

[Bob Denman]

wait a minute...47 years?

You've been married my entire life.

.

In November of 2013; you mentioned being 49...

[SNOOPY]

Yep.

Nice

[SNOOPY]

In November of 2013; you mentioned being 49...

Okay, so he's been married since I was 2-3

[SPECTACUALR SPIDERMAN]

If they truly wanted to be a tech store then they would have kept up with tech, staples carries phones, computers, printers....

[jimnsusie]

Another business is outdated

[Dragonrider]

When I got my undergraduate degree, the only job I could find was at Radio Shack, and I had to fight to get it. We had great Customer Service (IN the store), and loyal customers.

I still think about RS first, when I need electrical or electronic components - heck, they were a key supplier when I started my first medical device company...

Ah well, the times they are a changin' as "Bob" used to say...

[Pennyrick]

One of the things that hurt RS was the CEO turnover. After 4 CEO's in a space of 6 years, they hired a guy in the late 90's who decided to take on the big box stores. He wanted to outdo Circuit City and Best Buy as well as some regional players so he launched Famous Brands Electronics, then Computer City and then Incredible Universe.

They were all anti Radio Shack stores. I can recall the Incredible Universe store here in suburban Atlanta that opened in 1997. It had an in-store restaurant, a Karaoke studio, a huge game room, rows upon rows of televisions, aisles and aisles of home appliances and very, very loud music everywhere.

It didn't work out very well because the store managers, recruited from Radio Shack had no clue how to run a store like this.

After a few years, they all closed down and some of these locations are still vacant today.

After this expansion, Radio Shack sales jumped to nearly seven billion in 1998. That was also the same year they lost money for the first time.

There is some kind of lesson here.

[ARtraveler]

In 1963, the year after I got married, a guy named Tandy bought out Radio Shack (a firm out of Boston founded by two brothers who were Ham radio enthusiasts) and moved their headquarters to Fort Worth where he ran a chain of leather craft stores.

He expanded Radio Shack (named after the place on boats where the wireless equipment was housed) modeling it after his leather business. He stocked thousands of items in the stores that appealed to radio hobbyists… batteries, cords, switches, dials, capacitors, etc. and by 1971 there were 1,000 stores.

I bought my first radio kit at Radio Shack. My first 23 channel CB unit came from there. A set of Radio Shack Realistic shelf speakers were a nice add to my stereo system and in 1979 I bought a TRS-80. A 12 inch monitor with just one shade of gray, 16K of memory and a cassette player where you could save data while waiting for someone to invent a hard drive. What a wonderful thing it was. (The operating system was from Microsoft).

Then along came cell phones and Radio Shack jumped in with both feet. The company changed from one where employees could assist people in hooking up their VCR to their TV to one where all they did was push cell phones and cell plans.
Ask an employee for a Y cable to turn an RF into a mini and you would get a blank stare.

But the monster cell phone company, soon began to kill off their merchandise lines… the GPS, the camcorder, the voice recorder, answering machines, etc. were all swallowed up in one device called an IPhone. The IPhone had negated any need for fourteen of the fifteen lead items in the Radio Shack 1996 catalog.

Ahhh, the catalog. It was a pain in the rear to record your name and address with each sale but it got you on the list to be mailed that great catalog… it was fun to read.

Goodbye Radio Shack… R.I.P.

I was an employee of Tandy Leather Company for over 29 years. Radio Shack was in its infancy when I came aboard as an employee. That really was Charles Tandy's baby and it worked very well for several years.

RS like Tandy Leather took some wrong turns and lost market and customer loyalty. Tandy Leather went out of business but is now back and owned by its former main competitor.

Our local Eagle River RS store went out of business about 2 years ago.

[PrairieSpyder]

I was an employee of Tandy Leather Company for over 29 years. Radio Shack was in its infancy when I came aboard as an employee. That really was Charles Tandy's baby and it worked very well for several years.

RS like Tandy Leather took some wrong turns and lost market and customer loyalty. Tandy Leather went out of business but is now back and owned by its former main competitor.

Our local Eagle River RS store went out of business about 2 years ago.

You beat me to it, Dwayne. I was going to add that Tandy was a leather kit supplier before they became Radio Shack!

[Now I feel really old.]

[Bob Denman]

You're not old: Just Beautiful, with some experience!

[Joe T.]

radio Shack Stores to be closed by March 31, 2015:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/255034573/...store-closures

Joe T.